Record company EMI has signed an agreement with Snocap, a legal music file-sharing company created by Shawn Fanning, who also created Napster, the most famous illegal file-sharing system.
The agreement allows London-based EMI to use Snocap, a program that allows sharing but identifies copyrighted music files and prevents them from being traded unless the user pays a copyright fee.
Sharing Music Legally “This sends a signal to music industry critics who claim we are technophobic,” said David Munns, chairman and chief executive of EMI Music North America. “We are embracing technologies like Snocap, which allow the peer-to-peer community to share music legally.”
Snocap has already signed similar deals with Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG Music Entertainment in New York and Vivendi Universal S.A. of Paris.
One-Time Payment EMI would not disclose the terms of the deal with Snocap, but a person close to the transaction said the record company had made a one-time payment to Snocap for the right to use its technology.
The original Napster was shut down in 2001 after a U.S. court ruled that its centralized servers, which contained directories to thousands of copyright songs, made it legally liable for contributing to copyright infringement.
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