EMI Group, as part of a larger effort to support peer-to-peer networks that allow the sharing of licensed music files, has agreed to share its digital library with P2P start-up Mashboxx.
The record label, whose 1000-plus artists include Janet Jackson, Gorillaz, the Rolling Stones and Coldplay, is not the first to license its content for use on Mashboxx. According to founder Wayne Rosso, the New York-based Mashboxx–currently readying for a beta test launch–already has deals with Sony BMG and Universal, and has completed negotiations with Warner Music.
Rosso has spent the past two years building the infrastructure for Mashboxx, an idea that he credits in part to his business ties with former Sony BMG CEO Andrew Lack. In 2002, while serving as president of now-defunct P2P powerhouse Grokster (a position he had left by the time the company started hitting the worst of its legal trouble), Rosso worked with Lack to try to solve the problem of illegal file-sharing.
Rather than try to fight the record labels, Rosso wanted to “convert” to a format the labels would support, without resorting to a P2P model that simply filtered out major-label content. Napster had recently tried that, and failed. At that point, Rosso said, a legal P2P that nevertheless offered a full range of music wasn’t possible. “The technology hadn’t really matured to the point that it could be done effectively.”
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