Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Kazaa/Altnet To Pay Users For Trading Content

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-as-good-as-it-sounds dept.

mesozoic writes "News.com is reporting that Kazaa and Altnet are unrolling a setup where users are paid to distribute 'authorized content.' The article also mentions something about getting rid of unauthorized files, but is unclear on when and how. I'll be paying close attention to whether this P2P business model pans out; Sharman _has_ shown some shrewd business sense in the past."

13 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. what ifs... by Spytap · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they try to go legal, they'll get trounced by Apple, disowned by computer users, and end up lie the legal version of Napster...forgotten.
    If they stay illegal, they'll get trounced by Apple, keep their user base, and not make a penny for it. Great business sense indeed...

  2. Sustainable business plan? by Blaine+Hilton · · Score: 1, Insightful

    This sounds good in theory but I would be surprised if it actually pans out to be profitable in the long run.

  3. Seems to me.... by SpaceCadetTrav · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...that it would be easier to just host the content themselves. The real value is in getting listed in the search results, and bandwidth is relatively cheap compared to the complexity of a system that tracks and pays random idiots on the net. Of course, I am probably wrong.

    --
    Life in Orange County
    1. Re:Seems to me.... by IO+ERROR · · Score: 3, Insightful
      ...that it would be easier to just host the content themselves. The real value is in getting listed in the search results, and bandwidth is relatively cheap compared to the complexity of a system that tracks and pays random idiots on the net. Of course, I am probably wrong.

      If you have 300 people downloading a 3MB file, that's 900MB you've got to move. Few people can afford to have that much bandwidth on demand. This is why things like BitTorrent exist. Now that I think about it, this system could do for small files what BitTorrent does for big ones.

      Either way, this will save the content provider quite a bit of money in bandwidth. How much does 1GB of bandwidth cost these days? Suppose 300,000 people want that 3MB file? How much does 1TB of bandwidth cost?

      --
      How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
    2. Re:Seems to me.... by patchmaster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's distribution on the cheap. This whole thing sounds like the Loud Cloud deal the FastTrack guys tried to put forth a couple years ago. They were selling it to potential distributors as a way to distribute their files without the need for any infrastructure and with effectively no bandwidth costs.

      They were initially going to force regular FastTrack users into assisting with the distribution if they had downloaded the file(s) in question. (They would force the file(s) to be shared.) Then a few people, myself included, started screaming rather loudly, and they eventually started looking for a different business model.

      The problem with this scheme, as well as all its previous incarnations, is it doesn't directly provide any value to the entities bearing the cost. It silently pushes the bandwidth costs onto the ISPs of the P2P users. Eventually those costs will be borne by all internet customers. At least with this scheme they're making an attempt to provide some reward to some of those who will bear the cost. Those customers not using Kazaa will just have to deal with even higher ISP costs without receiving added value.

  4. Sure, I believe you by GuyMannDude · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sharman executives say the new system is well worth bundling inside their software, but they say it can be easily removed if users don't wish to participate.

    "Altnet's Peer Points is like the spell checker in Microsoft's Word," said Phil Morle, director of technology for Sharman Networks. "It's an integral part of the program that you can choose to use or not."

    And it's not like Sharman and Brilliant Digital would ever try to pull a fast one on their users, would they?

    GMD

    --
    watch this
  5. History Repeats... by mraymer · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The article also mentions something about getting rid of unauthorized files...

    By unauthorized I assume they mean copyrighted/illegal files. I think it's also safe to assume that while Kazaa has legal uses, it's primary use is trading copyrighted material. If this material is removed for non-paying users, we'll see a dramatic drops in the number of users.

    As has happened in the past, with Napster for example, once one peer-to-peer program removes copyrighted files, there is a mass migration to new, alternative peer-to-peer system that does allow it.

    As others have mentioned, I hope that the least Kazaa will do for paying customers is remove all the spyware.

    --

    "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking

  6. bandwidth is not free by geekBass · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If this really succeeds (I doubt it) are the ISPs going to sit and see people making money of the bandwitdth they provide? They will start charging per byte and that will offset what kazaa pays you.

  7. What is the conversion rate by UnknowingFool · · Score: 5, Insightful
    between peer points and actual items. I think any likelihood of success depends on how many points it takes to get something good. If it's like 10,000 points (a point per MB downloaded) to get a pen, most people won't bother.

    Another thing that Kazaa may remember that sometimes people may have more altruistic motives. Take for example Seti@home. Millions of people allow SETI to use their computers to analyze data signals for no charge. It might a little more successful if Kazaa allows points to be donated to charities at a higher rate.

    Without more details it's hard to say how this system will really work.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  8. Re:This just won't work. by morbuz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They are going top _pay_ people, not charge people. Come on, read the article damnit!

    --
    CAPS LOCK IS LIKE CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL!
  9. Could Anyone Really Trust Kazaa by yintercept · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In reading the article, I can't help but wonder if anyone is really foolish enough to trust Kazaa with their money? As an advertiser, I would always wonder if the paid downloads really happened (was it actually a person downloading or a hackering mimicking downloads for cash?)

    As a host, I wouldn't put much faith in actually ever receiving cash from the company. Schemes like this tend to have a history of absconding with the cash.

    Of course, it would be nice if there were an easy way for college students to make a little bit of cash by selling their school's bandwidth.

  10. Have you seen what they consider "payment"? by Ride-My-Rocket · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The rewards will range from free access to paid content to sweepstakes entries toward cars and big-ticket cash prizes. The value of the prizes will depend on how many customers Altnet can attract and how much the company can persuade them to offer.

    Riiiiight. Thanks but no thanks -- earning access to paid content and the possibility of winning cash prizes isn't enough of a reason to allow BDE to make money using MY hardware and MY connection, whilst potentially affecting the stability of my system. Howzabout I keep on using Kazaa Lite instead?

  11. Re:Payed for spam! by tha_mink · · Score: 2, Insightful

    BTW, I quote spam because it doesn't qualify if someone chooses to receive it. It is only spam if it is pushed on a user unrequested. Losing that distinction muddies an extremely important issue about our right to control what communication we receive.

    Sure but if you think you are getting one thing, like a brittney spears video, and instead you get some promo video for some porn site, then that qualifies as spam yes?

    --
    You'll have that sometimes...