The next new threat for the RIAA...
Fasttrack Technology 'New Napster' And More - Correction
By Dick Kelsey, Newsbytes
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, U.S.A.,
10 Jul 2001, 3:23 PM CST
A Dutch company's peer-to-peer (P2P) technology is on a fast track to become the "new Napster" and will make halting Napster's traffic seem like a walk in the park, Webnoize analysts believe.
Fasttrack is not only poised to bring the online content industry to its knees, but seems to be growing into a far tougher legal opponent than Napster, a study by the digital entertainment research firm found.
Webnoize analyst Matt Bailey told Newsbytes that Fasttrack is faster, easier to use and better than anything on the P2P market. "Fasttrack is so good, that any commercial P2P network will be hard-pressed to equal it," Bailey said.
The Netherlands-based business-to-business company recently sold licenses to file-sharing sites Music City and Kazaa, Webnoize said.
Fasttrack is as popular as Napster was in April of last year, when Napster's mounting legal woes became front-page news, Webnoize said. In June an average 225,000 simultaneous users downloaded 370 million files via Fasttrack technology. Bailey said that at the end of June there were typically 300,000 users online at a time, and at one point this afternoon the count reached 400,000.
"Consumers have been searching for other systems that have the same level of usability that Napster has," he said. "Fasttrack seems to be coming through as being the service that these consumers are flocking to."
Fasttrack networks also search for and access movies and software, empowering the company to cause more widespread trouble in the entertainment industry than Napster, the study concluded.
"Using the Fasttrack system, you can get access to any type of digital content that you wish," Bailey said.
Music City says on its Web site that the technology, which it has re-named Morpheus, also searches for photos, reference files, reports, documents, home movies and videos.
The key: if authorities shut down the central server of a file-sharing site propelled by Fasttrack technology, the network will keep working. The initial server attaches a new user to what Fasttrack calls a "supernode" to pick up the search, saving bandwidth by pushing the servers out into the network, Bailey said.
Any legal fight to stop Fasttrack will be more difficult than the recording industry's battle against Napster. "Because they're based in the Netherlands, it would be a case of starting a whole new legal process," Bailey said.
And the movie, software and other industries would become involved as well, as Fasttrack technology gives users access to content beyond music.
Last year the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Napster for copyright infringement, and a court has since ordered the song-sharing service to block copyrighted music from downloads.
Napster suspended operations eight days ago so the embattled company could upgrade the technology it uses to block copyrighted songs banned from the network. Just when Napster users can begin swapping songs again is not clear, and the Napster Web site says only that file-sharing will commence "as soon as possible."
