Fasttrack Making Gains Amid Napster Shutdown
by Dave Brigham
While Napster was ordered yesterday to stay off-line, Netherlands-based Fasttrack claims its peer-to-peer software was downloaded 1 million times last week, something the U.S. and European music industries are monitoring.
U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled yesterday that Napster must remain off-line until it improves its song blocking technology beyond the service's claimed success rate of 99.4% [see 07.11.01 Judge Rules Napster Must Stay Dark].
Under Judge Patel's March 5 injunction, Napster must prohibit the transfer of all recordings that major labels and certain publishers identify as having been available on the service. Napster is also required to police its service actively to ensure that the tracks do not appear [see 03.06.01 Napster Judge Issues Injunction, Rules File Blocking a Shared Burden].
Meanwhile, Fasttrack this week officially released the latest version of its P2P Stack software, which lets users on file-sharing networks swap content with users on other networks, according to the company. P2P Stack was downloaded 1 million times last week, adding to the 7 million copies downloaded between April and June, according to Fasttrack.
The first two companies to license Fasttrack's P2P technology, Kazaa and MusicCity, offer file-sharing services that include copyrighted material that Napster has been ordered to block.
Since debuting Fasttrack's technology earlier this year, both Kazaa and MusicCity have seen rapid user growth. During June, an average of 225,000 simultaneous users downloaded 370 million files using Fasttrack's technology, according to a Webnoize study [see Fasttrack: The New Napster]. A third company, Grokster, recently launched a Fasttrack-based service.
Launched in April 2000, Fasttrack is a business-to-business company selling P2P infrastructure. The company uses peers on a network, rather than a central server, to manage users' search requests and downloads for music, movies and software. The network is scalable because it limits redundant search requests that can clog networks like Gnutella.
Because Fasttrack is based outside the U.S., it's a more difficult target than Napster for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The RIAA is aware of Fasttrack and other P2P services located outside the U.S. The trade group and the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) have "been reaching out to companies like Fasttrack to address these issues constructively, in the hope that we can work through them informally and avoid litigation," Cary Sherman, RIAA senior executive vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.
"Clearly, the rules of the Internet road as set down in the Napster case will have to be established worldwide," Sherman said. IFPI representatives were unavailable at press time to comment on Fasttrack.
Fasttrack is eluding copyright owners that seek to shut down its networks. The company's server has changed locations at least once. Even if authorities shut down the server, Fasttrack's network is designed to work without one, making it difficult for music trade groups to stop sharing of copyrighted files.
Sherman claims that Fasttrack's CEO, Niklas Zennstrom, has publicly stated that he "wishes to pursue a legitimate business model and negotiate licenses with copyright holders."
Zennstrom was unavailable at press time to comment on the company's business model, or its relationship with the RIAA and the IFPI.
AI
