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Altnet's amended plan to sell content and expand its network opens for business this week.
Users of the Kazaa Media Desktop will be offered a controversial update this week, with the introduction of a second file-sharing service that includes paid content.
The new component is TopSearch, which serves up additional downloadable products from the peer-to-peer Altnet Network of Brilliant Digital, in partnership with Kazaa. Access to the Altnet Network is built into Kazaa Media Desktop 1.7, an upgrade from the current 1.6.1 version. From Altnet, Kazaa users can get free promotional clips as well as pay for copy-protected music, videos, and software, says Kevin Bermeister, president of Brilliant Digital.
Later phases of the Altnet offerings will include an opt-in rewards program, through which users can earn CDs or merchandise. In exchange, users agree to contribute bandwidth and idle processing power toward a distributed computing platform. That phase is expected to launch late this summer.
Calming Concerns
Brilliant Digital outraged Kazaa users in April when they became aware that its program to access the Altnet network was quietly piggybacked on Kazaa client downloads. Brilliant Digital had hoped to weld users' PCs into a new peer-to-peer network.
Bermeister says those plans were scrapped about two weeks ago because of user concerns. A PC's participation...