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Kazaa Chief Wants To Turn Pirates Into Payers

Although they probably didn't like each other much when they first met, Kevin Bermeister, formerly of peer-to-peer file-sharing service Kazaa, and Michael Speck, once the head of the Australian Music Industry Piracy Investigation, have teamed up to help persuade would-be file pirates to become legitimate paying customers of the music industry.

The two met as courtroom adversaries -- Speck was helping sue Bermeister for his involvement with Kazaa -- but are now partners in a joint venture, Brilliant Digital Entertainment, which is preparing a product that can intercept online piracy. The product will work at the ISP level, and anyone who attempts to search for pirated software, movies, or music will instead be presented with an opportunity to legally buy access to that same content.

The service hasn't been deployed yet, but technical trials are complete, and the company is scheduled to deploy a live trial with an unnamed Aussie ISP within a month. The two men claim both U.S. and European companies have called expressing interest.

Read the whole story at Ars Technica »

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