In the wake of all the bad press surrounding spyware and peer-to-peer networks like Grokster and eDonkey, you'd be forgiven for thinking file-sharing is illegal. It's not, but it's definitely
got a bad rep. Business 2.0 tells us about three new startups looking to turn that around. Their goal: supplant e-mail as the medium of choice for sharing large files like photos and videos.
It's a timely, smart endeavor, especially as digital devices up photo and video resolution, leading to ever-larger sizes. To keep their systems from clogging, files that are too large are often
blocked by major service providers like Yahoo and AOL. There are of course photo sharing sites like Kodak EasyShare, Snapfish, and Shutterfly, but the larger the files get, the longer they take to
upload, and the more prone to error things become. So, Pando, Perenety and WiredReach hope consumers will want to store files on a peer-to-peer network encoded by passwords that allow friends and
family to view packets of photos and video. Links to these packets are e-mailed to them, not the files themselves; Pando, for example uses the same technology found in BitTorrent, a file-sharing
system largely used by the tech community--often for sharing illegal copyrighted materials. Perenety is a similar file-sharing concept, but it uses an open network model a la AIM or MSN Messenger.
Users communicate one-on-one to facilitate speedier transactions. One thing that isn't clear is how these companies plan to make money. I doubt that consumers are going to want to pay for this….
Read the whole story at Business 2.0 / CNNMoney »