Kazaa to launch major promotional campaign next week in U.S.

November 14, 2003

The most popular file-sharing
software of all time is without a doubt Kazaa. Since its launch the Kazaa
Media Desktop has been downloaded 294 million times and has been used by
millions and millions of people. As we all know, the Recording Industry
Association of America (RIAA) isn't very exited about this since Kazaa can be
used to share copyrighted songs with.

In order to stop people from using the software the
RIAA has begun suing hundreds of people and as a result the number of shared
files on Kazaa's network has dropped dramatically. As you can imagine the owners
of the Kazaa software are not very pleased with this. Kazaa has been given a
bad reputation and some people have simply become afraid to use the
software.

Kazaa has now announced that they want to do
something about this. Next week the company plans to launch a major promotional
campaign in newspapers and college campuses in America. Kazaa asks the 60
million Americans who use file-sharing services to demand that Hollywood "embrace the revolution" and distribute licensed movies and music
through Kazaa.

"It's intended to galvanize them into action," said the Sydney,
Australia-based Hemming in a rare interview with an American newspaper.
"It's mobilizing a grassroots force we believe is already there, to get
them to write to the industry, to politicians, to each other. I imagine
that if we add 60 million voices to my one voice, then we really will pump
up the volume."

`Revolution' campaign Kazaa's new
"Revolution" campaign comes as Nielsen//NetRatings finds a dramatic
decline in Kazaa's usage since June, when the Recording Industry
Association of America announced plans to sue individuals for illegally
distributing copyrighted songs on file-swapping networks. Nielsen
estimates that half as many U.S. households now download content from
Kazaa, based on its survey of 40,000 homes.

Hemming, chief executive of Sharman Networks, the Australia company
that owns Kazaa, dismissed the Nielsen statistics as misleading. She said
Kazaa experienced a seasonal downturn that occurs every summer when
students and others go on vacation. The lawsuits, rather than scare away
users, have prompted them to embrace legally licensed video games,
software and videos, with 45 million files distributed every month on
Kazaa, she said. Some of those files are for purchase while others are
available for a free preview.

The licensed content, distributed through Kazaa's Southern
California-based business partner Altnet, is the cornerstone of Hemming's
plans to commercialize the file-sharing phenomenon. A new version of the
Kazaa service, launched in conjunction with the ad campaign, seeks to
entice users to pay for content by offering bonuses -- such as lyrics, a
video of the artist or discounted concert tickets.

The music industry has been similarly deaf to Kazaa's overtures. An
RIAA spokesman pointed to the congressional testimony of RIAA Chairman
Mitch Bainwol, in which he called on the file-sharing services to remove
copyrighted works, inform users that uploading and downloading music
without permission is illegal, and to switch off file sharing so that
children and teens don't unwittingly distribute songs from their computer.

According to the article, no less than thirty-one entertainment companies have
sued Kazaa's parent company for allegedly contributing to global piracy of
copyrighted works so far. It will be interesting to see what's going to happen.
Although the RIAA's actions clearly seem to have had an effect on
some people who are using the software, Kazaa is still immensely
popular and as widespread as the Internet itself.

Ps. thanks GristyMcFisty for reporting this
news to us!

Source: Yahoo! News