Kazaa doesn’t shine as brightly as it once did among the stars of p2p download services, but the venerable name in illegal downloads today announced, through a settlement with the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI), that it will immediately become a legitimate download service.
The settlement also lays out a one-time $100 million dollar payment to the IFPI for damages relating to piracy.
Kazaa follows in a long line of p2p pirate havens turned-legitimate services after legal battles. Napster and Qtrax are among the list of other high-profile names that have taken the same road.
The BBC story points to a recent music industry report that says more than 20 billion music tracks have been downloaded illegally in the last year. Among the top 10 offending countries, Canada, Brazil and China rank the highest in the study, which the IFPI points to in defense of its declaration that several world governments need to step up efforts to clamp down on piracy.
According to John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the IFPI ,“We have won another battle in an ongoing war, we move forward with a spring in our step.”
[via The BBC]