Woodland Hills, Calif., Feb. 10, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Altnet, the secure peer-to-peer platform provider, announced today that it has reached a milestone of 300 million downloads of authorized content using Altnet technology.
"Having a legal downloading alternative is the most effective form of anti-piracy there is," said Derek Broes, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations for Altnet. "Fortunately, technology exists with a proven success rate for distributing fully licensed, compensated content over peer-to-peer software."
"Providing high-quality, legitimate files for easy downloading on software like Kazaa and Grokster is an effective anti-piracy method," Broes continued. "For every licensed file downloaded, that means one was not pirated. Consumers want the ease and convenience of downloading and the community features of file sharing. Altnet provides that and simultaneously provides the music and motion picture industries a way to profit from a distribution method that can efficiently reach millions of users. In this way, we are curbing piracy, one file at a time."
Altnet's technology works by obtaining preferred listing spots in the search results of the most widely used peer-to-peer software, including Kazaa, the largest and most popular file sharing application in the world, and Grokster, Edonkey and Overnet. Altnet technology delivers search results into the file sharing software when a search request is initiated. The Altnet results appear first, before any results appear from the shared directories on the user's computer. The Altnet results appear as gold icons and can occupy the top 50 slots when relevant content is available in Altnet's catalog. Other results provided by the shared folders of other users are not controlled by Altnet or the peer-to-peer application and these appear as blue icons which Altnet cannot monitor due to the decentralized nature of the technology. Altnet's current catalog consists of 5,000 files. The company is in the process of adding another 20,000 files over the next few months.
"The 5,000 music, video and other files Altnet now offers translates into 50 million authorized files being downloaded through peer-to-peer each month at current rates," said Broes. "We believe that inserting licensed files into peer-to-peer software is the most effective form of anti-piracy, and our download numbers support that. If the record labels were to provide their entire catalogs for distribution through Altnet, we estimate the number of legal downloads could soar to more than one billion per month, providing a significant revenue stream for the industry."
About Altnet
Altnet is the first peer-to-peer network created to give consumers easy access to secure content that originates from content owners and in turn curb piracy. The company's TopSearch product integrates with applications and web sites via the Internet allowing content owners to purchase keyword search terms that direct users to their secure content. Altnet works with software, game, music and film companies to curb piracy while generating more revenue. Altnet also provides cost-effective bandwidth functions for enterprise customers and content owners. Altnet is a subsidiary of Brilliant Digital Entertainment (AMEX:BDE).