Legal MP3 sharing system developed

US startup Gotchaport.com is targeting the Napster community with a service that allows users to legally share music, pictures and documents over the web.

The service is in final beta testing and is scheduled to be released in the next few weeks. The company said it has secured support from more than 100 music artists who have agreed to their songs being distributed over the network.

Gotchaport, and its sister company BreakAwayMusic.com, are using existing instant messaging technologies to allow users to share, upload and download music, videos, pictures and documents. But unlike the Napster service, users can only listen to music files on PCs as they cannot be downloaded onto any other listening devices.

The service also differs from its competitors in that although the system allows members to 'lend' tracks to friends, neither user is able to legally copy them, said the company. Users can also revoke a friend's access to files at any time.

Larry Feldman, chief executive at the startup, said: "We realised there was a gap and tried to come up with a better mousetrap."

As well as support from the song writers, Feldman said the company is in talks with the major US music record labels. "The response from people in the industry has been very good," he said.

The website has signed up several channel partners to provide music content for free, as a promotion or for sale. Any channel partner can limit the number of times, or the duration of time, a member can listen to a track they are previewing.

GotchaPort works with a number of file formats including MP3, Jpeg, text and bitmap, and plans are underway to allow for content to be streamed using wireless devices.

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