Win prizes, receive points for using KaZaA, reality in a few days

June 2, 2003

According to an article on Cnet.com will KaZaA soon have a point system that allows you to earn Peer Points for legal media that people download from your computer. A function within KaZaA, which you can also disable will allow Brilliant Digital (Altnet) to use your computer as a distribution point for paid content protected with Digitial Rights Management (DRM) Technology. Every time someone downloads this from you, you will be rewarded with the Peer Points, with which you can receive free access to paid contents and win prices.

The most visible manifestation of this for Kazaa users will be a small Peer Points application that will keep track of Altnet users' ongoing point total and let them control features such as how many people can connect to a host computer at once and how much bandwidth a user wants to dedicate to the service. The rewards will range from free access to paid content to sweepstakes entries toward cars and big-ticket cash prizes. The value of the prizes will depend on how many customers Altnet can attract and how much the company can persuade them to offer.

Sharman executives say the new system is well worth bundling inside their software, but they say it can be easily removed if users don't wish to participate.

Sharman will need good protection against cheaters, which also found a way to hack the user rankings used in KaZaA. Besides that it seems to be something that could become a big hit, certainly when the prizes and rewards are good. The article also mentions an upcoming version of KaZaA which allows up to 1000 search results, web browsing features and content channels. Read the entire story here.

Source: Cnet.com