MusicCity creates links to Gnutella network

Despite being sued by both the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America for alleged copyright infringement, MusicCity is planning to release a new version of its Morpheus file trading software.

While a release date has yet to be set, MusicCity, also known as StreamCast Networks, says it will soon release version 2.0 of the program which is currently one of the most popular software downloads in the world.

The Morpheus software already links together with file trading software from Kazaa and Grokster. This gives users access to music, movie and software files on the hard drives of hundreds of thousands of fellow file traders. Some of the material is copyrighted and some of it not. But the parent companies of all three services have been sued by the recording and movie industries.

Version 2.0 of Morpheus will soon connect users to other P2P networks based on Gnutella software. The new software also will support Windows XP and a version for the Macintosh will be released in spring of 2002.

This new version of Morpheus could benefit both MusicCity and Gnutella. It will give Morpheus users access to more files in the vast centerless network of Gnutella file swappers, which depends on individual machines to relay search requests. But Morpheus supports faster and more stable file sharing than Gnutella because it selects computers with fast connections to temporarily index and switch requests for files.

The arrangement will benefit the Gnutella network, which is made up of users of LimeWire, BearShare and other Gnutella-based programs.

The network has dropped in popularity recently and its connection with Morpheus could revive its fortunes. LimeWire also has recently added an indexing and switching feature to its software, which could further help improve the overall speed and stability of the Gnutella network.

Closer alliances between the file trading services also could boost the overall survivability of file trading in light of continuing legal action. Kazaa, whose parent company is based in the Netherlands, has been ordered by a Dutch court to cease file trading. The network is still up despite threats of daily fines.

But even if the file trading companies were put out of business, their software does not depend on a central server (unlike Napster) that could be shut down. The software the companies have already released could continue to support file trading network and new programs would be built on the foundation of open-source Gnutella software.

The entertainment companies would then be forced to take individual users to court, which, given the number of worldwide users, would be a long and arduous process even for the deep-pocketed music and film industries.

Ann Harrison is a technology reporter in San Francisco. She can be reached at ah@well.com.

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