Music industry told 'divide and conquer doesn't work'

The music industry's attempts to shut down Napster and similar sites are doomed to failure, according to file swapping service Gnutella.

The free download movement, pioneered by Napster and Gnutella, is on the verge of collapse following the legal battles instigated by the record companies, and their subsequent attempts to launch Napster-like services.

But the proponents of the free download believe their attempts will only succeed if existing sites are wiped out completely, and the record companies co-operate fully on the creation of replacements - something they have so far failed to do.

Music publishers and songwriters have today given the nod to a deal with two industry backed comapanies, MusicNet and Pressplay, for the distribution of their tunes.

Pressplay is a B2C site formed by Sony, Vivendi Universal and backed by EMI, while MusicNet provides platforms for consumer file swapping, backed by AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG, EMI, RealNetworks and Zomba.

But Gnutella belives that the split will result in disaster. A source told silicon.com: "It seems like a waste of effort. If all the backers had got together to make one site it could have been better.

"This is not going to be good for the fans in the long run," he added. "They're going to be expensive and people won't use them."

But he added: "If the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) succeeds in closing down all music distribution sites, which it looks like it may do, these projects might be a success."

The RIAA and other music copyright protection bodies are attempting to create a tougher version of the Digital Millenium Copyrights Act that will make the underground scene unviable.

Anne Garret, a spokeswoman for MusicNet, said: "Free services can make downloading a file last forever, files recovered after a search are often not just music and you may get a virus too. With MusicNet, you know you're just getting music."