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Technology Stocks : Portal Software, Inc. (PRSF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen M. DeMoss who wrote (225)	1/10/2002 6:03:31 PM
From: tech101	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 318

Napster to use key billing software from Portal By Lucas van Grinsven Thursday January 10, 7:49 am Eastern Time LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Online music service Napster said on Thursday it had selected U.S.-based Portal Software (NasdaqNM:PRSF - news) to provide it with the key ingredient for its relaunch: a billing system that charges users for music downloads. Napster is testing a new service which prevents unauthorised sharing of copyrighted files -- a feature which made the original service popular among users but hated by the recording industry which won a legal battle for copyright infringments. The billing system will be able to track any download in any country around the world and ensure artists get compensated for it, said Portal's European product marketing manager Steward Potchinsky. Portal will use the same billing software for Napster that it operates for Internet and telecoms companies such as AOL Time Warner (NYSE:AOL - news) and Vodafone (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: VOD.L), Potchinsky added. Konrad Hilbers, the chief executive of Napster, told Reuters earlier in an interview he expected to sign deals with some or all of the major music labels soon and relaunch the full version of Napster sometime toward the end of the first quarter. The test or ``beta'' version, which lacks content from the major music labels, will not be open to the public. Instead, it will be offered to 20,000 people randomly selected from a group of more than two million who e-mailed Napster showing interest in participating in the beta test. Over 100,000 files will be available on Napster for the beta trial. All are currently licensed to the company for free by the mostly small, independent labels who have agreed to work with the service. The beta test will be free, but the full version, should the relaunch take place, will cost somewhere between $5 and $10 a month, Hilbers said. That fee will allow the user 50 downloads per month with no limit on the total number of downloaded files the user can have at any one time. Napster became wildly popular, generating over five percent of all Internet traffic at its peak, before music publishers clamped down on the song-swapping service which enabled people to download music for free. .NAP Napster will offer two types of files: standard MP3 music files and ``.nap'' files, which Napster founder Shawn Fanning said were essentially MP3's with a protective layer that prevent the files from being copied off the host computer or ``burned'' on to CDs. Napster has been dormant for several months after the major labels sued the company, accusing it of facilitating copyright infringement by allowing digital versions of their artists' songs to be shared for free, in many cases thousands of times each. Eventually, Fanning said, Napster is planning to offer contextual information with each song, including an artist discography, track listing from the related albums and staff recommendations on other related music. (Additional reporting by Ben Berkowitz in Los Angeles)