iMesh, a popular P2P application, is relaunching itself as a paid subscription media content delivery service with the approval of the RIAA. Their new interface will look and act a lot like the old iMesh, but uses new spoofing software that will only allow users to swap copyright protected music files while filtering any transmission of an unprotected song into an unlistenable mp3 of static. Further restrictions include the limiting of video files to 50 megabytes and the inability to play mp3s downloaded from iMesh on any device other than its host computer.

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The Misoneist Says: Why would anyone pay $6.95 a month for this service when Yahoo's subscription model is the same price, provides faster downloads from a central server, allows you to transport your music to other mp3 players, and use of a cataloged infrastructure guarantees that spoofed files would be non-existent?

The Philoneist Says: While this appears on the surface to be a poor business model, at least the RIAA has realized that P2P applications aren't going to Disappear. Before a truly anonymous and easy means of P2P emerges (I2P apps), the RIAA would be advised to convert as many file swappers as possible to these paid subscription models instead of suing them.