File-Cash announces paid music download service
April 30, 2003
By DRM Watch Staff

File-Cash, a startup company in Lincoln, Nebraska, announced the impending launch of File-Cash Network, a paid music download service based on peer-to-peer (P2P) technology.

File-Cash's network model implements a straightforward superdistribution scheme supported by an electronic cash capability that can handle micropayments as low as a tenth of a cent (US $0.001). Users can pay for and download files; then they can also host them on their own machines and receive a portion of the fee every time someone downloads it from their machines. File-Cash's technology tracks all downloads and disburses payments appropriately.

File-Cash is one of a new breed of post-Kazaa, post-post-Napster services that attempt to rationalize the use of unencrypted file formats like MP3 with a scheme that compensates artists financially. The very nature of unencrypted files makes total control and tracking of usage impossible, of course, but it is possible to implement a scheme in which legitimate users will find low prices and easy payment, while piracy is allowed if not encouraged. Unlike other paid services (e.g., Wippit in the UK) that claim to be P2P just because they support unencrypted file formats, File-Cash actually attempts to create a network where users can also be distributors and be paid for their troubles.

The music with which File-Cash intends to launch comes entirely from independent labels. Let's hope that major labels find File-Cash's interesting superdistribution architecture attractive enough to experiment with as an alternative to the existing paid Internet music services.

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