Companies Eyeing Peer-To-Peer As Legitimate Promotional Vehicle

[JackSpratts]

By Amy Harmon, NYT

A growing group of online marketers have a new name for the millions of people who use Internet file-trading software to steal music: "customers."

The ranks of these marketers include independent bands with little to lose and established companies like Microsoft. What they have in common is that they are starting to view the masses of Internet pirates as a possible source of revenue. They have begun to experiment with promoting their wares on file-trading services, which are typically used to obtain unauthorized copies of music, movies or software.

Some entertainment industry officials condemn those marketing efforts as giving support to services that encourage the theft of other people's intellectual property. But the organizations promoting file-traders see it as a way to lure people away from piracy by providing them with authorized material to download — and, in some cases, asking them to pay for it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/04/te...rtne r=GOOGLE

- js.