Kazaa's Altnet tops 75 million downloads

Altnet, the content distribution service that piggybacks on the popular Kazaa file-swapping network, says it has distributed 75 million legal files to Kazaa users. Altnet inserts paid listings inside Kazaa software's search results. Those links point to authorized, often copy-protected files instead of the copyrighted works ordinarily traded on the network.

According to an Altnet statement, 1,000 separate files have been downloaded by Kazaa users for a total of more than 75 million downloads. The company said that 18 million of these have required people to pay a fee to unlock the content, and 57 million have been free but copy-protected promotional content. Kazaa's parent company, Sharman Networks, has cited the Altnet service's efforts to distribute authorized content as support for its claims that its file-swapping network should not be ruled illegal. Sharman is being sued by record companies and movie studios for copyright infringement.