Sharman Networks will be digging into their pocketbooks soon, to the tune of $100 Million. The cash is going to be handed over to the RIAA as part of an out of court settlement that will eventually result in the infamous Kazaa application becoming "legit".
Kazaa and the Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) have settled out of court in a deal which will see the P2P operation hand over $100m to the industry. It'll now join fellow former industry pariah Napster as a fully paid-up digital music distributor. Kazaa's parent company Sharman Networks will cough up the damages to the recording industry's four biggest players - Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music.
The RIAA is relentless when attacking these companies, though it is far better for them to persue a company like Sharman with millions at their dispense as opposed to an end user with a few hundred. With the revamp of Kazaa, it's likely Sharman will attempt to reform the network it relies on as well. Considering the number of alternative software that uses the Fasttrack (Kazaa) network, they don't have much choice.