Tech Shout!

The longest standing P2P service in the world iMesh has released the latest version of Bearshate 6.0, its one time competitor that it took over recently. Earlier this year Bearshare lost the battle with RIAA and had to close shop.

iMesh, after its own series of RIAA troubles of 2003, has surfaced since then as the first RIAA approved P2P service offering music downloads at fixed costs. In May 2006 it was able to successfully get the assets of Bearshare when RIAA shut it down by suing Bearshare for over $30 million.

Among the features in BearShare 6.0 include regulate music collections, generate playlists, advanced search features, downloadable ringtones, and engage in instant messaging. BearShare People is a feature that lets user share their music selection with other members. BearShare stores purchased history of a user.

“In our continuing effort to grow the authorized P2P marketplace, we gave full consideration to the rights of copyright holders while introducing features that greatly enhance the consumer experience,” said Robert Summer, Executive Chairman, iMesh.

Bearshare 6.0 is the result of this association of former rivals. Besides its own current iMesh service, it will continue to offer paid P2P services. It also expects to offer new services such as the “ToGo” portable music-subscription service. For the time being, subscription to this service will be free for a period of 30 days. A regular monthly pay system will be introduced shortly.