Music2Share --- Copyright-Compliant Music Sharing in P2P Systems

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are generally considered to be free havens for pirated content, in particular with respect to music. We describe a solution for the problem of copyright infringement in P2P networks for music sharing. In particular, we propose a P2P protocol that integrates the functions of identification, tracking, and sharing of music with those of licensing, monitoring, and payment. This highly decentralized music-aware P2P protocol will allow access to large amounts of music of guaranteed quality; it merges in a natural way the policing functions for copyright protection·and an efficient music-management infrastructure for the benefit of the user. © 2004 IEEE.