Private Napster-like club

ZDNet has an article about a program wich is like napster but only for certain users...


File-swapping gets its own private club on Wednesday.

NewYork-based startup GlobeDrive plans to unveil a version of its peer-to-peer network that will let users swap MP3 files in a private, password-protected, invitation-only environment -- far from the prying eyes of record company executives.

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Entertainment industry watchers say the GlobeDrive 2.0 system's added level of secrecy creates a new level of concern for record companies just now coming to grips with the likes of Napster and movie-exchange applications like Scour.

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The company, launched in August, believes its GlobeDrive 2.0 is a first-of-its-kind application. It lets users access hard drives to both download and upload files.

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None of the more popular file-swapping programs -- Napster, Gnutella, Freenet -- lets users upload files to hard drives.


So what's so secret about it? Well read this:


Users who download the GlobeDrive application have to be invited into file-sharing groups before being allowed to access hard drives.

And access to each group is unlocked only by a password that is e-mailed by members of the group.

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Groups are also kept secret to the new user. There is, GlobeDrive claims, no way for anyone scouring the site to even know if a group exists. They are not listed in any directories.

"No one else even knows that the group exists unless they have been invited to it," Krasnjanski said.

GlobeDrive also issues certificates verifying for the accessed machine that the requesting user is authorized to issue requests, according to company literature.

Group members also have control over who gets access to hard drives. The GlobeDrive.com servers control which members can share new information with the group and which members have read-only privileges.

Aside from enabling file uploads, GlobeDrive 2.0 also lets users access each other's peripheral devices, such as printers or fax machines. For instance, a businessman on a trip can print something from a home office's printer, GlobeDrive claims.

Ok ok, so who is gonna invite me to some private trance mp3 club?

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