The new, legal iMesh

Dawn C. Chmielewski in today's San Jose Mercury News takes a look at the new incarnation of the iMesh p2p file-sharing network.

One of the former bete noires of Internet file-swapping, iMesh, has re-launched as a strictly legit online file-swapping service.

This new, music industry-approved version of iMesh manages to capture the guilty pleasure that is file-swapping. You can find virtually any song or video clip you can name and hoard it, like trick-or-treaters scouring the neighborhood for every last chocolate bar.

And for a limited trial period -- it's absolutely free. ...

iMesh provides access to about 2 million songs by the biggest mainstream and independent music acts. This is considered premium content that's identified with five gold stars.

But iMesh also remains connected to the venerable Gnutella file-swapping network, so you'll also find anywhere from 15 to 20 million songs that are free for the taking. The music spans the gamut, from live recordings of Phish or the Grateful Dead concerts, which permit fans to freely exchange their songs online; as well as so-called ``gray'' content, for which neither the artist nor the label has demanded payment. ...

If you're a longtime iMesh user, you'll be able to keep your existing music collection. But the software will now prevent you from redistributing that Bruce Springsteen anthology to millions of strangers for free.

You can only share ``Devils & Dust'' with other paying iMesh subscribers, and only in a form that wraps each track in software that restricts how many times it can be copied.

The iMesh software will similarly prevent you from downloading songs by artists like the Beatles, who don't want their music distributed online.

You also won't be able to download entire movies on iMesh. Its deal with the Motion Picture Association requires it to block all video that's longer than 15 minutes long. It also blocks child pornography.

I'll have to go back and give iMesh another look. A few months ago, almost all my queries there came up largely empty.