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iMesh is a media and file sharing client with online social network features, available in 9 languages. It uses a proprietary, centralized, P2P network (IM2Net) operating on ports 80, 443 and 1863^[1]. iMesh is owned by an American company iMesh, Inc. and maintains a development center in Israel. It is the 3rd most popular music subscription service in the US.^[2]

iMesh operates the first "RIAA-approved" P2P service, allowing users residing in United States and Canada to download music content of choice for a monthly fee in the form of either a Premium subscription or a "ToGo" subscription. A third option is also available for users (residing in either country) to permanently purchase tracks for 0.99 USD each, without a subscription.

In addition to the paid content, iMesh allows all users (regardless of origin country) access to "non-copyrighted" music and video files. A legalized ringtone download service provided by Thumbplay is also available, allowing users to purchase ringtones for their cellphones.

Legality of iMesh

RIAA Lawsuit

On September 18, 2003 the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) sued iMesh for encouraging copyright infringement^[3].

Settlement

iMesh settled the lawsuit a little over 10 months later on July 20, 2004, where according to the RIAA, the terms of the settlement were that iMesh would pay them US$4.1 million and could continue operating as normal (unlike Grokster) whilst implementing a paid service (iMesh 6.0).^[4]. iMesh had first agreed to have the new service available by the end of 2004, however this was pushed back towards the end of 2005 ^[5] due to technicalities^[6]

Legality

iMesh is now advertised as a 100% legal P2P client, and acknowledged as being so by the RIAA.^[7]

The iMesh 6 client (and later versions) have achieved this by detecting attempts to download copyrighted material and blocking the transfer through the use of acoustic fingerprinting, provided by Audible Magic ^[4].

An agreement with the MPAA had also been reached. Video files more than 50mb in size and 15 minutes in length can no longer be shared on the iMesh network, guaranteeing feature-length releases cannot be transferred across the network.^[8]

Time line of major releases

Original program

• November 24, 1999, a pre-beta 1.02 was released.
• December 26, 1999, a beta version 1.02 was released which features instant messaging between users, a new skin and anti-virus scanning.
• March 2, 2001, version 2.0 was released.
• March 18, 2002, version 3.1 was released.^[9]
• April 15, 2003 iMesh 4.1 was released.^[9]
• September 4, 2003 iMesh 4.2 was released.^[9]
• June 8, 2004, iMesh 5.0 was released ^[10] which was the first multi-networked client allowing users to connect to the eDonkey Network, Gnutella, Gnutella2 and the iMesh network.
• August 25, 2004, iMesh 5.0 build 223 was released with support for the eDonkey Network removed due to many bugs.
• June 30, 2005, iMesh 5.2 was released.

Current program

• October 25, 2005, iMesh 6.0 was released. The first "RIAA-approved" P2P service.
• April 10, 2006, iMesh 6.5 was released, allowing users to send instant messages to each other and simultaneously listen to the same songs with the "Listen Together" feature ^[11]
• November 6, 2006, iMesh 7.0 was released, which added social networking features, instant messaging, an improved user interface and greater stability to the client.
• April 11, 2007, iMesh 7.1 was released.
• April 5, 2008, iMesh 7.2 was released.
• October 12, 2008, iMesh 8.0 was released with a new skin, the ability to purchase music in the MP3 format and integration with YouTube, allowing videos to be searched for and downloaded to a user's library.
• December 23, 2008, iMesh 8.1 was released with various bug fixes and the key feature being a 'guest' mode, allowing users to access the service and download P2P content without the need of registering.
• May 11, 2009, iMesh 9.0 was released featuring an 'iMesh DJ', enabling users to choose an artist or song and instantly receive a playlist of similar artists, streamed directly from YouTube.

iMesh Facts

• iMesh was the first company to introduce "swarming" - the ability to download one file from multiple sources, increasing download speed.^{[12][13 ]}
• iMesh was the first company to introduce a working 'resume' feature, allowing users to pause downloads and resume them at a later time.^{[12][13 ][14]}
• iMesh now distributes the BearShare software through acquiring "the software, user base, domain name, logo, and name from Bearshare for $30 million^[15] by forming a Subsidiary called MusicLab for the transaction.^[16]

References

External links

• iMesh home/download page