Very cool, if true

There's recently been a little fanfare about PlayLouder, an ISP which allows you to legally share music, then sees how much music is shared and pays some of your monthly subscription to the rights owners.

It seems to work by redirecting P2P stuff so that it only works internally, and then scanning the packets to learn what you're sharing.

So far as I can make out, the functionality is the same as a regular ADSL connection + Napster's subscription model.  Except that they aren't actually making the music available themselves, just allowing you to share your own, which means you'll be really stuck to actually find anything even slightly obscure.  They haven't made it clear whether there's any DRM on the music either, which would just make it a lose, lose situation all round.

I can't see any positive side to this _at all_.  Anyone care to illuminate me?