Neowin.net

Two years after finding his way off the recording industry's "most wanted" list, Audiogalaxy founder Michael Merhej is back with a new peer-to-peer software venture.

The Austin, Texas, programmer's new company, ByteTaxi, is aimed at people who work on more than one computer or at small teams of people collaborating on a project. His FolderShare software, which will be officially released in its completed form Tuesday, is similar to the autosynchronization features on Palm handhelds or iPods but instead keeps files on two or more Net-connected computers up-to-date with each other.

"A person only has one set of files, but often uses two computers," Merhej said. "I always thought that was the real problem for people who have multiple computers."

With his latest venture, Merhej joins the ranks of the peer-to-peer developers who for years have been trying to turn the technology into an everyday tool instead of an entertainment industry nightmare.

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News source: c|net News.Com

Previously, music purchased through RealNetworks' music download services could most easily be played on devices that supported its copyright protection technology. By the same token, the easiest way to get digital music onto the iPod player was through Apple's iTunes Music Store, which uses its own system. The same held true for devices that supported Microsoft's Windows Media Player anti-piracy technology.

Microsoft said it could not immediately comment on the system.