14 DAY TRIAL // Mike Homer and Marc Andreessen, the makers of the famous browser Netscape, have decided to test their programming skills and develop a legal system for downloading music and not only. In this way, they are widening their horizons regarding the provided Internet services.
This latest project has been entitled "Open Media Network", and it is based on a combination of Peer to Peer and TiVo (digital video recording systems) technologies.
Open Media Network allows users to post and distribute their own movies and video clips, avoiding any problem related to copyrights. The various types of content can be regrouped or classified in several categories, and the users of this free service can subscribe afterwards to the desired programs.
The service offers similar functions to Podcasting, which allows the posting and automatic uploading (according to the preferences of users) of programs and audio/video files which can be transferred to a portable multimedia device and played regardless of the user's location.
For now, Open Media Network is in beta stage, and the web address is www.omn.org. Momentarily, OMN can be accessed only though Internet Explorer (the site requiring ActiveX), and the developers of this download solution are also working on Firefox and Mac compatible versions.
Having 20 million users, Open Media Network offers a secure download solution, which includes anti-virus software and it can be synchronized with iTunes, iPod, Windows Media Player/WMP and TiVo.