But a number of American legal experts have said KaZaA and other such peer-to-peer services are less likely to prevail in United States courts.

Only very few of these demos have survived to this day but some can still be found as downloads from various peer-to-peer services.

The system, according to interviews and those patent applications, will operate like a traditional peer-to-peer service, but without any active participation by users.

But he said the cost of entering the business had fallen so much that consumers now had many alternatives, including peer-to-peer services like Skype that allow free calls.

A partnership allegedly formed between i2hub, a popular peer-to-peer service at the time, and ConnectU.

Napster's ease of use compared to other peer-to-peer services quickly made it a popular service for music enthusiasts to find and download digital song files for free.

His latest venture is 1xInc.com, a company that plans to begin a peer-to-peer betting service on July 21 in the United States and around the globe.

They are now adding the finishing touches to their Web site, which is intended to take advantage of the latest Internet trend, a peer-to-peer service and support network.

When it was shut, they migrated to Kazaa, a peer-to-peer service that attracted many Napster refugees.

But to businesses that handle a lot of sensitive financial or personal information, Skype and other peer-to-peer services that skirt company services are a potential threat.