TheStar.com – Why YouTube won’t be Napster redux:

Given these changes, what is the likelihood that a new licensed P2P model will come to the fore in the near future? Better than you might think.

There are several such initiatives currently underway, the most advanced of which appears to be Noank. The brainchild of Terry Fisher, a Harvard law professor, the system is billed as a “digital media exchange” and is expected to launch in China sometime next year. Once operational, it will enable ten million Chinese university students to freely download music and movies with no technological restrictions. The service will be funded by a mandatory student fee (similar to a student activity fee), with 85 per cent of the proceeds distributed to participating artists and content owners. Fisher estimatesc that the service will generate $200 million (U.S.) per year from these fees alone, with additional advertising revenue possibly doubling that figure.