Buzzsonic.com

Wraptor, a unit of Free Radical Networks that has developed a new multimedia format and legitimate file-sharing technology called .wrap , said last week that it had signed a four-year agreement with the Vans Warped Tour, to create a compilation CD of unsigned artists that will also be distributed online, in the company’s proprietary .wrap file format.

Slightly different circumstances now, but back in 2000, another new P2P system (the then under seige ‘original’ Napster) had just anounced a $2million deal to sponsor the summer Limp Bizkit tour. Also back then a Napster clone called Wrapster had emerged that enabled files other than mp3 to be shared on the Napster network.

Wraptors proprietary .wrap file format is a free form digital container that encrypts an .MP3 audio file for security and then wraps it with additional content such as lyrics, photos, biographies, discographies, CD labels, tourdates and album artwork. The main difference here is that it offers a flexible DRM protection method.

.wraps are digitally signed for extreme security. Unlike normal encryption/decryption, .wraps store the private key elsewhere, not within the .wrap. .wraps are interpreted data (runtimes), not executable files, making it impossible to store a virus within a .wrap. Additionally these runtimes are digitally signed as well.

So the .wrap seems to be treading on similar ground to the increasingly popular (though still very much niche) Weed files. Here burning and transferring of the audio file is restricted until purchase. Anyone can download a .wrap for free, but they can only view and listen to it a certain number of times before the .wrap expires. After that they’ll still be able to view all the visual content, but only the first 30 seconds of the audio will play until they pay to unwrap.

Weed rewards people who share files and respect artists’ rights. You can play a Weed file three times for free on any PC. After three free plays, you’re asked to pay for the file. You can use any current Windows Media-compatible player software to play the file. The Weed software, which keeps track of your account information, is used to purchase files.

Related Reading

Wraptor FAQs [Wraptor.com]
Weedshare FAQ [Weedshare.com]