Imesh subsidiary MusicLab unveiled the latest version of BearShare on Thursday, its recently acquired fellow peer-to-peer network.

The new and legal service, BearShare 6.0, is an authorized peer-to-peer file sharing service offering access to music and videos licensed from independent and major labels. Subscriptions will be free for the next 30 days, after which the service will introduce an as yet undetermined monthly fee.

BearShare will require Windows Media Player 10, and is also incorporating a number of social networking features, such as sharing and browsing user profiles, music library management tools, and instant messaging.

The existing iMesh service, one of the original P2P netoworks, will not be affected by the launch of BearShare 6.0. The two services will co-exist, and sometime this year members of each will be able to interact with members of the other service.

Both BearShare ToGo and iMeshToGo services can be used with most MP3 players and all Plays for Sure portable devices. They are not compatible with Apple's iPods, however.

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