KaZaa Settles For $100M. Industry Reacts.

The music industry has reached a legal settlement with KaZaa. The P2P will pay Universal Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music more than $100 million and immediately stop illegal activity.

According to KaZaa’s web site the popular application has been downloaded almost 390 million times including 821,851 last week alone.  The long term impact of the settlement is not clear however as as file sharers have simply migrated to other services in the past.

But major label reaction was upbeat. In a statement releases this morning EMI Music Vice Chairman David Munns said, "This is a victory for anyone in a creative industry that has had their works stolen and distributed through an illegitimate P2P network. While the award may seem like a vast pot of money, it will merely offset the millions we have invested – and will continue to invest – in fighting illegal pirate operations around the world and protecting the works that our artists create."

"Today’s agreement is big step forward in the development of a vibrant, legitimate digital music marketplace." Munns continued. "We hope this settlement against KaZaA will drive the creation of even more consumer-friendly ways to bring music to fans and generate new revenues for our artists and our business.".