?The World’s First Networked JukeBox? is what they?re calling it. RiffShare is a free piece of software that turns a network of computers on a LAN into a network of digital jukeboxes, enabling sharing of music from computer to computer across the network. Need to hear that tune they?re playing next door just a *little* louder? Using RiffShare, you can play it straight off the network. Some in the industry have already commented that RiffShare represents a viable alternative to the crop of MP3 search tools, such as Napster and Gnutella, currently getting flack from US courts and bands alike. When users have finished listening to their colleagues? music collection, RiffShare provides links through to the right sites to buy licensed copies of the music. But as RiffShare eyes markets for diversification, it seems fairly certain that they?ll stray into the same muddy legal territories now being explored by the likes of MP3.com. In vowing to create systems for sharing software between family, friends and co-workers, how can a company like RiffShare deny that it is promoting the sharing of songs across communities, rather than the buying of those songs for personal use? Confined to the office, RiffShare might look harmless enough ? but place it in the context of a hugely dispersed, community-based WAN and it?ll start looking a little less palatable to the Big Music companies. RiffShare be warned: the Ninfo has spoken!The team behind RiffShare includes executives and technical personnel formerly of the MP3 pioneer Xing technology. For more information on the software, check the following link: www.riffshare.com