Moving beyond media downloads, leading peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing company Kazaa, is now offering free, Internet-based telephone service via the Skype voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) application.

Perhaps the highest-profile P2P purveyor and a favorite target of intellectual property owners such as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Kazaa parent company Sharman Networks announced the new telephony service with its Kazaa version 3.0 this week.

Calling it "a future vision of P2P," Sharman said Kazaa version 3.0 also features advanced search capabilities and a free Web log trial, but the biggest new offering was the free telephone service, which Kazaa claims will allow Internet calls around the globe.

The telephony will be limited to computer-to-computer calls using the Kazaa P2P application, Skype and the Internet, Sharman spokesperson Richard Chernela told TechNewsWorld. The two technologies complement each other, analysts said, because VoIP is basically a form of P2P. There is also synergy among the two companies, as both Kazaa and Skype were founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.

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