In early September, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates staged a Hollywood gala to impress the music and movie industries with his company's latest software for digital music and video, Windows Media 9. A few weeks later, Microsoft started showing off Windows Media 9 to an audience reviled by the entertainment industry: the Kazaa file-sharing network, where users routinely copy digital songs, films and software for free. Microsoft has picked up the tab to distribute at least two companies' promotional videos on Kazaa in the Windows Media 9 format, representatives of those companies say. The videos not only show off the improved picture quality of Microsoft's latest technology, they also help distribute it -- when Kazaa users download and play either video, their Microsoft media player software is automatically upgraded to Windows Media 9.
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