Napster creator Shawn Fanning has jumped back into the P2P fray with the launch of Snocap, a company offering online music licensing and copyright management. Founded by Fanning, Jordan Mendelson and Ron Conway, Snocap aims to help record labels, artists and online services ensure that digital content is correctly licensed and that copyright is not violated.

The idea is to give rights holders the level of comfort they need to make their content available on P2P networks.

After registering music and copyright information in Snocap's database, labels and artists can manage the online distribution of all their content through the company's copyright management interface, which enables them to set business rules for each track on a global basis.

"Snocap envisions a world where consumers can discover, share and purchase music from a deep, almost infinite catalogue constantly updated with new and old releases, out-of-print tracks and more," said Fanning.

"There are some good authorised online music services, but they have limited content and a comparatively small number of users.

"There are unauthorised services that have content and users, but the service they provide is inferior and they are at odds with rights holders. Snocap is the means to bridge that divide for the consumer."

Fanning also announced an agreement with Universal Music Group to provide technology and database services for the online distribution of the studio's catalogue.

Universal has already begun to register its catalogue with Snocap. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.