An alliance between “behavioral marketing & search” company Direct Revenue and Sharman Networks’ Kazaa, the p2p application which became infamous for its spyware and as the p2p application on the hard drives of many (most?) RIAA sue ‘em all victims, has been announced.

Anyone who OKs Kazaa and Direct Revenue will also have to promise to read “a small number of relevant advertisements per day” in return for which they’ll get Cydoor, PeerPoint Manager from DRM enthusiast Altnet, a Sharman partner, the Need2Find toolbar, Best Offers Instafinder from Direct Revenue, and a virtually unknown virus app called Bullguard.

That’s quite a bundle. And it’s interesting that just as new Direct Revenue ceo Jean Philippe Maheu tries to clean up the company’s seriously tarnished image, he also chooses to get into bed with Sharman which an Australian court decided must stop “authorising Kazaa users to breach copyright and that modifications be made to future technology to reduce copyright infringement,” as professor Ed Felten phrased it.
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