Published: March 22, 2005, 6:14 AM PST

By Reuters

German media giant Bertelsmann, a former partner of file-sharing network Napster, is launching a new Internet platform for downloading and sharing movies and games over the Internet, it said Tuesday.

Arvato, Bertelsmann`s services and technology arm, said it would sell the service, dubbed GNAB, to mobile phone operators, Internet providers and TV stations, which could then offer their clients legal downloads of large files under their own brands.

In addition, the service could allow them to share the files they have received over the network, effectively outsourcing the storage of the files and their download to the users of the network.

Sharing of legally copied as well as bootlegged music and movie files is hugely popular among Internet users, which have made services such as eDonkey and Kazaa big hubs for music downloads, while the music industry stood on the sidelines.

But easy-to-use services such as Apple Computer`s iTunes have let the music industry discover its sympathy for music downloads and led to a surge in legal online-music sales.

Bertelsmann, which with Sony co-owns the world`s second-largest music label, Sony BMG, teamed up with Napster in late 2000, when the service was already being sued by the industry for helping copyright infringements.