By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

A Dutch company has announced a Linux-based VCR-like device that can connect and download content from a variety of P2P services (Edonkey, Bittorrent, Kazaa, Gnutella and Overnet). It has a DVD burner (unclear from the site if it’s dual-layer) and various-sized hard drives; the cheapest version has 40GB of storage and costs 279 euros ($328). You can also add your own hard drives.

The LamaBox is an intelligent mediaplayer, connectable to the internet. The player is special because it’s fully integrated with the internet, including connection to the big Peer-to-Peer networks*. Choose from an impressive collection of audio and video. The latest movies en televisionshows, playable on your television at the press of a button.

Watch live video- and audiostreams (with time-shifting), top-10 previews of movies in the theatre, the latest weather forecast or watch photo images from your digital camera and share these with friends and family.

Searching for a good movie? Make the search-spider work for you, or choose from a popular preselection. The LamaBox is simple to control and easy to use. Source: LamaBox.com

We Say: While this device has virtually no future in the U.S., apparently the Dutch supreme court ruled long ago in favor of the then Netherlands-based Kazaa that only the upload of copyrighted material is illegal. This implies this device only leeches (downloads), and doesn’t upload, but it’s unclear from the site if that’s the actual behavior. According to the site there’s a high demand and a five week (!) backlog.