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No, because they wouldn't consider this message as piracy, despite the links at the bottom. Can you guess why?

Napster pay service
Rhapsody
iMesh

It's still around, however download speeds may be slower with a wireless connection.

http://www.imesh.com/

ha.

The notice says that posts containing links to sites with "illegal content" will be removed... iMesh's spyware, Marketscore, has recently gotten coverage in Wired magazine, and on Slashdot.org (Dec 6, 9:34PM article)... neither of these sites contain illegal information. Wired's article is even pseudo-supporting iMesh's tactics (did you know that Marketscore can view your creditcard information even on secure websites? Wired magazine notes that it all your internet activity is routed through their servers and they have this ability, which you might not even know you agreed to in the License). However someone does not want you to even be aware that such a thing as Marketscore even exists... and so this post will be removed promptly as all the others have been which mention iMesh's little secret.

I challenge a moderator to post a thoughtful reply to this instead of just removing it... this is certainly related to Security, General information, User Support, as well as iMesh's P2P Revolution

try installing imesh. You'll have fun trying to clean up afterwards- and there is absolutely no mention of new.net or cydoor anywhere during the installation.

Do you actaully read /.?

SongSpy, now in version XE Beta 2.0, is installing a very nasty spyware app called FTapp without users' knowledge whatsoever - not in the license agreement that users have to agree to when they install SongSpy, nor in the FAQ on their website.

In fact, their FAQ says this (here):

"What is your privacy policy?

"We're still working on pulling together a formal policy in full-blown legalese. But rest assured that we ourselves are privacy zealots and won't be doing anything remotely devious with the information you provide us. Also, we take pride in how little we know about what you are doing on SongSpy, you aren't tracked, logged, or monitored for analysis by the client software."

I looked up FTapp with Google and found nary any info, except for a virus entry for FTapp in McAfee's Virus Information Library. FTapp's entry in McAfee's Virus Information Library says the following:

"Virus Characteristics: This is an advertising/user monitoring trojan. Once running this trojan may track your web browsing activity and/or display advertisements.

"Indications Of Infection: Presence of the file FTAPP.DLL

"Method Of Infection: This trojan is installed via an executable.

"Removal Instructions: Use specified engine and DAT files for detection. Use the ADD/REMOVE Programs Control Panel in Windows to remove this program."

In fact, an entry for FTapp is in the Add/Remove Program applet of Windows' Control Panel. But, if you try to remove it, it says that there was an error and asks if you wish to just remove the install entry from Add/Remove Programs. Thus, FTapp CANNOT be uninstalled this way; it will remain.

At the time I discovered FTapp on my system, I assumed that the next step was to just delete the (unhidden) folder C:\Program Files\ftapp. I've done this and haven't had any problems yet.

The folder C:\Program Files\ftapp contains two files: FTapp.dll and FTapp.mon. Viewing the properties sheet for FTapp.dll didn't reveal much, but opening FTapp.mon was my greatest cause for alarm. In it appears to be lots of websites I've visited recently.

SongSpy users cannot even contact SongSpy, either. Their support, in its entirety, is the FAQ, and the only way they have set up to be contacted (here) is at staff@songspy.com, and only for business proposals or if someone is from the media (hint hint).

Also, iMesh 3.0 was just released this week, and it contains something called FTPBack/FTP_back/FTP Back. Also stealth, it's installed automatically during iMesh 3.0 setup and without users' knowledge and is set to run at Windows startup using the Windows Registry's Run key...

I recently submitted an article about how I found a piece of spyware that is installed by a number of music sharing systems including AudioGalaxy and iMesh on my machine. Of course, Slashdot rejected it. Since it is ontopic for this discussion here it is:

The SpyWare Invasion

While writing a proxy server for a class I noticed that for each URL I clicked, a number of POST requests were being sent to d2.webhancer.com and d3.webhancer.com. Wondering what was up I decided to go to the Web Hancer website where I found out that WebHancer is a company that claims to have an installed base of millions of WebHancer agents that report web browsing statistics to their corporate headquarters.

WebHancer currently charges businesses $12,000 a month to access these usage statistics. I found the webHancer agent on my Windows machine (after a quick 'ps -W | grep gent')in "C:\Program Files\webHancer\Programs\whAgent.exe" and deleted it. What I am wondering is how the Web Hancer agent got on my machine since I don't recall being asked whether I wanted to install any spyware. Also exactly how many of their millions of anonymous usage statistics are being generated by unsuspecting users?

Which program did I install that decided to place this Trojan on my machine and is there a blacklist of such programs? AudioGalaxy

Finally, while searching for info on Web Hancer I found Ad-Aware which claims to locate and uninstall such spyware.

• Alpine - Adaptive Large-scale Peer2peer Information NEtworking
• ANAP -- Anonymous Napster
• AudioGalaxy Satellite
• Bearshare -- Powerful Gnutella client
• Blocks -- open source distributed sharing client with encryption
• Carracho -- MacOS file sharing program
• CuteMX
• Direct Connect
• DFSI -- Distributed File Sharing over IRC
• Espra
• FileSwap
• Filetopia
• FreeNet
• Gnutmeg -- peered file sharing system
• gnutella -- distributed P2P file sharing tool
• Hotline
• IMesh
• Jungle Monkey -- open source
• KaZaA - Windows Media Desktop
• Konspire -- open source distributed client in java
• OFSI -- Open File Sharing Initiative
• ProjectELF -- anonymoys distributed sharing system
• SongSpy
• Spin Frenzy
• Splooge -- P2P file sharing by file extension
• Swapoo -- Napster like service for sharing video game ROMs
• Swaptor -- Online File Sharing Community
• VNN - secure file sharing app

At the height of Slashdot's reporting on Napster (twice or thrice a week) I couldn't understand what relevance it had with regards to being "News for Nersa" or "Stuff that Matters", some service that is primarily used to pirate songs was getting sued, big deal.

Now that Napster has been rendered useless as a file sharing service by the RIAA and a court of law, why is Napster still news? Everyone I know has moved on from Napster and now uses a service that surpasses Napster's poorly designed service in one way or the other. For simply sharing and obtaining music there are iMesh, Audiogalaxy, Music City, Ohaha, Gnutella and a host of others. For uses of P2P beyond simply grabbing MP3s we have Mojo Nation, Freenet and Publius.

Why doesn't slashdot start reporting on these systems instead of beating the dead Napster horse?

How to make the successor to Napster

It's all good having these multiple technologies, but being able to be caught is always risky. Lets face it, at some stage some script kiddies will be sharing their c00L war3z d00d, and it's all goind to go to crap - and especially so if there's even a hint of a financial transaction.

The chaps at iMesh (http://www.imesh.com/) are trying to do something a bit more distributed. I don't think it's quite there yet, but it's a start. I guess it means that iMesh themselves aren't going to have to purchase a bulk order of KY in the near future, but their luzers might.

Winblows clients only, unfortunately, so I'd also recommend a trip to http://antivirus.cai.com/ for the latest InnoculatePE.

GnutellaNews, Gnotella, Gnutella(.wego.com), Gnutmeg, AudioGnome, MyNapster, FreeNet, Jungle Monkey, Scour Exchange, Spin Frenzy Exchange, ChartBox 0.91, Gnutella MP3 Search, Gnute, Metallicster, CuteMX, IMesh, Hotline, FileSwap, OpenNap

Listen, I know that there isn't a whole lot we can really do to stop this kind of crap from happening.

But guess what, I'm not going to go buy that Filter CD that I was planning on getting this weekend or the next. In fact, I don't think I'm going to buy another CD for a long time.

I know it is tough for people to get outraged in this day and age. There are few things that people can't see both sides of. I would like to see people get outraged at what is happening with Napster now, but I realize it isn't going to happen.

In the meantime, here are some programs to use till Napster gets put back online, if ever:

(I did not include GNUTella because that is the biggest bandwidth hogging, least productive program I have ever used in my entire life.)

iMesh - Nice but not too popular

CuteMX - The guys that brought us CuteFTP

FreeNet - This has promise

Btw, anyone else all of a sudden notice that RIAA Sucks is down?

www.imesh.com
www.hotlinehq.com
there are plenty of ways to trade all kinds of files. this means:
-stopping napster (and its users, if dre is willing to go that far) won't do anything
-music/files will ALWAYS be traded for free-- encryptions will be broken, people will always go for the free stuff if they can avoid paying as you say, mp3 is now effectively ineradicable
Sony just introduced a new method of distribution for music on the internet.. it doesn't say it in that article, but in Billboard magazine they quoted a price of about $2.95 per song, to be distributed in conjunction with CD Now. Who in their right mind would pay three bucks for a song they can get free? The internet is changing all kinds of media, and the only thing we know for certain about where it's going is that record companies are being FORCED to stop overcharging for music, copyrights or not.

I've been searching with Napster for these new Wrapster encoded files, but I haven't found any at all. Has anyone else had any luck with this? dave. p.s. There are far better programs for doing the same thing. is one that allows you to download any kind of media file. There are also others.

iMesh can be used for any type of file. My roommate has already used it to snag several South Park episodes.