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I find it odd that, even though KaZaA has suspended downloads, their download counter (at the top of the page at http://www.kazaa.com/en/defend.htm, for example) is still going up. This might be automatic (it's going up very smoothly and uniformly), but even so it's amusing. In addition to Morpheus, there's also Grokster, which likewise licenses the FastTrack technology. Is file sharing really dead? I don't think so. I mean, the way courts generally work, organizations like the RIAA and MPAA would have to sue every file sharing program making company separately. In addition to the legal fees, the industries are lagging behind by a year or at least several months... Programs are around for a while before any suit gets filed, and then the suits take time. True, it's hardly optimal that file sharing programs rise and fall every so often, but a bit of a shakeup is good now and then. Besides, they're growing faster than people can try to get them shut down. Direct Connect is quite good for some things. Gnutella, although it sucks, cannot be eradicated. And if something like Freenet ever gets somewhat usable and efficient, they won't really have anyone left to sue. Maybe then they'll concentrate on making movies and music and software good enough that we want to buy it, instead of producing crap on a stick, trying to limit what we can do with it, and suing everyone in sight. Marketing can only do so much to sell a bad product (although M$ has done an entirely too good job of it...).

Discuss. Chat. Defend.

I recommend everyone to check out KaZaA. It's scalable, has hundreds of thousands of users online on average, with about half a terabyte of files available in total. It has not only mp3, but also divx and mpeg movies (film and pr0n), software and all kinds of documents (books). It's a kind of Napster++. The client works very well, there is also a Linux version in beta available.

Other cool features:

It automatically resumes interrupted downloads. You could even shut down your computer for days and after starting up, KaZaA will just resume the downloads (when still available, of course).

Multi source downloading. Every file is checksummed and the program will look for other sources. A download will automatically be spread over several sources to speed up the download process.

All these things make KaZaA imho a Napster killer (as far as Napster can still be killed, but still :)

I just don't undersatnd why people can't use better Gnutella clients. Same thing. No restrictions.

Call me stupid, if you wish, but I just don't get it.

Kazaa's file sharing client, also used by MusicCity, combines multiple data sources to maximize the requesting client's use of bandwidth.

Morpheus

I'm not sure where it is on IRC. Anyone?

For those without Cable, outside the US or anyone else that haven't got a clue what this is. You can get a PreView using Morpheus or KaZaA. There is lots of MST3K floating around. Remember to buy the DVD if you like it.

viking099 writes "File swapping programs such as Morpheus, Grokster, and Kazaa (all based on the same software from FastTrak) have grown over 480% in the past 4 months, and are set to break the 1.57 million concurrent connection record that Napster set." So who exactly is surprised by this?

Oh, sorry. FastTrack is the network protocol used by KaZaA (it's laden with spyware crap, but it's a no-brainer to use on Windows and supports multi-source downloads well), giFT (an open source client), Morpheus, and Grokster (don't know anything about these two).

From what I'm told, it shares the files over port 80 so wget will get files from a FastTrack peer. The really great thing about it is the multi-source download. I can get full use of my bandwidth at home while I download the 300meg+ video files from multiple users. Of course, I only download bits to which I have a legal right.

Bobby Martin
Cosm Development Team
http://www.cosmgame.com

The RIAA is going after the FastTrack network (KaZaA, Morpheus, and Grokster) next. This is going to be the next big battle, as this network isn't centralized (at least, not as centralized as Napster was), so the RIAA will have a harder time proving that FT is responsible. Another intesting thing about the FT network is that the latest version locks out the open source client that the giFT project is developing (it worked again briefly over the weekend, but now it's broken again). While they try to get it up and running with the new FT network, they say that they're also developing and their own open source network (OpenFT).

In parallel with the FT assault, the RIAA, as of Monday, decided to go after AudioGalaxy (read about it in the NY Post over here). AudioGalaxy has filters in place, but the RIAA says they aren't good enough.

also, visit #gift on irc.openprojects.net for even more info

also, visit #gift on irc.openprojects.net for even more info

also, visit #gift on irc.openprojects.net for even more info

also, visit #gift on irc.openprojects.net for even more info

also, visit #gift on irc.openprojects.net for even more info

Sensing the ongoing increase of popularity of giFT, KaZaA has blocked all open-sourced attempts to connect to the FastTrack network used by KaZaA, Morpheus, and Grokster. More information here. For more about giFT, refer back to this slashdot article.
also, visit #gift on irc.openprojects.net

Oh, sorry. FastTrack is the network protocol used by KaZaA (it's laden with spyware crap, but it's a no-brainer to use on Windows and supports multi-source downloads well), giFT (an open source client), Morpheus, and Grokster (don't know anything about these two).

From what I'm told, it shares the files over port 80 so wget will get files from a FastTrack peer. The really great thing about it is the multi-source download. I can get full use of my bandwidth at home while I download the 300meg+ video files from multiple users. Of course, I only download bits to which I have a legal right.

i bought the new cd 'closer', by better than ezra after downloading a few of the tracks off of kazaa (www.kazaa.com), and they have a 'special feature' that lets me watch music videos of the songs on that cd, check out band bios....very neat, except winamp, nor explorer will recognize the cd as having any audio on it. any ideas, anyone?

by the way, i'm glad they're using this on michael jackson cd's.....not many people in the US buy his stuff anyways, it's mostly overseas popularity from what i understand. if anything, this anti-copying scheme should bring press to MJ and give him some free advertising. i myself did not know until today that he'd released any new music in the past 3 years anyways

There is a DivX video of the first plane crash on KaZaA. The AVI is titled "CNN exclusive WTC crash 1 and 2".

It is definately getting interesting on the discussion thread mentioned at the top of this article. I think the kakaA folks are now realizing just how badly they have screwed up :)

Kill Smart Tags:

more accurately, that link should be http://www.kazaa.com

port 1214 is also the port used by KaZaA and MusicCity's Morpheus for the direct semi-gnutella style communication for the file sharing network. Are you running either? Is it possible that it was a coincidence that you were on this system as well as someone from Toshiba?

With some serious tweaking by an interested party this protocol may have the ass kicking ability to scale beyond "close to a million" users, too bad its proprietary. Don't even think about gnutella doing that unless they ditch backwards compatibility gnutella will be stuck at the 40,000 to 50,000 limit forever.

People have mentioned gnutella and gnutella clients such as limewire, which I have tried but these are slow and you have a good chance that you will never actually download what you want.

I can recommend Kazaa which, apart from having an awful name and being windows only has a LOT of files, including movies/audio etc - it also has the killer feature in that if you find (e.g) 5 people who have the file you want you can d/l it from all 5 simultaneously, like some "download accelerator" programs do, it means you can use all your bandwidth more effectively. It also resumes so when someone shuts down just as you get to 99% of a 800MB file you dont pull your hair out.

One thing to watch out for, I think they have a search function on the web page - it doesnt have the features of the client software (and its lame downloading but not sharing!) so get the client software instead.

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I might as well provide Taco with a link to help him out. KaZaA (despite the gay name) has all the functionality of scour, plus some.

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Caimlas

It seems that they've licensed some technology from eZula called HOTText.

If you want to see just how obnoxious these smart tags will be, give it a whirl. You have to wonder if there's a patent suit coming up on this (M$ vs. eZula).

Morpheus is virtually Kazaa with a different GUI. It uses a Gnutella-like hybrid protocol.

While it is probably possible to shut it down, it will be more difficult to do then just to go to Music City and tell them to shut down thier servers. Alteast I hope it isn't that easy to shut down. Morpheus in my opinion is Napster done right (if you don't mind the annoying GUI!)

You can't find anything on it anymore, not even obscure music, because the filters are set to filter just about every song that the RIAA likes or any song that has a title which remotely resembles a RIAA title.

A good working alternative to Napster is KaZaA.

In their system it is for downloading media (aka prOn) -- but the updates to their own software are also distributed using this technique.

While it is true this is never as fast as a single fast server it is a lot better than other p2p systems.

R.

• 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

What is clear is that kazaa really works - I don't understand why it doesn't get more attention.

If nothing else the ability to download the same file from multiple other people at the same time - meaning you don't trash THEIR bandwidth but you get to use all of YOUR bandwidth - is amazingly useful.

Of course this thing also doesn't appear to be truly P2P - there is a server in there somewhere. Can't tell if that is related to the searching or merely to their attempts to make some $$$.

R.

Napster can be used like a streaming audio directory if you have enough bandwidth and find users with the right speed. I have played a lot of songs while d/ling them. Pretty cool: 1) Search any song you like, 2) find fastest location, 3) play live. For maximum speed, Kazaa is quite cool, it bundles downloads from several locations to achieve higher speeds.

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