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AMDs, WMDs... What's the difference, really?

AMD and WMD are two points on the evilness spectrum. AMD is non-evil while WMD is very evil, with KMD sitting somewhere between those two points. There are three more levels of evil beyond WMD, but we haven't discovered them yet.

Plus, it really only deals with the Gnutella network, whereas most of the traffic nowadays would probably be using Bittorrent.

does anybody actually use Kazaa anymore?

I thought they were sued out of existance like Napster (The new Napster is Napster in name only and is not the old Napster)

A Google search shows they are not gone yet. They are still there. Them and Limewire seem to be the number 1 & 2 sources of RIAA targeting.

http://www.kazaa.com/us/index.htm

A few lawsuits are good for the P-P community. It shows problems with user privacy so vast improvements can be made.

I hope the RIAA will like the new versions. The biggest one they have problems with is the oldest. It's called the sneakernet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet

Most attacks due to it's excellent privacy is carried out as a public relations campaign and sometimes through malware.
http://www.usbhacks.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Copy_That_Floppy
http://www.cosky.com/?q=node/27
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_protection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pod_slurping

This page says "Fast, Safe, Free". Maybe it's a different Kazaa. I don't know. I seem to remember previous marketing material that says more directly, you can download as much as you want with the software. It seems deceptive to me, like putting up a sign on a table of 50 cupcakes that says "Free Cupcakes" without actually mentioning that only one or two of the cupcakes are free.

How can you be a customer of a company that provides Free as in Beer software?

I call bullshit on the fact that the person claims she didn't know how kazaa worked. Its explained right here for cryin' out loud.

All this person is doing is trying to get their money back that was extorted by the RIAA. Her lawyer probably weighed the difficulty of a counter-suit against the RIAA and suing Kazaa. Guess who won.

I call shenanigans on this one. Tagged: Traitor

First off, that article is rife with ads and I suggest the printer friendly version of it so you don't have to click "Skip this ad" or skip across memory intensive flash advertisements that cause your browser to crap out.

Secondly, this will most likely be a peer-to-peer application because it would be bandwidth expensive and problematic to centrally host these shows. A thing that concerns me with this is something I saw happen with Kazaa and the Windows media formats. Virus writers were figuring out ways to embed viruses into the files so that when your machine read them, the codec would unintentionally execute or behave like a virus or malware. Several of my friends suffered computer troubles due to downloading WMA files and trying to listen to them only to have their machine lock up with a worm. Later on, Kazaa included a BullGuard P2P Virus Protection Option in their product but in my opinion, it was too late. Everyone should be familiar with the potential JPEG exploit in Microsoft Windows, if it can be done for one two dimensional image, surely it can be embedded in a single frame of a video file.

I hope that the original Kazaa inventors realized this problem and are working to implement a secure system where I don't have to worry about receiving a file that might have malicious code embedded in it. A simple solution would be to compute a checksum on each file received by The Venice Project application. They would then require computers to ping a centralized server they set up to verify that the byte sum counted is indeed the correct sum and that the entire video is legit and unadulterated. There's probably easier schemes and forms of encryption to protect this but I sincerely hope this is a very real and concentrated point of this software for The Venice Project.

I think that Virus writers love applications built on names and not security. They love "industry standard" applications. Because that means a larger target base if they tailor a virus to that application. I fear that if people mindlessly buy The Venice Project only because of the inventor's fame but ignore security problems that may cause problems down the line. Kazaa was a virus writers dream, what are Zennstrom and Friis doing to prevent the same thing from happening again?

1. Emule - This is one of the best we found out there. Hint (Search for server.met on google to update your server list)

2. Bearshare - Nice Gnutella client, lots of good hits

3. Limewire - Another Gnutella client. It even works on the Mac!

4. Shareaza - A beautiful Gnutella client with no spyware.

5. BitTorrent - Perfect for downloading movies, or that latest linux distro

6. KaZaa - Old favorite. Oh yea - Aussie users, you can't download - Yea Right!

7. Azureus - BitTorrent client that works on Mac, Linux, and Windows 8. Morpheus - Wow. They are still around? Wha happened!

9. Gnucleus - Open source Gnutella for you freeloading open source hippies out there - Yea I am talking about you

10. Napster - Ah, just put this one here to see if you are still reading, and I guess for shits and grins too

So there you have it folks. These are slim pickings. Get um while they still work!

If you ask them they don't include spyware http://www.kazaa.com/us/help/new_nospy.htm/

Nice how they redefine spyware to suit their own needs:
Kazaa, which is supported by advertising, and Kazaa Plus, which is not advertising supported, do not deliver software -- which we refer to as "spyware" -- that is installed without your prior consent or that gathers any personally identifiable information without your consent.

Not that I'm sayin spyware has a definition. Just makes me laugh that they decide what is and isn't spyware.

http://www.gizmoproject.com/

It's not very Off topic anyway.

They made World standard SIP protocol distributed in an open source way.

Support is plain amazing, they replied to my crash report (which _I_ included my mail) in 20 minutes which shocked me.

I wonder if /. geeks have Kazaa installed in their machines as it's coming from same company? Right, eBay purchased them, code is still same, closed source.

A funny fact which I can't stand without saying is, I wanted to make sure Skype is coming from Kazaa, not iMesh and clicked
http://www.kazaa.com/us/products/

Shows a turkish betting ad in their product page. Um, betting in foreign sites is kind of "grey" matter in Turkey which many banks won't allow.

No, reason is not our islamic wannabe govt. It is that, there is already a betting service in Turkey which is bound by law and governed perfectly. What I understand is, Kazaa did not change at all. Always dark stuff...

Yea, use Skype people, PROTECT YOUR FREEDOM! with a company invented mass spyware.

http://www.kazaa.com/us/help/new_100percentlegal.h tm

I was hoping to see this updated.... damn :)

I think that's a bit unfair (as many others have already commented), and I agree with her points. Going to Kazaa's front page yields this as (what is to me at least) the prime function of this program: "Search for and download music, movies, games, software, images and documents."

If you're a casual computer user that doesn't read Slashdot or pay much attention to technical news, what are you going to think when you read that?

Who is really using Kazaa today?

No matter. That is what killed Kazaa in the first place. Of course they say there is no spyware in Kazaa 3.0.

Well, considering that Kazaa (Sharman) operates out of Vanuatu I wonder why you bring America into it. I mean they moved from Europe because they were breaking the law.

Considering they log activity they are in big trouble as well:

http://www.kazaa.com/us/privacy/privacy.htm

They can't say they had no idea.

Remember "bongs" are illegal now because they help break the law. Tommy Chong can attest to that (not even that I agree with that, but it's precedent).

Spot the difference, people!

If you go to Kazaa right now, however, you'll note that they say that there's no spyware bundled with the software. Thanks, but no thanks...I'm sticking with bittorrent and Winmx.

For some reason kazaa claims that it's service is 100% legal though.
http://www.kazaa.com/us/help/new_100percentlegal.h tm

And how about the service named "Ares"? Why arent they being targeted aswell?

Congradulations! You've just reinvented a hash-based filesharing network. You're not the first, though:

* Gnutella (BASE32 SHA1)
* eDonkey/Overnet (Tiger Tree Hash)
* KaZaA (KZHash)
* Freenet (CHK)
* Mnet (?)

Mnet even does the full .torrent block hashing thing. Most of these networks deploy swarming, too.

The coolest thing is magnet-uri's. I've even written a redirector for SHA1 links here.

According to their website, Kazaa 3 does not contain any spyware.
http://www.kazaa.com/us/help/new_nospy.htm

It already is free. I just download my disposable digital cameras from Kazaa. Once they run out, I download a new one.

I could see Kazaa

Fine print from Sharman Networks:

Copyright: Sharman Networks Ltd does not condone activities and actions that breach the rights of copyright owners. As a Kazaa Media Desktop user you have agreed to abide by the End User License Agreement and it is your responsibility to obey all laws governing copyright in each country.

So Kazaa explicitly warns people to obey copyright laws of their jurisdictions. Kazaa does not induce infringement. It also, to its credit, has information for parents to protect their children from 'harmful' content, and everything concerning what information is shared, being a supernode, and how to enable/disable this stuff is explained on the site, so any claims of inducement by 'duping' customers into infringing copyrights should also be summarily rejected.

Still, I fear the 'reasonable person' standard will be too easy to prove, and that even Kazaa might be found guilty of inducing infringement under the new law. Somehow the fact that Sharman Networks benefits from infringement of its customers will be spun into a case that Sharman Networks 'induces' copyrights and lures children, despite explicit evidence to the contrary.

Hatch in his comments about the legislation, said the RIAA 'has to' have someone to sue, and since they couldn't prove inducement charges under current law, they need to lower the bar. Even if every company(in the US) that distributes P2P software is sued out of existence, the programs are still out there on people's computers; P2P networks will still work, and then there are P2P companies in other countries, who will not be affected by this law at all. All this will do is give the RIAA someone else to sue in addition to those they are already sueing(their customers).

I was looking at Secunia's Virus Info Page .. right under the graph it says "Based on Information delivered by BullGuard".

That set off a few bells... Know what BullGuard is? It's spyware that happens to come bundled with Kazaa. Amusingly, you can see BullGuard on Kazaa's *cough* No Spyware Policy Page, where they try to pretend that their bundled software isn't spyware.

Linux isn't really that much easier to download than Windows, if you Look in the right places :)

Personally I use Windows because its free, the software is free and it runs reasonable on my P3 500 vs Linux which runs slower and needs 5gig just to install. That's why I do it

Personally I use Windows because its free, the software is free and it runs reasonable on my P3 500 vs Linux which runs slower and needs 5gig just to install. That's why I do it

Hey, at least they are more honest than KaZaa.

>It's the risk-vs.-reward ratio. If you want to make it less attractive, the first thing to do is make it *harder*. When stealing someone's belongings doesn't require any breaking, just entering, it is more likely to happen.

And when it gets really easy to do, people do it so frequently and with so little consequence that they start to argue that it isn't really illegal anyway, or they blame the victim, or try and find some other way of rationalizing the crime.

Can someone please submit this article to Slashdot's editors? Its been pending for a day and a half for myself. I've released this text into the public domain so feel free to reword anything in it.

I think its self explanatory but feel free to reply here for clarifications.

---

Open Source Application Under Attack by Maker of KaZaA over Reverse Engineering

A story from Zeropaid indicates that maker of KaZaA, Sharman Networks, has sent a Cease and Desist Letter to the maker of GPLed software KCEasy because it interoperates with their FastTrack network. The creator of KCeasy says on the KCEasy website "I feel that inclusion of FastTrack access with KCeasy is not worth a legal battle between Sharman and myself". A similar issue was covered by the Slashdot story Fight On Blizzard Vs. Bnetd Case on the right to reverse engineer to create an interoperable network. Reverse engineering to be another on the list of rights that have fallen by the way side?

Can someone please submit this article to Slashdot's editors? Its been pending for a day and a half for myself. I've released this text into the public domain so feel free to reword anything in it.

I think its self explanatory but feel free to reply here for clarifications.

---

Open Source Application Under Attack by Maker of KaZaA over Reverse Engineering

A story from Zeropaid indicates that maker of KaZaA, Sharman Networks, has sent a Cease and Desist Letter to the maker of GPLed software KCEasy because it interoperates with their FastTrack network. The creator of KCeasy says on the KCEasy website "I feel that inclusion of FastTrack access with KCeasy is not worth a legal battle between Sharman and myself". A similar issue was covered by the Slashdot story Fight On Blizzard Vs. Bnetd Case on the right to reverse engineer to create an interoperable network. Reverse engineering to be another on the list of rights that have fallen by the way side?

Can someone please submit this article to Slashdot's editors? Its been pending for a day and a half for myself. I've released this text into the public domain so feel free to reword anything in it.

I think its self explanatory but feel free to reply here for clarifications.

---

Open Source Application Under Attack by Maker of KaZaA over Reverse Engineering

A story from Zeropaid indicates that maker of KaZaA, Sharman Networks, has sent a Cease and Desist Letter to the maker of GPLed software KCEasy because it interoperates with their FastTrack network. The creator of KCeasy says on the KCEasy website "I feel that inclusion of FastTrack access with KCeasy is not worth a legal battle between Sharman and myself". A similar issue was covered by the Slashdot story Fight On Blizzard Vs. Bnetd Case on the right to reverse engineer to create an interoperable network. Reverse engineering to be another on the list of rights that have fallen by the way side?

i do agree with your point, but...

Some won't expire.
Some you don't care if it expire.
But some people just don't care at all.

I am posting this follow-up as AC

EULA's are not legal documents or law abinding.

I sincerely hope this is true. However, I should have been more specific. The EULA I was referring to was Kazaa's.

Please note the details of Sections 7, 8 & 9. They are, respectively:

7 Sharman's Right to Run Advertising without Payment to Users

8 Links to Third-Party Sites and Channels

9 Third Party Software

Also of interest to me are Sections 10, 12, 13 & 14.

From what I understand, unless an individual selects an option to accept during the installation of the program/s the software will not install. Hence, if they successfully installed the software then there exists an agreement between the two parties.

Like anyone who knows what this software does, I am as against it as the next person.

I agree. Get music for free is the mantra of the day.

But what if you could take that to the next level and get paid for sharing your purchased music. What would you rather have then?

• A system that allows you to download music for free (and maybe illegally so)?
• Or a system where you pay for music but which then allows you to get paid too for sharing it -- and which infact allows you to recoup more than the original price that you paid for the song itself.

It takes 20 minutes to distribute a 90-minute film over a VPN and the system

The distribution system used by Rain Networks is available for free here...

If their client was GPL,... So IMHO this is in no way a copyright violation, and KAZAA is completely wrong to even attempt this.

If your assumption were correct, your argument would make sense, but who said Kazaa was GPL'd? ... I don't think it is even open-source. A quick google for 'kazaa license' turned up this which might be the license.

Or give them the gift that keeps on giving, for less: WinMx, KaZaA ... same content, less pricey. ;)

The Dutch courts have ruled that the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a worldwide analogue of the RIAA), can not sue Kazaa for the transgressions of its users (e.g.). This means Kazaa will be available for legal filesharing, and the recording industry must go after individuals who engage in illegal filesharing.

The Dutch make up about 20% of the world's filesharing individuals, according to the article.

Look no more.

Be careful how you spell it, Kazza is a recording industry frontend where you fill a form with your name and e-mail address. You probably mean Kazaa.

...and trying to solve a law problem with technology is also futile respectively.

I'm not surprised by this release. I would think that there is a massive amount of built-up demand among Windows users for the goodness and convenience that is iPod and iTunes.

Personally, I'd love to be able to scan music online and get what I want. Until now, that usually meant some website or some questionable methods. Both options don't really float my boat 'cause it isn't a service designed for the distribution and enjoyment of music, as in from finding it, obtaining it, listening to it, and storing it for future listenings using a single method.

Now that Apple has show the world that not all online music listerns are 1337 k1dd13z, maybe we can continue with these developments, and we can stop hearing some organizations whine.

I like the way the buying works

Hey dude! Where have you been living? In a cave? You don't have to buy music anymore! There's this really sweet new program out there called Kazaa where you can get al the free music you want. It's totally awesome. And the best part, there are no strings attached. :)

I would like to share with you a story - a story of pain, rejection, denial, loneliness, and perhaps, at the end, triumph and a happy ending. This story begins just three short years ago...

I was in my senior year of highschool, and as was the style at the time, I was very much interested in computers. I loved to take them apart, figure out how they worked, write programs with Microsoft's fine development environment, Visual Studio [microsoft.com]. As was also the style at the time, I loved to read webpages, in particularly, Slashdot.org [slashdot.org]. Perhaps you can guess what happened next. I began to slowly change - I developed an unhealthy obsession with computers, began to dislike and openly question America's policies, started shamelessly pirating music [napster.com] and software [gnu.org], and most dangerously, got turned on to that most deviant operating system of all - Linux.

Now I know many of you must be shaking your head in disgust at this point - "This must just be another one of those M$ trolls, hardee har har," but please, hear me out. This is very important.

As time went on, I got deeper and deeper in the Linux underground. I progressed through the various levels of "distros," from Mandrake, to Suse, to RedHat, finally to Debian, like a drug user going from harmless marijuana to cocaine and heroin. I thought I was so smart; I began sneering at other people who didn't use Linux - "Clueless Windo$e luzers," I would say. I was changing outwardly as well. I became a loner, hunched over the keyboard late into the night with the lights off, listening to my illegally downloaded music [kazaa.com]. All my friends left me after I broke their computers trying to install Linux on them. My hair grew long and unkempt, I stopped bathing and using deodorant, calling them "tools of capitalism and American greed." I got fired from my sysadmin job for installing slackware over the Solaris servers, and installing Debian over the Windows desktops. My bosses told me I cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, but I would not listen. "How could I be wrong, I'm using Linux?" I thought, "They must be M$ shills." You can see how far gone I was. No girls would look at me, let alone speak to me. I was in a world of pain, anger, and confusion [adequacy.org].

But, then one day, I took a long hard look at myself. I saw that something was wrong, but did not know what. I must confess, for a long time I denied what I knew deep down inside my heart - Linux was the cause of all my troubles. I saw what I had allowed myself to become. I was no longer a human being, I was a Linux Zealot. Instead of judging people by their thoughts, feelings, and actions, I judged them by their choice of Operating System. And so began the long road toward recovery...

I am still not fully recovered from my affliction, for you see, I have only one desktop machine, and cannot install Windows without losing much of my data. That's right, I am healthy enough to admit it, Linux is not for desktop use. I am planning my next desktop machine purchase, which will be an Apple iBook. The one good thing that came out of my years of torment is that I learned the power of Unix. Therefore, I will use MacOSX - a true Unix with excellent support and commercial software backing, something Linux will never have. By paying for my software from now on, I will be supporting the American economy. I want to help get America out of this economic tailspin [www.vasoftware] brought on by open source software [communism.org] and the dot com bust [fuckedcompany.com]. More importantly, I will no longer be an operating system zealot. I wi

Oh cool. Since we're believing websites today, I'll ditch my Kazaa Lite and go back to regular old KaZaA, because it doesn't have any spyware.

No Spyware' Policy
Kazaa Media Desktop Does Not Contain Spyware.

There are people who want to make it so. It seems to me that this is the real 'paradigm crunch.' Some people want to run to the government and make new laws every time something goes wrong. Others are willing to take a little responsiblity for their own actions. It is, after all, right in kazaa's terms that you can't use it to "2.6 Transmit, access or communicate any data that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party". Sounds to me like Kazaa's covered their butt.

2.6 Transmit, access or communicate any data that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;

When a person buys Kazaa they are entering into a legally binding agreement, if they choose not to read the fine print that's their problem, not Kazaa's or Sharman Networks.

Copyright: Sharman Networks Ltd does not condone activities and actions that breach the rights of copyright owners. As a Kazaa Media Desktop user you have agreed to abide by the End User License Agreement and it is your responsibility to obey all laws governing copyright in each country.

Hey, I bought a gun. Surely that means I'm allowed to shoot people. Why else would they sell it?

Even if they're not a law-enforcement agency, they've at least broken the license agreement" "What you can't do under this license agreement"

"2.11 Monitor traffic or make search requests in order to accumulate information about individual users;"

http://www.kazaa.com/us/terms.htm

3.2 Except as expressly permitted in this Licence, you agree not to reverse engineer, de-compile, disassemble, alter, duplicate, modify, rent, lease, loan, sublicense, make copies, create derivative works from, distribute or provide others with the Software in whole or part, transmit or communicate the application over a network.

Kazaa Lite is a modified version, and thus not allowed to be distributed. They don't have to claim it's their own original work for it to be piracy.

Score: Google 1
Kazaa 0
DMCA 0