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Kazaa Conundrum -- The Plot Thickens
Robotech_Master writes "The ever continuing Kazaa controversy just keeps getting better. This article on Wired highlights Brilliant Digital Entertainment, the company that brokered Kazaa's sale to the Australian firm, and indicates that the RIAA is investigating them."
Readers of Slashdot. I come before you today with a desire. A desire to rid Slashdot of the one thing that is driving me away: Trolls. As I have seen it put here before, the scum of Slashdot. Let me give you a quick explanation.
I know that this is offtopic and should be rated offtopic, but the statements I'm making here are true and must be addressed at once. I am posting this comment under a new account so as not to burn up the precious karma that allows me to post relavant articles and replies to meaningful stories. Did you read that last sentence? Relevant and meaningful. Two words that are all too often lost in the heightened "signal to noise" ratio that trolls are forcing on the intelligent readers and posters of Slashdot.
I'm no genius. I use windows at work because I have to. I use Linux (Mandrake)at home, but I'm a relative newbie and am still learning better ways to make Linux run. There are many stories on Slashdot that I do not understand. Most of these stories are about systems or technology that I will probably never use. Regardless, I have learned much about Linux from the postings and users of Slashdot. I also use Slashdot to keep me up to date on technology and current events/issues in the technology world. Things like napster, the DMCA, the hype of ginger, and many others.
Here's my point. I should be allowed to read Slashdot, regardless of who I am and what I'm reading it for, without having to worry about pictures of a man's anus being spread open, people telling me about some atm becoming a person, people talking about pouring hot grits down their pants, or people thinking about a petrified Natalie Portman! What's wrong with these people? Don't they have anything better to do with their lives/time than to bother others? I'm sick of people saying that Linux users are gay and communists. I'm neither of those things, and if even if I was, should that lessen my right to read Slashdot in peace?
I've said all that to say this: the trolls must go! I'm not saying that I have a solution. The moderation and meta-moderation systems are great tools. They have filtered out much of the garbage that people spread on Slashdot. Banning people's accounts and or ip addresses has also worked to a limited degree, but are not the answer. I'm also definitely not saying that we should impose some form of censorship, as I, like many other worthwhile Slashdot patrons, am against censorship in all its forms. But something must be done. At first I began thinking "trolls are on Slashdot and I don't like trolls, so I should just start reading a different techie news site," but thats not fair. Before you start the "life's not fair" flames, hear me out.
I certainly didn't start Slashdot. I haven't been around Slashdot for that long (only about 2 years). It would not be fair for me to say "our" website or "we" need to take back whats rightfully "ours". But in truth, thats what you old timers should be fighting for. I'm more than willing to "join the cause." I have been subjected to far too much worthless drivel while trying to enjoy Slashdot. Surely we, and I say we meaning the actual readers of Slashdot could come up with some sort of sure fire way to once and for all retake our beloved site from these people, these trolls. Come on there are a lot of smart people reading, posting, maintaining, and contributing to Slashdot. Surely among all these living clock cycles we could develop something to safeguard Slashdot from the trolls.
Sorry for the ranting and rambling, but I've said some things here I've needed to say for a while, and quite frankly are true. Shall we begin discussions of removing the troll element from Slashdot?
Could all you people stop whining for a few days? I'm getting tired of this shit and I need a break.
Cunning linguists
Makes baby jeebus cry.
Slashdot, come for the goatse, stay for the trolls.
First post? Maybe... go ahead...
You don't need to be a Kreskin [amdest.com] to predict the future of the Stinking sweaty Linux hippie. The hand writing is on the wall: Foul-stenched GNU hippies with swampy armpits face a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for them because they are dying. Things are looking very bad for Hairy-backed GNU hippie. As many of us are already aware, they continue to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
Troll leader Anonymouse Coward states that there are 7000 goatse.cx trolls. How many ascii art trolls are there? Let's see. The number of goatse.cx versus ascii art posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 ascii art trolls. Pimply-faced GNU hippies posts on $lashdot are about half of the volume of ascii art posts. Therefore there are about 700 Cock-Gobbling GNU Hippies. A recent article put "first post" at about 80 percent of the troll market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 "first post" trolls. This is consistent with the number of first posts.
All major surveys show that Putrid smelling greasy GNU hippies have steadily declined in market share. $lashdot is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Grubby Smelly Linux Hippies are to survive at all it will be among troll hobbyist dabblers. $lashdot continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Dirty GNU Hippies are dead.
Troll 5 of 109 from the annals of the Troll Library .
In the end, we're all going to buy cd's again, after 3 years of excessive p2p mp3 leeching :-)
...
- Now, flame me
Life sucks.
So that whenever they refer to me in the press articles I'd always be lauded for my intellectual acheivements! :D
(e.g. When the two ran into legal trouble at home and in the United States, Brilliant Digital CEO Kevin Bermeister, set up a meeting with Nikki Hemming, CEO of Australian's Sharman Networks venture firm.)
Thanks,
--
Matt
From the article:
Dropping Fast Track could be beneficial for Streamcast as the new system appears to ape a centralized file-trading system.
Maybe this is some kind of slang I haven't heard, or perhaps a typo...but I can't figure out what the hell they are trying to say here. Can anyone else?
When the various file-sharing networks can't even get along. Morpheus is down already!
It seems like the piracy industry is falling to the same problems the RIAA did - greed.
How about a Beowulf cluster of:
1) Hot grits
2) Goatse
3) Natalie Portmans
Bwaaaaahahahahahahahaha!
You're using her as bait, Master!
Surprisingly, the article doesn't touch upon the implication on the www.musiccity.com (Morpheus) website that the Kazaa folks had something to do with the DOS attack.
I guess Kazaa is too busy with other lawsuits to worry about a slander case.
(BTW, the previously posted spyware remedies for Grokster work with Kazaa as well).
I think Yahoo News coverage is better for this story. At least they capture both sides.
With the current legal landscape, the RIAA will probably win if they choose to sue any of the companies involved (assuming, of course, if they can exercise jurisdiction!). The long and short of it is that Kazaa will be viewed similarly to Naster, and so Brilliant Digital will probably be seen as contributing to that "problem".
"In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." -- Carl Sagan, Cosmos
You can go to Add/Remove programs and kill it, but in true crapware tradition it doesn't actually delete the files. Go into the system folder and you'll find a bunch of DLLs prefixed with 'bde', both DLLs and EXEs. Delete them. (make sure you don't kill anything that belongs to the Borland Database Engine if you have it installed - check the DLL versions). There are two EXEs with fuzzy green icons.
Next, under the windows folder there will be a directory called 'BDE', IIRC. Delete that too.
Finally, go into the registry and look for the 'bde' and 'brilliant' strings. After verifying that they're not something else, delete those too.
The removal doesn't seem to affect the kazaa client at all.
The more star systems will slip through its fingers.
(+1 Bad Starwars Reference)
The RIAA is 'investigating' this company? Regardless of Brilliant Digital Entertainment's ethics or motives, the RIAA is not a governmental body and is acting like it has the power of subpeona.
All this is going to do is create new Morpheuses. Sure, they went to Gnutella rather than FT, but ended up contributing source back to the Gnutella project. It may be mostly GUI source, but User Interface is something that most open source projects are usually a little lacking in. I haven't looked at the source yet, but maybe they added one or two improvements into the way Gnutella files are transmitted that will now make it into other open source filesharing projects.
By forcing their 'enemies' underground, the RIAA is cutting off its own fingers.
Three cheers for Nullsoft for creating an unstoppable monster! Three cheers for all the people who've built and expanded upon Gnutella ever since, including Morpheus.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
...the RIAA is investigating them...
Sounds like the RIAA thinks it's an arm of the U.S. government's executive branch. Oh wait.
VARY Gay. 2 much 2 fix. :(
Sorry.
There are no (extremely few) real games for it. When WineX or whatever is up to snuff, and gives me 100% compatibility, game-wise, and VERY good performance, I MAY consider switching to linux at home. Until then, I will stick to WinXP Pro.
Thank you for your support.
As much as I want to respect the copyright on software, how can the average person who wants to fiddle with Photoshop afford $1000 for the program? Perhaps people would actually buy the software if companies started making prices more reasonable, and the licenses a little less restrictive (hint, hint MS)
Examples:
- Brilliant Handsome with Great Smile Inc.
-
Sincere Hilarious and Buff Inc.
This could be the key to geeks getting the girls!-- Find the Truth...
With Morpheus dumping the fastrak network completely for gnutella it looks like the fast track network might be going down for good. And also on the Front page of Musiccity they talk about the attacks on Morphues and the Network "Who would do that" I dont know maybe RIAA^H^H^H^H Hackers. Cyber terrorism to protect big buisness... Doubt it but interesting.
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
As many of you know, the Slashdot moderation system has come under fire from numerous sources, who
have cited various forms of abuse as a reason for change. CmdrTaco has asked me to notify the
community of said changes. Here are the new, improved Slashdot moderation choices.
+1 funny is now +1 As close to humor as we're gonna get
+1 insightful is now +1 Reminiscent of various uplifting scenes from LOTR
+1 informative is now +1 A beautiful use of cut-and-paste(TM-Microsoft) or Hyperlink
technology
+1 interesting is now +1 contains decent porn links
+1 underrated is now +1 a comment I posted in my other account that should have been moddedup, but wasn't - so I did it myself.
-1 overrated is now -1 Too many big words
-1 Troll is now -1 Funny, insightful, or informative - but contains the word "penis"
-1 Flamebait is now -1 Disagree
-1 Offtopic is now -1 Posted in the wrong story due to fucked up Slashcode
In addition, the following moderation options have been added
+1 blowjob - for posts containing pro-linux, pro-Slashdot, or anti-microsoft propaganda.
+1 transgender/homo/taco-snot/Katz (no explanation was given, but I think it's pretty self explanatory)
-7 bitchslap (editors only) - For use on any post containing derogatory comments about the eds.
This already existed in less formal context.
Thank you for your time. The new moderation choices will be put into effect shortly.
The
Call me old fashioned, but I always thought that music might belong to people that created, for example, maybe.... The artists?
Objects in the blog are closer then they ap
I have wierd music tastes, therefore it's hard for me to find my music genre on CDs. Perhaps if the RIAA was doing a better job of classifying things, I'd buy more cds.
I like Classical Music (i.e. Mozart, Beethoven, etc.). But when I go to Best Buy, what do I find in the "Classical" section? 80's classics, 90's rock, etc. Last time I checked, Mozart lived in the seventeen hundreds.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
I bet they eventually sue ISPs. Common-carrier defense or no, they'll be a target. By not blocking 'x' ports, they are willfully facilitating copyright infringement by their user base. Or even universities, for allowing students to violate copyright with government funded networks.
After that, it'll be individual users. A few high profile examples of Gnutella users with 40GB of music shared from an always-on cable connection being carted off to jail in cuffs, and that'll scare the pants off some people.
It's gonna get ugly. The RIAA should get the ATF to raid the homes. That'd be good tv.
Software Wars
Download the acclaimed Ad Aware program here. It searches your registry and all your drives for running and installed spyware programs. It works great.
is the solution, assuming it can be enforced.
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
Brilliant Digital and Sharman have common employees. There is a definite financial link between the two. Look at the whois for sharmannetworks.com, and note the owner -- Phil Morle. Now, look at his site, creations.morle.com, and check out his employer.
Now that you're on the Brilliant Digital site, check out their 'Anti-Piracy Statement':
BDE has embedded proprietary encryption technology capable of tracking all copyright infringements.
Combine that with their known partners -- Time Warner among them -- and you have a possible international conspiracy...
Now we know why the RIAA wanted laws changed to allow them to hack p2p networks. Of course, they never did get it passed....
Maybe someone would care to help me understand. Do these business owners not expect their companies to fail or at least run into numerous legal obstacles? They may argue some principle that "information WANTS to be free" or something, but in the end what they are doing, I believe, is couterproductive. Music is not software, you can't give it away... especially when it technically belongs to someone else.
There are some merits to these p2p networks though. For instance I could have never collected some 150 Simpsons episodes without Gnutella and Scour. And of course as they come out on DVD I will buy them, good God its the SIMPSONS how could I not. I also doubt very seriously I could have found a lot of live recordings of Woodie Guthrie or Nirvana.
I suspect Kazaa, Morpheus, etc. will all end up as Gnutella client apps. Looks like Morpheus "Preview Edition" already has.
sig
The Morpheous people always seem to say that they just took the core as a black box, skinned it and released it. I find it hard to believe that they were able to do this without at least one or two tech people taking a peek at how it works. There must be someone technical that knows the protocol and know the app who can shed some useful light on the situation.
Fast Track associated spyware can still be removed by several utilities. Rather than hunting down each .DLL, you should simply download and run one of the utilities (which will clean out your system registry as well as .DLL and executables).
One good place for information is here, and a good utility by Lavasoft is available here.
I have not yet installed the new Morpheus client, but a report I read said that at least the latest Kazaa client is still installing these, even with the checkboxes for installing Gator, etc., left empty.
(email addr is at acm, not mca)
We are Number One. All others are Number Two, or lower.
--The Sphinx
It's a redirected goatse link. Damn. I'm at work too. I'm glad the boss isn't here.
:)
Mod parent appropriately. Thnx!
Come on now, does Britney Spears and Metallica really have that much importance that they have to have all this rights and laws? Hell, this world would be better off without them. I say we all band together and create an Act which bans such horrible music from being distributed throughout several different means of medium.
"you sonofabitch i didn't know!"
There is. Just give Joe Pesci a call, he'll clear up those quality issues for ya.
Amazing what you can do with just a piece of sports equipment.
Alright, RIAA, we give up! Where can I drop off my $10/month for Napster? We totally promise not to work on any underground schemes to subvert your pay-per-music system(s).
------
Today's Top Deals
Sharman Network/Brilliant Digital/KaZaA have finally responded to accusations that they were behind the attack on Morpheus. In an interview with the LA Times a spokeswomen for KaZaA, Kelly Larabee, said the company had nothing to do with Morpheus' network problems adding that we have no reason to have them go away. We'd rather them stay on FastTrack.
Morpheus being attacked by a coordinated effort by KaZaa and Grokster:
2 00 2b.php
0 2. story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbusiness
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/articles/auto/0301
and the response from KaZaa
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000015607mar
loz
It seems as though a Kevin Burmeister is involved in all this.
Read his bio here.
He had big success running Sierra's game distribution in Australia.
But then there is Sega World, a recently failed game theme park in downtown Sydney. And look, Nikki Hemming was CEO there. They were being sued by their tenants, too, for failing to deliver business.
While I'm searching, here is a Sydney article about the Kazaa/Sharman connection.
Then there is BDE, their failed 3d techology that started as a multipath-movie game idea that failed many times. Check their stock price. It failed at retail, even when it had Wal-Mart distribution, it failed online, even when it was on warner bros site, and it is making a last ditch effort as a banner technology. This is when they first started bundling their player with morpheus. Last year the morpheus download name changed to have a "-b3d" at the end.
It will be interesting if these shadowy folk will make a success after their failures.
Who do these guys think they are? I wonder how these guys sleep at night. Oh yeah, with pillows of money. They are the tool that allows big recording companies to take advantage of the artist and the people who buy their albums.
So how does downloading music for free respect the rights of the artists who created it?
Well it does, to roughly the same degree as downloading legally purchased music from RIAA sites as documented here. If only every fourth music enthusiast were to send the artists one penny, the artists would still come out way ahead siding with the copyright violators than they would siding with the music cartels. If only one in four hundred send the artists a dollar using fairtunes, the artists come out ahead.
So called music pirates have nothing on the media cartels when it comes to causing the artist direct. verifiable, and potent financial harm, indeed based on the corrilation of P2P usage and CD sales, quite the opposite.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
The judge decides to install Kazaa on his laptop to see how it works, then the judge cannot get rid of the damned monkey. Then he sentences the monkey to life in prison.
for proving that your "P2P" network really is centrally controlled. That was quite a stunt, kicking all those Morpheus users off, then trying to lure them back into the network to use Kazaa.
I really hope the majority of people see right through this, choose Morpheus(and therefore gnutella), and I hope this gets fast track shut down.
Its not true P2P if someone can flip a switch and cut everyone off. P2P is supposed to have no central control so when these programs become illegal(and there's no doubt they will shut them down if they can) they will live on because the network will still be there, and hopefully the project will also still be there living on in some enlightened country without industry sponsored politicians and the DMCA.
No, Thursday's out. How about never - is never good for you?
With the death of Napster, we saw the influx of several better mechanisms for getting music. Gnutella provided more anonymity, Morpheus and friends provided more filetypes, and Audiogalaxy provided more convenience.
It's time for the current, shoddy, slow networks based around central servers to die, however. Too many duplicate, badly named files, too many incompletes, and that evil necessity of downloading from a particular person instead of just downloading a particular file.
I hope that with the eventual death of these amateurish networks we will see the rise of something more robust that makes my porn downloading less of a chore.
The new Morpheus is assumed to have spyware and tracking built into it, right? Well... It's GPL'd and the source code is available... So... _IS_ there tracking?
On a related note, how do we know that the source code available is actually the same that was used to compile the binary version available for download?
No they will, see without them...they wouldn't have written the languages or programs that allowed the people to program to access or create the ports for the "piracy" software to work. Next, they'll go after WSFTP for creating the FTP software that access the illigal warez sites, and then MIRC for being one of the fist programs to use DCC conections for transfering files.
On and on and on and on...I think you get the idea. Tell me it isn't plausible.
Om, nomnomnom...
>Music is not software, you can't give it away... >especially when it technically belongs to >someone else.
Oh please, get a life.
I've been taping the Top 40 countdown on my tape decks for 20 years to play in my car....
and I dont feel guilty since theyve added a tax on blank media that go to the artists (say that with a straight face)
Ill put up the quality of my tapes against any of those crappy 128kpbs version that float on P2P's.
Make sure you disactivate your Record buttons on all your appliances.
As for your P2P collections of Simpsons, whats the difference between DL'ing Family Guy and Futurama from P2P's with the commercials already removed and videotaping it on TV?
I managed to DL all 49Family Guy episodes in under a month ( I wasnt trying too hard) and got rid of the VHS tapes I had it on previously.
Why such a big deal because I did this through P2P's?
I have NO intention of buying the DVD's (Im not a DVD queen..its a tv show after all), which somehow makes it morally wrong?
Its also morally wrong to tape TV shows too and I dont see many people getting in a tizzy over taht anymore....
The major difference between both ways of archiving is that the P2P way is much....MUCH faster than waiting for the shows to appear on TV....thats all.
Photoshop Elements. As far as I've seen from reading the box in the local CompUSA, its Photoshop without the nice print stuff like CMYK. Same interface, same core set of image tools and plugins.
Bleh!
We are plesed to inform you that, after careful consideration, we have accepted your troll into the Troll Library.
You show a masterful skill at trolling.
Thank you for your time and your contribution.
As far as your (and other peoples') argument that they wouldn't make as much money if they sold Photoshop for $50 - take a look at the guy who invented the Ginsu knife! Sure, they could charge $100s just like Heinkel or Chicago, but they only charged like $20 for a complete set of knives. They made *millions* by selling *lots* of knives at $20. Adobe could make a lot more money by selling *lots* of licenses for Photoshop @ $50 than they do now at $1000/license.
...just like I feel that BMWs and Mercedes-Benz autos are to expensive for the value.
First, I'd like to challenge that idea. Provide me with data on how much Ginsu knives made, they may not have made as much money after all of the television advertizin' they bought.
Second, there is an issue with your comparison to Heckels, Chicago, or Onan knives and mail-order Ginsu. Once again, one is professional grade, one is consumer grade. The differences between a drop forged steel knife and a serrated stainless are more than insignifigant. It is better, so it is priced higher. Whether you feel the cost warrants a personal value enough to be worth it, that is your decision.
Photoshop is a professional product, that requires professional feedback, developmet, and tool sets... unfortunately, that costs buku bucks to get done. Obvious Asian Rim piracy aside, it is a professional tool for professionals. It has professional costs, it also has professional development costs... and it functions well. So therefore it goes at professional prices. If it cost triple, people would buy it because it is indespensible, the true hallmark of its value.
As far as software goes, it is good, and worth the money... so therefore it has a high price.
Classic supply and demand.
I would like it cheaper too to own it. But there is a reason it costs so much.
I'd be willing to bet more than a few dollars on the fact that Adobe, not unlike the music industry, benefits greatly from piracy. People learn Photoshop, and they go on to foster the de facto standard that is Adobe Photoshop in the commercial graphics design realm.
IANAAdobeTROLL, but the reason why photo is so good is that from a design standpoint, it is practically transparent... meaning easy to learn and operate. Most other "inferior" programs are designed off of their principles, therefore this need to learn argument needs work.
You're not taking that in context--it was a symbolic act for the first century disciples. It's meanings aren't that hard to discipher; e.g. that the early disciples would be expected to still live Christian lives in un-Christian times.
I should think that by now we would have seen the emergence of a new application/service to bridge the gnutella/kazaa P2P networks perhaps along with some other, smaller networks much like how Jabber did with Instant messenging.
I'd be surprised if no one had as of yet reverse-engineered the Kazaa-developed protocols, and moving from there to a unified application appears on face to be simple. I was thinking about this as I was about to download Kazaa (having already downloaded the new morpheus and being less than impressed with it) and wondering how affected the Kazaa P2P network is since the morpheus user base departure.
A single, unified P2P application would obviously have a huge number of advantages (hopefully no spyware/trojans/etc) and with luck, would be GPL'd for added amusement. If anyone's interested in building the lagest P2P network in history (and making porn easier to find and download) please feel free; but don't expect it from me anytime soon, as my time is currently about as limited as my intellect.
----
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
is it just me or does anyone else remember the days of sneeking around to swap files on a BBS? FTP's still do exist right??
When exactly did it become socially acceptable to launch multimillion dollar corperations based on Pirating Music/Software/Pornography ??? I'm not trying to be a hipocrit or anything cause my MP3/Warez/Porn collection could impress even the geekiest of geeks, but if I opened a "Stolen Goods & Porn Store" and advertised it on TV, I would be expecting a knock on the door from the police.
People will always :
1.Burn red lights
2.Lie to the IRS (Revenue Canada)
3.Steel Music
The idea is that you don't go around announcing it to everyone !!
I think a lot of time is wasted complaining about Adobe, MS etc and their prices and practices etc etc. Spend the energy helping to create something better, that is OSS.
BTW, pricing policies are based on simple economics (as many people have pointed out). It's the same concept used to set speeding fines: how can we extract the most income from here to infinity. So arguments like, they could sell a billion copies for $1 and make more money don't stand up.
Companies and individuals have a right to make as much money as they can, within the letter of the law. And setting prices at a certain level is not morally wrong or illegal. Perhaps the problem is that people ACCEPT ps as the default standard: "Oh, I wish I could get Photoshop..." etc etc. Why? Why even complain about it? This sort of mind set just embeds the concept that Photoshop is THE only program, and that, well, I have a right to it because I've used it for so long. How dare the copyright holders charge me for it's use! Move on. Contribute to the GIMP project if you feel so strongly about it.
http://cexx.org/dummies.htm - CD_CLINT dummy binary and source (.zip)
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.