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."

Comments

I should start a company called 'Brilliant'

[MattRog]

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.)

The more the RIAA tightens its grip...

[Bonker]

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.

Re:The RIAA will gain the upper hand

[mystery_bowler]

I agree. If you think for a moment you (as a business or conglomerate thereof) are going to make a mint providing the means to pirate, you're sadly mistaken. Sure, you might make some money. Maybe even pretty good money. But if you start showing as a blip on the RIAA's earnings radar, you and your lawyers are going to find yourself first very busy and second out of business.

RIAA shows how evil it really is.

[Your_Mom]

"We do not intend to stand idly by while others build business illegally off of our music," said Matt Oppenheim

Call me old fashioned, but I always thought that music might belong to people that created, for example, maybe.... The artists?

Brilliant Digital controls Kazaa, tracks piracy.

[Templar]

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....

Re:Make it affordable

[joe52]

Why does it have to be affordable? I can't just fiddle with a $50,000 Sun box because I'm curious (unless I happen to have legitimate access to one or went out and cracked into or simply stole one). I'd like to drive a Porshe, but I drive a Honda instead since that's what I can afford.

There's no reason why someone has to make their products affordable to you. Photoshop sells pretty well at its current price. If you can't afford it there are alternatives, both in the form of cheaper programs that do less (PaintShop Pro comes to mind) as well as in open source alternatives (gimp). I'm sure that the kind people at Adobe have considered the fact that they could sell more licenses if they sold Photoshop for $50, but I'm also pretty sure that they think they wouldn't make as much money that way (which is something that they should be allowed to do).

KaZaA Owners Respond to Morpheus Attack

[Jagasian]

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.

Thanks Kazaa/Fast Track

[Pinball Wizard]

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.

Re:Kazaa and Spyware

[DmitriA]

Don't remove it. Replace cd_clint.dll (Cydoor's spyware) that's in your Windows system directory with your own DLL that exports the same functions but does not do anything when they are called.

Here is the source for a replacement DLL (shamelessly stolen from someone who didn't bother to leave his name in the source):

#include <windows.h>

extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) int ServiceShow(int,int,int,HWND,int,int,int,int, int,void*,void*);
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) int ServiceClose(int,HWND,void*);
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void ChannelRead(int AdwrCode, char* ChannelIn, int Resv1,int Resv2);
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void ChannelWrite(int AdwrCode, char* ChannelOut, int Resv1, int Resv2);
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void DescWrite(int BitStart, int BitLen, int Val, int Resv1, int Resv2);

void ChannelWrite(int AdwrCode, char* ChannelOut, int Resv1, int Resv2)
{
// Nothing to do here.
}

void ChannelRead(int AdwrCode, char* ChannelIn, int Resv1,int Resv2)
{
// Nothing to do here.
}

int ServiceShow(int AdwrCode, int LoctNum, int LoctIndx, HWND hWnd, int X, int Y, int LenX, int LenY, int Mode, void *General1, void *General2)
{
// Return true to tell the host application the call succeeded.
return 1;
}

int ServiceClose(int LoctIndx, HWND hWnd, void* General2)
{
// Return true to tell the host application the call succeeded.
return 1;
}

void DescWrite(int BitStart, int BitLen, int Val, int Resv1, int Resv2)
{
// Nichts zu tun
}

int WINAPI DllEntryPoint(HINSTANCE hinst, unsigned long reason, void*)
{
return 1;
}

I'm confused

[Kallahar]

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?