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Distributed Computing Program Hidden in Kazaa
The_THOMAS writes: "A federal securities filing Monday revealed that the hugely downloaded Kazaa P2P (file sharing) software contains a piggyback program which will create a second, new, network controlled by Brilliant Digital. They plan to awaken the software, already on millions of computers, within the next four weeks. The program will be used to host and distribute other companies' content and may be used for distributed computing. Read the details here."
Which is better...something that reports back your habits, or something that uses spare cycle time for something constructive?
Joe
Yes! I finally have the score +1 bonus! I am so damn 1337! ph33r my skillz!
if you ask me, all the pirates running kazaa deserve what they have coming. let the one with kazaa who doesn't have any illegal mp3's on their computer be the first to flame.
Oh my god!!! I have never heard of such a thing
I thought the April Fool's joke submissions were over...
with all the bullshit posted today, its hard to tell if this is real or not.
i barely even browse internet on april 1 anymore. its that freaking stupid.
Joseph?
They should reimburse end users for processing time, from the money they earn doing so. And of course, this must be strictly opt-in.(Yet I wouldn't run it strictly for the fact that it's disgusting business practices.)
To rip, mix and burn their customers...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
No file sharing software contains spyware!
P2P = good
Distributed computing = good
p2p + distributed computing = bad.
This reminds me of something my dad once told me regarding his school lunch as a boy. Just because kids like spaghetti, and kids like peanut butter, doesn't mean they'll like spaghetti and peanut butter.
Isn't this just _days_ after a European court ruled it legal?
Ohh the irony.
This actually sounds like a really cool thing, but my qualm with it lies in tha fact that they would be using MY bandwidth to "to host and distribute other companies' content, such as advertising or music. Alternatively, it might borrow people's unused processing power to help with other companies' complicated computing tasks."
I don't like the idea of this network siphoning MY bandwidth (that some may have a monthly limit on) for their purposes. And yes, I do understand that they said "with the owner's permission" but what's to say they're not just saying that as a "cover my ass" line?
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
Unfortunately, the clause to allow kazaa to use your CPU cycles has been around since the day morpheus came out..
Time to switch to giFT!
Are we sure this isn't april fools stuff?
as stuffing a browser in your operating system!
Witness the rebirth of ENRON!
tcd004
While ignorance is no excuse, that seems the only one given that Kazaa/Brilliant apparently tip users off to this crazy strategem in the user agreement. That said, I can't understand how this isn't a trojan -- installing an app with no explicit warning on a third-party computer? Shame, shame.
I hope Kazaa users with get a monthly check for CPU and bandwidth consumption from their theftware. Or maybe the money will go to... pay the RIAA/MPAA tax, so "shared files" will be free, and legal, to the user.
I'll bet not.
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
If a trojan program is useful, does that make it any less of a trojan? Where do you draw the line? To my mind, people have downloaded a program, expecting it to do one thing, and really it has a payload that con do something completely different... Makes me wonder what else the makers of this 'brilliant' scheme aren't telling us about it :-)
I am artificially intelligent.
According to their licensing agreement, they're allowed to use any extra storage space and/or cpu usage. What happens if you run out of space on your HD because of this and delete their files? Could they have the right to say that you aren't allowed to delete these files because it's their intellectual property?
At the very least, they should let you have a large discount on downloads when you opt-in. For example make them free. Plus a credit based on the bandwidth they steal *cough* use.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
don't know if this is april fools or not. don't care. point is, this will happen eventually whether kazaa be the perpetrator or not. what i want to know is, disregarding whether the user gives his permission (article claims it must be given), can this really be a bad thing? and how can it be a good thing?
and this is a 1st april's joke....
I don't know if I should be impressed or pissed...and I use a Mac.
At least they are actually taking the stand point of having this be an opt-in action, and actually telling people about the software and what it will be doing before it activates. Although they did piggyback to get the program onto other systems, it is nice to see that they are not going to steal cpu cycles without permission.
...a beowulf of these :) j/k
Happy April Fools everyone! My favorite one was about google's PCs (Pigeon Cluster).
-Jeff
4-1 aside and all this cant be true... i checked my cpu load while the app was idle and it was 0%... sorry... but that IS a good idea...
unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
Sneaking software onto peoples computers to create a good relationship with users ? ... or did they mean a good relationship with b3d's clients?
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Once the client starts receiving and transmitting data it shouldn't be hard to get a rough idea of what's being transmitted and then we can start sending duff data to their servers.
It doesn't matter whether we know what the data is or not, it just going to be a binary chunk with probably a checksum somewhere. Fill their servers with random data and see how long they want to continue using our resources
0xB
i beleive kazaa has been harvesting cpu cycles since the inception of thier latest version. any time i run kazaa it sucks up all my cpu. see for yourself : http://www.jukashi.com/kazaasucks.png
I find it very sad, that companies will trick the user into installing the software without the knowledge. I mean, how many users would mind a spare cycle burner to help the service they like. I mean if they included the abviosly visible message (not hidden inside license agreements) saying something like "We are providing this service free of cost to you, but in return, this service will install software that will use your computer while it is not being actively used by you, and only while kazaa is running. Unfortunately, if you do not wish to run this program you will not be able to run kazaa as our finances depend on it. We promise that no information about you or your files will be used." If such a message came from a company with not a bad reputation (winamp comes to mind), i would install the program, as would many other users, adn both parties gain. When it is done in secret, it only damages the company rep, thus making it even harder for them to make money..
Furthermore, it seems that the wasted cpu tiem is becoming a precious commodity, which I am currently donating to seti, with no financial compension (in other words I am not selling the cpu time). I wonder how long till the government will accept donated cpu time as a real donation, so i can put it on my tax return....hmmm, i am thinking about at least a dollar per unit, and i am now at 780 units, that makes it 780$ deducted from taxes, and if it is a dollar per hour....
that could be a hefty some for stuff donated to a good cause....
maybe someone at seti would give me a receipt...hey, that would mean more people doing units for them...could be beneficial to both sides...
badness 10000
I realize that this is an "opt-in" program, but it could just as easily been something else written by a disgruntled employee. And who would have known?
Mmmmmmm. Floor pie!
...someone starts distributing a program that disables the distributed client and simply returns garbage to the 'master' server?
It'd be funny if such a program were created, and caught on.
It is still April First on the West Coast.
"Brilliant Digital CEO Kevin Bermeister says compa........"
every CEO wants to be know as a "Brilliant Digital CEO".
Does anyone actually have a Java program designed to control air traffic, or for the operation of a nuclear facility?
It's legit, irritatingly enough.
/system32 folders (if you're running Windoze)
The program hides itself in different locations all over your hard drive, including copies of itself in your OS root and
It's a bitch and a half to purge. There's no unistaller, and it's got dozens of registry entries to manually erase.
(Search for 'bde' and 'b3d' on your HD and your registry to make sure you get it all.)
I can only imagine the looks on people's faces when a gigantic 3D Cameron Diaz appears on people's computer screens and commandeers their system.
if he ate spinach, he'd be called spinach danson.
http://rockout.org
Unless they are hiding behind some ultra-fineprint legalese, I would say this is theft. They are stealing your computer resources, electricity and time without your permission.
I have always been suspicious of KaZaA so I never downloaded it. I am stragely glad that my coursework keeps me more busy than I need to be so I don't spend my time infecting my machine with spyware file sharing apps. (Must leave now ... assignment is due tomorrow.)
Me too (-;
mp3: l33t term for empty.
Dead giveaway in the URL. news.com.com
Reality has a liberal bias
I see great potential for fun here. Think about it, They rent out your hard drive to someone, who uses it host advertisment, or demoware or music. You, being the wiley Hacker guy, replace the content porno or pirated music/software and let the fun begin. Optionaly you can sue them for using your hardware and bandwidth for morally objectionable purposes.
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power - Benito Mussoli
A careful reading of the PATRIOT act, passed by congress established that any person who causes damage totaling $5,000 to any computer system or 'exceeding authority' granted on any computer involved in interstate commerce will be considered a terrorist, and be subject to a maximum of 10 years in prison for their first offense (20 for their second offense).
If this software utilized any cycles on my system, it will impact performance causing me expense which will rapidly increase to the $5000 threshold (a cumulative threshold). I granted no access nor privilage to use my systems, to any employee of Brilliant Digital Entertainment Inc. so as soon as any command is issued, affecting the behavior of any software installed on my computers, the employees and officers of Brilliant Digital Entertainment will imediately have become guilty of computer crimes under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as modified by the USA Patriot act.
--CTH
This is my personal reading of the existing legislation. I am not a lawyer, but this company will be guilty of multiple serious criminal offenses the moment they turn on their network.
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Programs like seti@home that use your space cpu cycles can conflict with other programs that act the same way. For example I had this compression program that would compress stuff with a low priority process. Since Seti and the compression program were both trying to use the spare cpu power, they didn't play well together.
Hacker Media
Don't do the April Fools wrap-up before Midnight.
Kazaa is starting to suck anyway lately, anyone else noticed?
Well let's see where to start.
First of all this isn't an April Fool's joke because it's already been posted a few weeks back.
Secondly, right now I run kazaalite because I suspected this distributed workload has already been started on kazaa. If I leave my computer doing absolutely nothing except download a few rare files it slows down enormously. Now I have an athlon 1,2 ghz w/ 128 mb of ram so this isn't supposed to slow down out of the blue. And on top of it navigation is horrible if kazaa is running. A dsl connection loads pages slightly faster than a 56k.
In short if you like using kazaa (as I do) but can no longer stand it's "features" then go get kazaalite.
"We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal."
Well, the question is, could something like this be used for other less desirable purposes.
I am thinking of everything from the Classic Napster to DDOS, reverse engineering, or what ever.
The long term trust issue is the point here. pre distributing this capability in the client in advance of notifying me is annoying in the extreme.
I have added the following features without asking sounds like an MS tactic.
watch Passport become a distributed computer app for MS development projects, for example.
feh.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
They managed to squeze one more in before the day was out. Check the domain name in the link: news.com.com ? That second .com is highly suspect...
Ah well. Reminds me of that SNL skit where the old folks get insurance against robot attacks.
I can cry and complain all day long that this is just wrong. It's immoral. It's subversive. It's sneaky, nasty, low-down, dirty, shitty, crappy, stinky and generally F'd up!! I can get a lot of people to respond in agreement I'm sure.
I want to hear from intelligent and thoughtful people about why they think this should be okay?
When I run a program, it's because I expect a desired result. The result is generally expected and that's why I run it. Among such programs are web browsers, email clients, video players, etc. I also use Bearshare.
I think it's a simple matter to include advertising in the client software and if it's free to use like Bearshare is, it's FAIR. I know it's there. It's pretty damned obvious. If I don't want to see the advertising I can either (a) not run it or (b) run the Borland resource editor and see if I can't pull the component out of the software causing me distraction. I don't to (b) because it's too much trouble and I don't mind it that much. I can't do (a) because I love getting random treasures from across the net from generous and often stupid people. (try searching for common filenames associated with personal files such as resumes or digital pictures... it's a hoot! Naked strangers! yeah!)
Anyway... I'm straying from my point. I'm writing to solicit intelligent and thoughtful rationales for adding 'secret software' into such programs.
How many of the installers actually read the agreement and what would you bet the software installs pre-opt-in? I'd like to see what anyone who has installed it has to say to describe this bit of up-front opting in. If it's buried in the end user agreement, then it's about as good as something Dr. Evil would dream up.
I'm currently fed up with what I'll call sneakware, that's pre-installed software on my 2 yr old laptop which has woken up and installed software and changed default settings. I caught Adobe Photo Deluxe changing itself when I went to edit some photos. I can't even figure out how to stop it, short of yanking the phone cord out of the modem when it goes to connect to websites. Bastards. Worst of it is that I actually need to use the software from time to time.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The opt-in seems to be buried into the terms of service agreement, say no, Kazaa doesn't install.
= 70 &u=/cn/20020402/tc_cn/stealth_p2p_network_hides_in side_kazaa
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid
"You hereby grant (Brilliant) the right to access and use the unused computing power and storage space on your computer/s and/or Internet access or bandwidth for the aggregation of content and use in distributed computing," the terms of service read. "The user acknowledges and authorizes this use without the right of compensation."
"Anybody who declines this provision is not able to install the Kazaa file-swapping software."
"A representative for Sharman, which distributes the Kazaa software, could not be reached for comment."
"Privacy-rights advocates contacted for comment expressed some concern about the way the Altnet software has been distributed and about whether the millions of people who already have it installed on their computers will be tech-savvy enough to know what they're agreeing to when and if Brilliant does ask to use their computers."
There's a little hope: the article is dated Mon Apr 1,10:13 PM ET.
Gnucleus is a FAST, open-source window$ client in a relatively stable state right now. It also works in Wine, from what I hear. It has lots of features not present in slower clients like Limewire and, being open-source, doesn't lock out other clients like BearShare does. Morpheus has switched its entire network to Gnutella on a modified Gnucleus client, so there is no longer the "lack of files" excuse for using a proprietary network instead of gnutella. If you download it, be sure to "evolve" to version 1.6.3, as the version on the site is not very stable.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
KaZaA already take up 99.8% of my CPU usage I don't suppose that I would notes any difference.
It is already unbearable to play solitaire when KaZaA is running. GO AHEAD YOU TRY TO GET THAT 0.2% MORE OUT OF MY SYSTEM.
and if you are wondering 1.2 Athlon - 512 ram so i don't think it is my system.
"History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there." - George Santayanna
OK lots of people use these types of programs, so what if this was put in each one, then the distributed time sold to companies? The money could then go to the RIAA/MPAA. If every user of this software let it run 24/7, this might be a fair way of doing things.
Of course, this would have to be with the user's consent.
The fact is this software DOES cause damage to artists and the RIAA/MPAA. Maybe this would be a good way of offsetting the damage without paying a tax/tarriff/fee.
"Everybody will get turned on in more or less a simultaneous fashion," Bermeister said. "This will be an opt-in program...We're trying to create a secure network based on end-user relationships."
And they're off to a wonderful start, inserting unwanted software into end-users' computers secretly.
What I want to know, is how will everyone be turned on in a "simultaneous fashion", and yet still be "opt-in"? Or do they call installing Kazaa (who already has a history of not imforming users of sleazy practices) "opting in"? How can they call it an "opt-in program", if I didn't ask to have it installed, or wasn't even informed it was going to be installed?
If this software utilized any cycles on my system, it will impact performance causing me expense which will rapidly increase to the $5000 threshold (a cumulative threshold).
Not if it's niced down to the lowest priority. I see zero performance impact even on my Windows ME box from running the distributed.net client.
Will I retire or break 10K?
would cnet news put in a joke story?
doubt it. they are supposed to be a serious site after all. And printing fake business news can get you in trouble.
nope its real.
But the Kazaa story is also on www.news.com.
It looks like cnet owns the .com.com domain, too:
Registrant:
CNET Networks, Inc (COM2994-DOM)
235 2nd Street
San Francisco, CA 94104
US
Domain Name: COM.COM
As for without your opinion, how about looking over whatever license or installment agreement you just happened to click through quick just to get it up and running... Though they may not hold much water, it's another bit up the hill for you and your actual lawyer to run, when you go to prosecute.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
A serious business, with a serious business model, will have to rely on its users returning to them to do business again and again. Only persons trying to rip people off can afford to tick people off while delivering their message. (Spam anyone?)
People do not care if it's a good cause; they don't want programs that
What are they thinking ? Such things create enough badwill to have people ignore whatever good comes out of it.
It's like those sites that take a misspelling of a popular url and trap the browser, goes into full screen, opens 20 new windows etc etc. No one is stupid enough to say to themselves "Hey this looks like a good place to enter my credit card number!"
Online entrepreneurs that have a legit long-term business plan (yeah, I know it's an oxymoron...) will have to realize that goodwill is more important online than irl.
Oh, I can't help quoting you because everything that you said rings true
I quit using Kazaa many months ago. There are a ton of alternatives out there. However, many of them suck. In my opinion, these are the best:
Blubster - This is what I use. Selection is good. Speed is excellent.
WinMX - Pretty good. Selection is excellent. Speed and availability are not good.
Xolox - Excellent Gnutella client with NO SPYWARE. Selection is excellent. Speed is excellent (it can download from multiple sources at once).
The best part of the license agreement is this:
"KaZaA reserves the right to change or modify any of the terms and conditions of this licence and any of the policies governing the Software at any time in its sole discretion without direct notice to you. Your continued use of the Software following these changes will constitute your acceptance of such changes."
I'm curious to hear from the attorneys in the crowd: is it even remotely possible that this would hold up in court?
"One empirical experiment is worth a thousand expert opinions." -Bill Nye
Considering all the untapped cycles out there and the exhibited utility of distributed projects already out there, this might turn out to be a really good thing.
Hopefully this works, and then someone develops a scheme that re-imburses users for their cycles. These types of skimming attempts will then crash as people migrate to the payback systems. Payback systems are also more likely to recruit even more people for a larger base. Once it goes economic, there hopefully will be more oversight and thus privacy protection and wotnot.
Etc, etc, ad nauseam, and so on and so forth.
that kazaa is crapware...
and made for an equally crappy platform.
you get what you deserve.
i would like to coin a term for this practice. Compulsory P2P. Sounds catchy, doesnt it?
Oh No...
Lets think about this
If i want to "borrow" music where do i go? Kazaa, like millions of people.
If I want to use most computer programs, where do I go? Windows, like almost everybody else.
Microsoft is not the only one that is bundling in software that we don't want.
Lets think about this, If i want to "borrow" music where do i go? Kazaa, like millions of people.
If I want to use most computer programs, where do I go? Windows, like almost everybody else.
If I want my computer to run as someone elses processeor, don't they think it would be out searching for Ewoks in the Planet endor as we speak with SETI@home?
Well, let me just confirm what the article said...most college students really will not care about this. Here is a list of things college students care about:
-Sleeping
-Drinking
-Eating
-Girls (or boys)
-Downloading music
There are a lot of things on this list before "the usage of their extra CPU cycles".
I applaud Kazaa for finding a way to utilize the apathy of America's university students, and I applaud America's university students for that apathy!
Whose prank is this, anyway? :D
http://www.refosearch.tk/
Kazaa Lite is just as good as Kazaa without the spyware! I downloaded it other day and its works great! Check it out.
You'll have a dummy dll file installed with Kazaa Lite "cd_clint.dll".
-- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
You might have tried something like this already, but if not download or buy a package that monitors programs that try to access anything through TCP/IP and warns you when a program is trying to do something you haven't authorized over the network. Tiny Personal Firewall has worked out pretty well for me and is free for home use. It works in most cases, unless the application has a legit reason to use a particular port and also uses it for something you wouldn't expect. Adobe Photo Deluxe doesn't sound like it'd fit into that category, however...
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
April.. Fools? Please?
It's not too clear though when you agree though. Before this, in the article, he seems to say that you will be asked when they turn their network on if you want to participate..
basically, a lot of computing power will be put in the hands of marketdroids, and we'll be the worse for it -i dont see them offering to pay my bandwidth bill...
This is the official Kazaa license from Kazaa.com as of 4/2/02, 0018 hours, Eastern time.
Welcome to KaZaA. It is important that you carefully read these terms before installing the KaZaA Media Desktop software.
These terms when accepted by you form a license ("License") agreement between Sharman Networks Limited ("KaZaA") and you ("You," "Your" Or "User") for the use of the KaZaA Media Desktop ("KaZaA Media Desktop").
In order to use KaZaA Media Desktop, you must first read and accept the terms of this Licence, and confirm your acceptance of the terms of this Licence by pressing the 'Yes' button on the KaZaA Media Desktop download screen. If you are a minor you will become eligible to use KaZaA Media Desktop upon your parent or guardian reading and accepting the terms of this Licence and confirming acceptance of the terms of this Licence by pressing the 'Yes' button on the KaZaA download screen.
IF YOU PRESS THE 'NO' BUTTON ON THE KAZAA DOWNLOAD SCREEN YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO INSTALL THE SOFTWARE.
1. What you can do under this license
2. What you can't do under this license
3. More Do's and Don'ts
4. Things you need to know when using KaZaA
5. Things you need to do when using KaZaA
6. Payment and Fees
7. Copyright Infringement
8. KaZaA's right to run advertising without payment to users
9. Links to third party sites
10. Third party Software
11. Applicable Law
12. Points to consider for international use
13. Indemnification
14. Disclaimers of Warranties
15. Limitation of Liability
16. Changes to or suspension of use of software
17. Termination
18. Trade marks
19. Miscellaneous
1. What you can do under this license
1.1 Subject to all the terms of this Agreement, KaZaA grants you a limited, non-exclusive, personal, non-sublicensable, non-assignable license to install and use the KaZaA Media Desktop and any future fixes, updates and upgrades provided to you (collectively, the "Software") on a computer.
1.2 Use of the Software is subject to all of the terms of this Agreement.
1.3 Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features that augment or enhance the current Software, including the release of new KaZaA properties, shall be subject to terms of this License.
1.4 You own the media on which the Software is recorded but KaZaA retains title to the Software. The Software in this package, or that which you have downloaded, as applicable and any copies which this License authorizes you to make, are subject to this License.
2 What you can't do under this license
You may make copies of the Software only for your personal use and may not sell or transfer the Software or any copy of the Software to any party without our express written consent.
You agree not to use the Software to:
2.1 Transmit any Data that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
2.2 Harm minors in any way;
2.3 Impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
2.4 Forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any data transmitted to other users;
2.5 Transmit or access any data that you do not have a right to transmit under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under non-disclosure agreements);
2.6 Transmit or access any data that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;
2.7 Transmit any data that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
2.8 Disrupt the normal flow of dialogue, cause a screen to "scroll" faster than other users are able to type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to engage in real time exchanges;
2.9 Interfere with or disrupt the Software or servers or networks connected to the Software, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of networks connected to the Software;
2.10 Intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law, including securities exchange and any regulations having the force of law;
2.11 Monitor traffic or make search requests in order to accumulate information about individual users.
2.12 "Stalk" or otherwise harass another; or
2.13 Collect or store personal data about other users. You acknowledge and agree that KaZaA may preserve data and may also disclose data if required to do so by law or if it in good faith believes that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to:
2.13.1 comply with legal process;
2.13.2 enforce this License;
2.13.3 respond to claims that any data violates the rights of third-parties; or
2.13.4 protect the rights, property, or personal safety of KaZaA, its users and the public.
3 More Do's and Don'ts
3.1 This License allows you to install and use the KaZaA Media Desktop on a single computer. This License does not permit you to install the Software on more than one computer at a time. You may make one copy of the Software in machine-readable form for backup purposes only. The backup copy must include all copyright information contained on the original.
3.2 Except as expressly permitted in this License, 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 KaZaA Media Desktop Software in whole or part or transmit the application over a network.
You may, however, transfer your rights under this License provided you transfer the related documentation, this License and a copy of the KaZaA software to a party who agrees to accept the terms of this License and destroy any other copies of the Software in your possession.
Your rights under this License will terminate automatically without prior notice from KaZaA if you fail to comply with any term(s) of this License.
4. Things you need to know when using KaZaA
4.1 You are responsible for paying all applicable taxes and other costs you may incur in connection with your use of KaZaA including but not limited to all hardware and software and providing all equipment and software necessary to connect to our web site and to use KaZaA via the Internet and any royalties or other charges relating to the use of data owned by third parties.
4.2 We may add, delete or change some or all of the Software's functionality provided in connection with KaZaA at any time. This may include download of necessary software modules. Any new features that augment or enhance
4.3 By accepting the terms of this License you agree that KaZaA is permitted to limit, deny, create different priorities to different users, update or cancel some or all of the functionality of this application at any time, without prior notice.
4.4 KaZaA reserves the right to change or modify any of the terms and conditions of this licence and any of the policies governing the Software at any time in its sole discretion without direct notice to you. Your continued use of the Software following these changes will constitute your acceptance of such changes.
4.5 You acknowledge that KaZaA or parties appointed by KaZaA may from time to time provide programming fixes, updates and upgrades to you, including automatic updates to the KaZaA Media Desktop, through automatic electronic dissemination and other means. You consent to such automatic updates and agree that the terms and conditions of this Agreement will apply to all such updates.
5 Things you need to do when using KaZaA
It is your responsibility to ensure that you obtain all consents, authorizations and clearances in any data owned or controlled by third parties that you transmit or access using KaZaZ Media Desktop. KaZaA does not control (and therefore has no knowledge of) any data accessed or transmitted through KaZaA Media Desktop.
5.1 KaZaA will not be liable in any way:
5.1.1 for any errors or omissions in any data, or for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of any data transmitted via the software; or
5.1.2 if you are exposed to data that is offensive, indecent or objectionable.
6 Payment and fees
6.1 Certain features of the KaZaA Media Desktop may require payment in the future including a prepaid fee ("Prepaid Fee").
The Prepaid Fee, and all taxes and other fees related thereto will be paid by you in advance.
You shall pay all fees and charges incurred through your account at the rates in effect for the billing period in which such fees and charges are incurred. All fees and charges shall be billed to you, and you shall be solely responsible for their payment.
You shall pay all applicable taxes relating to the use of the Software through your account.
If you do not pay the applicable fees, including Prepaid Fees, within the prescribed period of time your account will be terminated immediately, without limiting KaZaA's right to demand payment of fees and damages at a later time.
7 Copyright Infringement
KaZaA respects copyright and other laws. KaZaA requires all KaZaA Media Desktop users to comply with copyright and other laws.
As a condition to use KaZaA media desktop, you agree that you will not use KaZaA 's software to infringe the intellectual property or other rights of others, in any way. The unauthorized copy, distribution, modification, public display, or public performance of copyrighted works is an infringement of the copyright holders' rights.
7.1 Users should not use the KaZaA software to obtain any personal information about any KaZaA users or to modify, delete or damage any information contained on the personal computer of any KaZaA media desktop user.
7.2 Users are entirely responsible for their conduct and for ensuring that it comports with all applicable laws, including all copyright and data-protection laws. In the event a user fails to comply with laws regarding copyrights or other intellectual property rights and data-protection and privacy, such a user may be exposed to civil and criminal liability, including possible fines and jail time.
8 KaZaA's Right to Run Advertising without payment to Users
8.1 KaZaA reserves the right to run advertisements and promotions on the KaZaA Media Desktop.
8.2 By accepting the terms of this Licence, you agree that we have the right to run such advertisements and promotions without compensation to you.
8.3 The timing, frequency, placement and extent of advertising by us within the pages comprising your KaZaA account is subject to change and shall be determined by us at our sole discretion.
8.4 Your correspondence or business dealings with, or participation in promotions of, advertisers found on or through the KaZaA web sites or KaZaA Media Desktop, including payment and delivery of related goods or services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such advertiser.
8.5 You agree that KaZaA will not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as the result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such advertisers on the KaZaA Media Desktop.
9 Links to Third-Party Sites
9.1 The KaZaA Media Desktop may provide, or third parties may provide, links to World Wide Web sites or other Internet resources. Any third-party sites to which the KaZaA Media Desktop may link are not under control of KaZaA. KaZaA does not have any responsibility or liability for any information, data, communications or materials available on such third-party sites.
10 Third Party Software
10.1 During the process of installing KaZaA, you may be offered the possibility to download or install software from third party software vendors pursuant to licenses or other arrangements between such vendors and yourself ("Third Party Software"). In the event you do not wish to download this THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE you should uncheck the appropriate boxes. Please note that the THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE is subject to different licenses or other arrangements, which you should read carefully, compared to the Terms of Use and License of KaZaA. By downloading and using this THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE you accept these THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE licenses or other arrangements and acknowledge that you have read them and understand them. KaZaA does not sell, resell, or license any of this THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, and KaZaA disclaims to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, any responsibility for or liability related to the THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE. Any questions, complaints or claims related to the THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE should be directed to the appropriate vendor.
10.2 The third party software is provided by KaZaA "as is" and "with all faults". KaZaA makes no representations or warranties of any kind concerning the quality, safety or suitability of this software, either express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event will KaZaA be liable for any indirect, punitive, special, incidental or consequential damages however they may arise and even if KaZaA has been previously advised of the possibility of such damages.
10.3 There are inherent dangers in the use of any software available for downloading on the Internet, and KaZaA cautions you to make sure that you completely understand the potential risks before downloading any of the THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE. You are solely responsible for adequate protection and backup of the data and equipment used in connection with any of the THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, and KaZaA will not be liable for any damages that you may suffer in connection with using, modifying or distributing any of the THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE.
11 Applicable Law
11.1 This License as well as all disputes arising out of or in connection with this Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the New South Wales, without regard to or application of choice of law rules or principles.
11.2 Any dispute arising out of or in connection with this License, or in future agreements resulting there from, shall be exclusively resolved before the competent court in New South Wales
12 Points to consider for International Use
12.1 Recognising the global nature of the Internet, you agree to comply with all local rules regarding on-line conduct and acceptable data. Specifically, you agree to comply with all applicable laws regarding copyright and the transmission of technical data exported from the country in which you reside.
13 Indemnification
13.1 YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY, HOLD HARMLESS AND DEFEND KAZAA, AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, AGENTS, CO-BRANDERS OR OTHER PARTNERS, AND EMPLOYEES, AT YOUR EXPENSE, AGAINST ANY AND ALL THIRD PARTY CLAIMS OR DEMANDS, ACTIONS, PROCEEDINGS AND SUITS AND ALL RELATED LIABILITIES, DAMAGES, SETTLEMENTS, PENALTIES, FINES COSTS AND EXPENSES (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, REASONABLE ATTORNEY'S FEES AND OTHER DISPUTE RESOLUTION EXPENSES) INCURRED BY KAZAA, DUE TO OR ARISING OUT OF DATA YOU SUBMIT, POST TO OR TRANSMIT THROUGH THE SOFTWARE, YOUR USE OR MISUSE OF THE SOFTWARE, YOUR CONNECTION TO OTHER USERS, YOUR VIOLATION OF THE LICENSE, OR YOUR VIOLATION OF ANY RIGHTS OF ANOTHER.
14 Disclaimers of Warranties
14.1 THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", AND ON AN "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS OR UNDER THE SPECIFIC PROVIDERS OWN TERMS AND THERE ARE NO CLAIMS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES MADE BY KAZAA, EITHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY (TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW), WITH RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NOR ARE THERE ANY WARRANTIES CREATED BY COURSE OF DEALING, COURSE OF PERFORMANCE OR TRADE USAGE.
14.2 ANY DATA DOWNLOADED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OR USE OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL.
15 Limitation of Liability
15.1 YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT IN NO EVENT SHALL KAZAA BE LIABLE WHETHER IN CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE WHETHER ACTIVE, PASSIVE OR IMPUTED), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR STRICT LIABILITY, EVEN IF KAZAA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, RESULTING FROM:
15.1.1 THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE;
15.1.2 THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS, DATA, INFORMATION OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED OR MESSAGES RECEIVED OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO THROUGH OR FROM THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE;
15.1.3 UNAUTHORISED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA;
15.1.4 STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY USING THE SOFTWARE; OR
15.1.5 ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE.
IN NO EVENT SHALL KAZAA'S TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL DAMAGES EXCEED THE AMOUNT OF FIFTY DOLLARS ($50).
15.2 WHERE THE TRADE PRACTICES ACT 1974 (CTH) OR SIMILAR STATE AND TERRITORY LEGISLATION IMPLIES INTO THIS AGREEMENT ANY CONDITION OR WARRANTY, AND THOSE LAWS AVOID OR PROHIBIT CONDITIONS IN A CONTRACT EXCLUDING OR MODIFYING THEM, THEN THE TERM, CONDITION OR WARRANTY SHALL BE DEEMED TO BE INCLUDED IN THIS AGREEMENT, PROVIDED THAT THE LIABILITY OF KAZAA FOR A BREACH OF ANY SUCH CONDITION OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING AND ECONOMIC OR CONSEQUENTIAL LOSS, SHALL BE LIMITED AT THE OPTION OF KAZAA TO ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING:
15.2.1 IF THE BREACH RELATED TO GOODS:
> (A) THE REPLACEMENT OF THE GOODS OR THE SUPPLY OF EQUIVALENT GOODS;
(B) THE REPAIR OF GOODS;
(C) THE PAYMENT OF THE COST OF REPLACING THE GOODS OR OBTAINING EQUIVALENT GOODS;
(D) THE PAYMENT OF HAVING THE GOODS REPAIRED;
OR
15.2.2 IF THE BREACH RELATES TO SERVICES:
> (A) THE SUPPLY OF THE SERVICE AGAIN; OR
(B) THE PAYMENT OF THE COST OF HAVING THE SERVICE SUPPLIED AGAIN.
16 Changes to or Suspension of use of Software
16.1 KaZaA reserves the right to modify or discontinue use of the Software temporarily or permanently, at any time, with or without notice. KaZaA will attempt to provide reasonable notice of such changes.
17 Termination
17.1 KaZaA reserves the right to terminate this License immediately and without prior notice for any or no cause, at any time. Without limiting the preceding sentence, KaZaA may terminate your use of the Software or access to the site immediately and without notice if:
17.1.1 you violate any term of this License, or
17.1.2 we are notified that data transmitted by you violates any applicable laws or rights of any third party including the intellectual property rights of any such third party..
18 Trade marks
18.1 The KaZaA name, the KaZaA logo, and other KaZaA related properties are trademarks of KaZaA. All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.
19 Miscellaneous
19.1 This License constitutes the entire understanding of you and the KaZaA Media Desktop application with respect to the subject matter hereof. There are no understandings, agreements, conditions or representations, oral or written, express or implied, with reference to the subject matter hereof that are not merged herein, expressly referenced herein, or superseded hereby.
19.2 You also may be subject to additional terms and conditions that may apply when you use affiliate services, third-party data or third-party software.
19.3 The failure or delay of KaZaA to exercise or enforce any rights or provision of the License does not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.
19.4 All provisions which must survive in order to give effect to their meaning, shall survive any expiration or termination of this License, including without limitation all of your representations, warranties and indemnification obligations.
19.5 Should any part of this License be held invalid by any court or tribunal, such invalidity shall not affect the validity of any remaining part, which will remain in full force and effect as if this License had been executed without that part having been held to be invalid.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Privacy-rights advocates contacted for comment expressed some concern about the way the Altnet software has been distributed and about whether the millions of people who already have it installed on their computers will be tech-savvy enough to know what they're agreeing to when and if Brilliant does ask to use their computers.
Now I know that its been a long long time since there was any illusion of the general computer user possessing anything resembling intelligence. However, how dumb are we going to make things? If you are are stupid enough to click though every pop up that appears, you deserve to have your spair clock cycles put to some good. Obviously your brain is on System Idle Process 90% of the time anway.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
sucks because Unicode sucks.
As for the EULA. My agreeing to it, I agreed to install the software, I did not agree to allow their employees manipulate my computer in any way, directly or indirectly.
Have you even READ the EULA? You agreed to whatever the hell it says you agreed to. You can't just say "I only agreed to install the software" if that's not what the EULA says you agreed to.
This is the ultimate endorsement for open source.
What Kazaa's doing is shady and an invasion of privacy, but isn't it funny how so many of the same people who are crying out "OOOOH, MY PRIVACYYYY!!! I'M GONNA SUEE YOUUUUUU!!" are the same smug fucks who are taking shitloads of music from artists without paying for it, and then have the gall to call it "fair use." Fair use IS a right, but distributing copies of an album to 1,000 of your "closest friends" is *not* part of that right, jerkoffs.
If you installed Kazaa, you got what you deserved.
</rant>
(Do your worst, Napster-martyr moderator bitches! I've got karma to burn! bwahahahha!)
The Free desktop that Just Works
What do you mean "hiding" something in the license agreement? If you read the agreement, as you are supposed to do, before clicking "I agree", then you would know what you were agreeing to. If you don't read it, then you deserve to get screwed.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Darn, I was hoping this one was an April Fool's joke, but it looks like it's real.
I'm really getting sick of this damn spyware.
There's something tricky going on here that is not immediately apparent if all you do is look at and knee-jerk react to this story:
I download Kazaa. I download Kazaa because Napster doesn't work anymore. Napster doesn't work anymore because the music companies say it rips them off. I don't care about ripping off music companies. But that makes me think: I can see how I'm ripping off artists. Gawd I love Kazaa! But I feel bad about ripping off artists.
BDE through Kazaa wants to use my computer cycles? Well geez, I feel bad about getting all this great music for free... I owe somebody something... Oh alright, that's a fair exchange.
The power of guilt.
Mark my words, people will accept this barter, except for one small problem: the artists still aren't getting paid!
BDE is getting away with murder: benefiting off of artists by proxy, and benefiting off of consumers, through guilt.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
From the article, I'll quote a snippet:
:-) And who wouldnt want to use a supercomputer like resource once in a while?
-----The Brilliant network is based on a piece of software called "Altnet Secureinstall," which is bundled with the Kazaa software. That technology can connect to other peer-to-peer networks, ad servers or file servers independently of the Kazaa software and can be automatically updated to add new features, according to Brilliant's filing.
When the software is "turned on," computers running the Brilliant software will form a new peer-to-peer network separate from but connected to Kazaa, the filing said. A few computers with fast connections will form the early core of the network and be asked to join first. Other ordinary computers and Net connections will be invited later, Bermeister said.-----
Hmm, from the sound of the article, they dont want US snooping in the network. They want it hidden. Wonder what they want to put in there.... Let them make it, then lets deconstruct it using winblows boxes behind linux walls. With all the data, we should be able to construct the protocol. Talk about a network you'd want to hack... get millions of MIPS at your fingertips
It seems to me that Kazaa has now developed one of the first electronic business model that rivals the best brick and mortar models like that of Walmart. From my understanding, Walmart has placed itself in the very convinient position where it does not own any of the product sitting on its shelves. They have become powerful enough that they simply rent out space in thier stores to manufactures, and they provide the customers. Any unsold product is the manufactures problem, not Walmarts. Kazaa has now used P2P file sharing to place itself in the same position. They have a service which brings them an audience of 50 million people (over 1 million active at anyone time). And although I find thier practices a bit under handed, its incredibly smart with a lot of potential. They now have an audience the is large enough and consistent enough to rent or sell space in thier applications to partner companies. This distributed computing concept just pushes that concept even further. Kazaa can not only resell user information, they can resell computation as well as storage space. All of which could be buried in thier EULAs. Although people who are used to the traditional philosophies of how software should behave, there is nothing necessarily caustic about this approach. Kazaa unfortunately has used it in the slimiest way possible. But if Kazaa teamed up with more legitimate institutions most people simply won't care and, honeslty, may care even less in the future as this becomes more common. The same can be said about many other technolgies we currently take for granted to day like credit cards.
Now that we know this, it's interesting to think about that Morpheus v. Kazaa debacle. The real reason Kazaa blocked Morpheus probably wasn't the add revenue from garnering a larger userbase. It was to force everyone onto their network, allowing them more CPU cycles that they can sell as a service. And who wants to bet there are plenty of corporations that would just LOVE to outsource something like this, and would be willing to pay big ca$h money... Actually fairly slick (dirty, sneaky, underhanded?) business-wise, and I was wondering when someone might come up with P2P/distributed combo app... seemed like a natural progression of the online applications as they stand... although the whole implementation stinks of a complete lack of morals, but hey, it's Kazaa!
I'm looking California... but feeling Minnesota...
I'm assuming this isn't an April Fool's joke...
..."
From the article:
"...However, people who accept "terms of service" already distributed with Brilliant's and Kazaa's software are already agreeing to let their computers be used without any payment at all.
"You hereby grant (Brilliant) the right to access and use the unused computing power and storage space on your computer/s and/or Internet access or bandwidth for the aggregation of content and use in distributed computing," the terms of service read. "The user acknowledges and authorizes this use without the right of compensation."
The first question that comes to my mind is: what if the installer doesn't own the machine being installed to? Kazaa is installed on numerous machines in the PC labs at my University and I'm pretty sure they weren't installed by the school. Do they still have the right to do this? It seems to me as if this would be similar to me renting out my neighbor's car without his permission whenever he wasn't using it. The second question that comes to mind is this: If Brilliant is going to use nearby computers to serve ads, then aren't they passing the cost of serving those ads onto you whether you want them or not?
You have the option of not using Kazaa (I don't) or accepting ridiculous terms of use. I realise I'm ranting, but this is really just symptomatic of a larger problem. It's easy to say 'I won't use it then!' but what happens when you really need the software in question? Your hands are tied by asinine contracts and terms of use. Sometimes, just getting the package open can be an adventure in deceit.
As an example, I purchased a new CD/RW a year ago. Enclosed was a sealed envelope containg Adaptec's CD Creator software. On the outside of the envelope was printed the following:
"Attention:
Adaptec, INC. Licenses the enclosed software to you only upon the condition that you accept all of the terms of the End User License Agreement that is included in the documentation accompanying this software. Please read the terms carefully before opening this package, as opening this package will indicate your assent to those terms. If you do not agree to any of the terms of the End-User License Agreement, the nAdaptec is unwilling to license the software to you, in which event you should promptly return this package unopened."
Here's the catch: The EULA was sealed inside the envelope! That makes it sort of like joining the Army- you can't really know what you're getting into until you've joined and there's nothing you can do about it if you are unhappy.
With software you have the option of not using it, but in some cases you've already paid money for it and, once opened, you cannot return it. The point is this: although Brilliant ( and Adaptec for that matter ) may legally have the right to do what they are doing, they are using trickery through litigation and technicalities in order to make a buck.
That's ok, Jesus likes me anyway.
"Does anyone actually have a Java program designed to control of air traffic, or for the operation of a nuclear facility?"
:)
I see someone else actually read the Java EULA?
I found that section (among others) to be rather hilarious.
Quote from cnet:
"It has licensed the Dutch programmers' technology from their new venture, called Blastoise."
Now correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that a Pokemon trademark? Is this a conspiracy? I hope that this doesn't make my computer's default theme "Poke-X11"
digitalhallucination... now phosphate free!!
You don't want to pay for your new NSync CD.
You don't even want to pay for the software that allows you to steal the new NSync CD.
Yet you complain that *somebody* in the chain is trying to make money? What socialist wet dream are you living in, anyhow?
On Win2K, I use Gnucleus, a fine and FREE open-source Gnutella client hosted at SourceForge. Gives you access to anyone on the Gnutella net--users of Morpheus, Limewire, Bearshare, etc. It's quite sophisticated and intelligent (simultaneuous d/l's of the same file from multiple hosts, in-depth peer and net stats, etc.). Nice, honest OSS. ZERO crap. Not as pretty or friendly as Limewire, but then it doesn't run in a Java VM either (shudder). Plus, Limewire is now hosting ads and bundling "companionware," at least for the PC client.
Check out the CNN breaking news article!
Oh my God... I mean, most of us hate MS, but still, the murder of a human being is simply despicable, don't you think?
No hoax here, folks:
From the Kazaa EULA, addendum section on BDE:
4(b) You hereby grant BDE the right to access and use the unused computing power and storage space on your computer/s and/or internet access or bandwidth for the aggregation of content and use in distributed computing. The user acknowledges and authorizes this use without the right of compensation. Notwithstanding the above, in the event usage of your computer is initiated by a party other than you, BDE will grant you the ability to deny access.
Interestingly as well:
5. Term; Termination.
(a) This Agreement will be effective as of the date you accept this Agreement and will remain effective until terminated by either party ("Use Period").
(b) BDE may terminate this Agreement at any time by providing notice to you. You may terminate this Agreement at any time by ceasing use of the Software and Services and destroying or removing from all hard drives, networks, and other storage media all copies of the Software. Upon any termination, all licenses and rights to use the Software and the Services shall terminate and you must remove the Software from your computer equipment and dispose of all originals and copies of the Software in your possession. The following Sections shall survive any termination of this Agreement: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
So you can't terminate once you've accidentally clicked "OK". Although you sort of wonder how they're going to apply section 4 once you've "destroyed or removed from all hard drives, networks, and other storage media all copies of the Software."
-raph
i have to agree, i see no granting to BDE either,
as you say, unenforcable meaningless legal claptrap without a human signature (or mark) anywhere to approve it
First download Kazaa lite:
:)"
http://www.kazaalite.tk/
It removes all spyware and inserts a fake file which looks like syware so that kazaa can't shut itself down. Kazaa: 'Your stealing my program!" Kazaalite"Stealing is a strong word, we're copy infringing on your program
Then heres the cool thing, edit your "hosts" file. Go ahead search for it. Good you found it. Now any server you don't want to connect to say ads.kazaa.com (just an example.)
type in your hosts file
127.0.0.1 ads.kazaa.com
Everytime kazaa tries to download an add from ads.kazaa.com it'll be looped back to your own computer. No ad!
Of couse kazaa could always just use IP addresses directly bypassing hosts. But they havn't yet.
Another thing, I have no idea whether kazaa lite has this distributed trojan active in it.
Veramocor
RTFA
RTFA
Right there in the 3rd paragraph:-
"...The company plans to wake up the millions of computers that have installed its software in as soon as four weeks. It plans to use the machines--with their owners' permission--to host and distribute other companies' content, such as advertising or music. Alternatively, it might borrow people's unused processing power to help with other companies' complicated computing tasks..."
Right...a lil trolly-polly:
They can terminate your account at the stop of a dime. But you can also easily create a new account at the stop of a dime.
You seem to have confused two popular idioms:
"at the drop of a dime"
and
"stop on a dime"
The correct phraseology in your case is "at the drop of dime," meaning, of course, "at any arbitrary moment".
To "stop on a dime," on the other hand, means to stop with great accuracy of final position (or, more figuratively, to cease some act in an abrupt, but highly controlled, manner).
The Grammar Nazi would like to also point out that yours was not, in fact, an error of grammar but of idiomatic pragmatics.
Thank you for your ACHTention.
What does this mean for users of Kazaa Lite?
Tell me that this is an April Fools joke.
how by being open source going to save millions of non technical user privacy ?,
it wouldnt make any difference if it was OS or not, go ask your friends "not so computer literate" dad who downloads a bit of jazz on his computer if it would help him ?
would he read all 500 lines of terms&conditions anyway ? would he examine all 100,000 lines of code looking for talkbacks ?
the average user who uses kazzaa has no-idea this is happening behind their backs ,
yeah it grants everything to kazzaa but the average user has no idea what any of that legal stuff does either, as you know as well as i do that they just blindly click "next" or "agree", to them installing software is boring trivual stuff that is a chore so they just want to get it done , the average user doesnt read any legal text on any software as its 500 lines long and doesn't look like a help file never mind the fact they didnt sign anything so they dont see any "agreements" as binding
I fail to see how "OS" would save them from the real reasons why they get "compromised" in the first place.
_ _ _ _
"Just cos you don't agree doesnt mean im wrong"
If i share files for free why can't i share my clock cycles for free. That'll be the spirit, wouldn't it.
Think if it, i'll be helping those still on P1s and P2s. Then i'm not going to buy a new computer anymore, cuz the guy next to me going to share his P4 or maybe P5 clock cycles, right? He wouldn't need it anyway. But wait, then whats going to happen to my seti@home scores, well it'll have to share my clock cycles with other sharing programs.
I know i've been thought to share (by parents, teachers, elders and you), but this is too much. Share my files (ok that the start of this mess), share my bandwidth, share my harddisk space, share my electricity bill, share my hardware cost, share my time, share my floor space, share my life (you can imagine how the sharer is like by looking at the files he/she shares)....
Oh... this distributed sharing thingi is getting way over my head. Anyone's got some orange juice to share with me? Just send it over this new "matter over IP" p2p network that i'll be creating.
So Brilliant Digital is providing me with a service, the Kazaa network, in return for another service, use of my computer's storage and spare CPU cycles... First of all, it's a great idea. But I wonder whether or not users of this service will be legally required to pay taxes on their barter income, and more importantly, whether Brilliant will have to mail out 10,000,000 1099-Bs (along with collecting 10,000,000 social security numbers).
Why does news.com link everything
to news.com.com? Is two com's
cooler than one?
i know grokster has spyware as well, but is it bundled with BD3?
my blog
april fools joke from '99 or something.
"Do not be swept up in the momentum of mediocrity." - anon
like open source would make any difference to the millions of clueless "joe-6-pack Kazza users" who this is affecting
It's still 4/1 in my timezone, so I'll use that as a lame excuse to take a cheap shot at Microsoft.
The reason it's "ok" (I know I am stretching this pretty far) for Kazaa to do this, is because it has been going on for years and no one stopped the others. So singling Kazaa out, is kinda lame.
You mentioned web browsers. Most people who run web browsers don't expect them to be able to automatically download and execute binaries from web pages and then execute them with full privvies without a sandbox. Yet that's what ActiveX does, and Microsoft's web browser still supports that "feature." So let's put things into perspective, ok? Raping the users is nothing new, and the most well-known and fastest-selling software company in the world, does just that. And nobody except us fringe paranoids give a damn.
Software does things that sane (or insane, if I really am a fringe paranoid) people don't approve of, all the time.
Then there's the reputation of who is doing this. If Mother Theresa tries to scam me, I'll be shocked. If an Amway salesman who puts "Work At Home" signs on utility poles at night, and spams people with internet email to make money in order to pay for his Scientology courses and crack habit, tries to scam me, then it's my fault if I give him the time of day, much less my credit card number. Companies like Kazaa and Microsoft are from the dark alleys of the internet, and when you deal with them, you know you're taking chances. When Theo de Raadt or Linus Torvalds puts something like this in their software, we'll all be outraged at the violation of trust. When Kazaa does it, there is no trust to be violated.
how by being open source going to save millions of non technical user privacy?
User agreements for Free Software do not include provisions which allow software manufactures to spy on the users or misuse their computing equipment, otherwise it wouldn't be Free Software.
Uninstall Kazaa. Do it now. Then go to http://www.kazaalite.tk and get Kazaa lite. It is 100% the same - minus all of the spyware. It also removes the restriction on 128K bitrate among other things. If you currently use Kazaa, you should go to this page, follow the instructions, and get rid of the spyware crap on your system!
BDE (Brilliant Digital's Engine) is listed separately on the list of programs installed and may be deinstalled. It leaves some very suspicious crap around in the %WINDIR%\SYSTEM32 directory, so after deinstalling and rebooting it is a good idea to remove this as well before continuing (and before you connect to the network).
Regrettably the Gnucleus network still doesn't provide the accessibility to material that Fast-track does. I run both clients and can see the difference, particularly with regards to queuing.
I didnt have to wait for that post - i used to try to uninstall the BDE crap and then if it would refuse i would delete the entries manually and then take care of the Registry keys the best i could. Atari2.6K
Would that be "like also to point out" then, in grammar nazi terms? Split infinitive? Ja, mein herr!
an error of grammar
Doesn't seem to be an error of grammar at all. Seems to be an error of the person using said grammar.
Just reciprocating, grammar nazi to grammar nazi. I can feel the love.
Going to lose a karma point for this one...
Just reciprocating, grammar nazi to grammar nazi.
That sentence lacks a subject.
I, however, do not think of myself as a nazi at all.
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
APRIL FOOLS DAY IS OVER! GIVE IT UP! We've even already had the "nighttime wrap-up"
This has now progressed beyond stupid and annoying to outright maddening. You guys have really sunk low today. I'm taking a week long hiatus from Slashdot, possibly more, because of this drivel you've been spewing all day. Goodbye
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
Allow me to explain by example.
/* doSpyWare();
void main()
{
doDownloadFiles();
doUploadFiles();
doSpyWare();
doDistributedComputing();
}
becomes
void main()
{
doDownloadFiles();
doUploadFiles();
doDistributedComputing(); */
}
Sure, it takes a high-school CS student to figure out what to comment out, but once its re-compiled and distributed on KaZaa, the modified version will spread like wildfire.
If the license is truly open source, this wouldn't even be illegal (not that KaZaa users really worry about that anyways).
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
What is the date?
Under this plan, an ad that a person sees on a Web site might be hosted by a nearby computer running Brilliant's Altnet instead of on a central ad server, as now typically happens with DoubleClick.
Well, this seems pretty much to be the end of ad blocking through firewall rules... Pretty easy to see why doubleclick would like this scheme.
You'd basically never know what host would be spamming your browser...
*sigh*
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
Nor do I. Anyway, by picking on split infinitives, I was clearly being nitpickier than an individual who is employed in the profession of picking nits, who then goes home each night and practises picking nits and in his dreams imagines nits which are so great in number that never could they all be picked. Even the OED now acknowledges the use of split infinitives to be perfectly grammatical. I can't imagine why a germanic language would even acknowledge the existence of such a thing. I still have one English prof who maintains that split infinitives are in all cases inexcusable, but I think he's just a dinosaur.
To roughly quote Churchill on the topic (and this is an almost ALWAYS misquoted phrase. This version is from the Oxford Companion to the English Language and is merely a suggestion for the unknown original form)
"This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put"
Does anybody have any idea what port this embedded service uses, or any way of finding it out? I think in four weeks (or more) I may run a simple scanner, like ethereal, on my Linux box. I have about 6 Windoze machines masqued off it to my ADSL provider, so I may just block the port through my firewall, so anyone using Kazaa can still use it, EULA be damned.
Bill, plug.
this must be and april fools gag
Am I the only one who thinks these P2P apps are evil?
I used Grokster on my networked Win2K box at home. This box contains my personal files, such as financial info and I also use it to do online banking. So my privacy really matters. I also use this box for work and I have it streamlined and tweaked to run as efficiently as possible. No foolish system tray or startup apps etc...
Well it seems that P2P apps like Kazaa or Grokster work hard to breach my privacy and fudge my system. I've never known software to be so malicious. First, I see that Grokster has web-based ad support. Okay, that's tolerable, they need some form of revenue. But don't think I haven't noticed your "secret" stash of cached ads in my system directory, Mr Grokster. Then I notice the popup ads. Also annoying.. but again I tolerate. I didn't run Grokster for longer than a day and my system can handle twenty browser windows. But then, incredibly, it turns out that the required advert component also sends out information about me, including my browser history. Big no-no, Mr Grokster. Now I have to spend time to counteract this. I found a replacement set of libraries which do not send personal information. From that point on, I figured I was safe. Oh no... this weekend, after a Grokster session, I spotted a strange "extract.exe" on my desktop. Hmmm. How did that get there? I took a look inside and found various executables and libraries. How quaint. I most certainly did not download it. So I searched my system and lo and behold, it seems some ActiveX has automatically downloaded and run this program for me, spreading half a dozen files around my system. Looking through the registry I see that in fact it's installed a browser toolbar. Oh lovely.. just what I wanted. Took me a good half hour to rid my system of it's leeches.
The moral of the story, don't run Grokster. Well fine, I've learnt my lesson and I'm fortunate enough to have another disposable machine to unleash the Grok on. But my concern is the X million people who don't have a clue. The sort who click on "www.yahoo.com.exe". They see Grokster or Kazaa on download.com or whatever, download it and use it blissfully ignorant of what I consider to be a virus. In fact, the only difference I see between Grokster, Kazaa etc.. and viruses is a service. Package your virus as an application and you earn amnesty from antivirus software.
Slashdot articles and anti-spyware sites keep us geeks in the loop, but that doesn't help the masses. Only laws help the masses. There must be some law somewhere that states such practices to be illegal. Tricks used by these programs such as placing independent components in the system directory posing as actual system files, running programs without permission, not informing users of these hidden "features" and so on, are clearly malicious.
I'm for P2P networks, but clients such as these seriously rub me the wrong way and I'll be glad when the RIAA eats them. I just pray for a nicer client to take their place.
My life is one big siesta in which I'm dreaming I wished my life was one big siesta.
I actually intend to be one of the first to offer my bandwidth for Brilliant's new network. On a system that is currently struggling to find a way to turn a profit from "eyeballs" I wholeheartedly support a system that charges me in the one true currency I have to offer, bandwidth. I appreciate the fact that these people are asking for permission before they access my system, but think they should take it one step further. For those high bandwidth users who offer them their spare processes and bandwidth, I think they should work out a deal width Kazaa to remove the ads from the service, sort of a "Premium" member system that Slashdot is trying.
For all our complaints about pop up ads, banners, and spy ware, this is the only way that I can see for us to offer some form of payment for a service we enjoy, without paying a dime.
Bravo Brilliant, you may have just made the "killer app" in internet profits.
This is not a sig
Then they have just committed corporate suicide. Glad I don't hold any of their stock...
I disagree. What they've done sounds very rude and deceptive to me. But it may very well be legal and may result in them staking a claim in an emerging, lucrative market. Thus, the company's perceived value may increase and shareholders may be pleased. I'm not predicting that their stock price will rise with certainty, but I don't believe it's a foregone conclusion that this will tank it. Talk to a penny-stock promoter good at spinning publicity. He/she'll tell you that there's almost no such thing as bad publicity for an upstart. A piece of news (or even a rumor) like this that puts them on the map and on traders' tongues may be just what their stock price needed. Time will tell. Afterall, we only need to look to companies like Verisign with horrible, headline-making security and privacy goof-ups and deceptive practices to see that their rude actions and policies do not result in corporate suicide. (Unfortunately.)
If they've committed any type of "suicide", it's simply image-suicide in the eyes of a very small, elite crowd (ie, Slashdotters, privacy defenders, etc.) The market and shareholders may not care about this.
1. Uninstall Kazaa.
2. Run Ad-aware.
3. Vow never to use commercial p2p software ever again.
4. Switch to Gnutella to get your fix.
Well, I for one am sick of hearing about these little 'goodies' that people keep sticking in the software that they invite you to download.
I am glad that some people actually have the requisite knowledge to find out about this stuff otherwise the general public, like myself, would never know.
I think its definately time for me to stop using Kazaa..
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
I think I have discovered yet another effect of cydoor. As you know, cydoor is installed with kazaa. Once some months ago, I noticed that IE6 and or OE6 crashed when I tried to use the keyboard under unknown conditions. I decided to reinstall windows XP without further looking. Some reinstalls later, I found what was responsible for the crashes : they occured ONLY when kazaa was running, and yet more often when kazaa was not running minimized. One month ago, I found a dummy dll to replace cydoor's cd_clint.dll but only returning dummy values, without spying on me. Since then, not once did IE6 or OE6 crash ever again. To me it is obvious that cydoor is trying to keylog on me, and gets blocked by either windoze XP, either by zonealarm. Do you have more info on the matter ? Isn't this perfectly illegal ? (I do netbanking from that computer). Hasn't the boss of cydoor been involved in creditcard fraud ?
The compiler or the compiler that compiled the compiler?
"once its re-compiled and distributed on KaZaa, the modified version will spread like wildfire"
Go read my points again kids, is the average user going to know about recompiling and commenting out code ? to him/her free software is just that free the distinction is made on price not on wether its GNU,GPL,LGPL etc
open source is not the answer here user education is, but that isn't going to happen,
speak to any technical support desk in a big corporation or isp and ask them if their users understand Open Source and get them to explain the difference between free software and free software.
_ _ _ _
"Just cos you don't agree doesnt mean im wrong"
Which is better...something that reports back your habits, or something that uses spare cycle time for something constructive?
From the article, it sounds like their primary goal is to harness the bandwidth to redistribute advertisements. Would you call that "something constructive?"
Given that no EULA has the force of contract law anywhere in the U.S., it's rather doubtful that it could be used as 'consent' for utilizing spare cycles in a legal fashion. The company is treading dangerous ground here and just begging to be bitch-slapped with a lawsuit.
While I doubt a serious argument could be made for damages, unless the EULA is upheld by some clueless court then using the spare cpu cycles of personal computers clearly constitutes criminal electronic trespass as outlined in the PATRIOT act. And, as we know, this automatically brands one as a terrorist.
I don't use Kazaa but I can't imagine that very many users will be happy to have their 'spare' cpu cycles appropriated for someone else's gain. Just another reason to dump this software in the electronic crapper.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
Can this story actually be true??
Sjur
As to what distributed computing client I use. Personally I use the UD agent for the fight against cancer and as this is really important to me I'd resent (very strongly ) anyone running anything else on my PC. Bastards.
There are plenty of downloadable cycle sharing apps in the world and some of us are getting paid for having our machines do other peoples' work.
Someone STEALING (taking something so that I cannot use it) my cycles degrades my performance (AND PAY) faster than you can say, "why did my winmodem die oh that's right because Quake was taking all the cycles from the lame piece of no good hardware it is".
P2P is a pipe dream. Just one con, crook, and disappointment after another. Now if you could hook it into IRC clients rather than hook chat into P2P clients then I'll be happy.
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
Now I dont know if it's a joke or not, but still after installing Kazaa and most other p2p programs, warning lights in Ad-Aware(2) from Lavasoft lights up like a xmas tree.
Bearshare is the only one I can manage to install and get rid of all the snooping, I think.
Why don't we simply hack the protocol used by Kazaa for this thing, then flood the system with false/bogus data? Kind of like a DoS to these guys. Or would that violate the DMCA? Can a protocol be considered a form of copy protection?
hehe...just a thought. Of course, I'd never actually spend any effort doing this, but I'd gladly join in if such a client were available.
--Be human.
I was routinely cleaning up my computer's startup files when I noticed an entry for BDE set for startup. It's called the BDE auto-updater, and I disabled it because I was unaware of where it had come from. Good to know.
Pax Digitalia
Nor do I. Anyway, by picking on split infinitives,
Shame on you for picking on split infinitives.
Even the Oxford English Dictionary approves of split infinitives now.
To roughly quote Star Trek on the topic.
James T. Kirk was way ahead of his time in deciding "to boldly go" into far-flung galaxies. The "Star Trek" captain was out there splitting infinitives in his 1960s TV science-fiction series long before the "official" green light was given.
Now, in the New Oxford Dictionary of English (NODE), 30 editors and 60 consultants around the world have sided with Captain Kirk and given their blessing to what some grammatical sticklers still regard as anathema or worse.
Indeed, the compilers not only approve of splitting infinitives but also seem bent on dividing the English-speaking world - or at least the part of it that cares about language and grammar.
Among the volume's more than 2,000 new words and phrases, split infinitives rub shoulders with "shock jocks," "Blairite," "alcopops," "tamagotchi," and "zero tolerance" as acceptable present-day usage.
So there....
Most people who run Kazaa are using it to break copyright laws, in the full knowledge that doing so is illegal. Furthermore, they are using a tool they don't know much about (hence this thread) because their greed outweighs their common sense. Like the man said, they deserve to get screwed.
Go ahead and mod me down. I don't mind burning karma if that's what it costs to tell the truth.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
At first I thought it was another April Fools joke. But I found the following paragraph in the "terms of use" for Kazaa:
===
(b) You hereby grant BDE the right to access and use the unused computing power and storage space on your computer/s and/or internet access or bandwidth for the aggregation of content and use in distributed computing. The user acknowledges and authorizes this use without the right of compensation. Notwithstanding the above, in the event usage of your computer is initiated by a party other than you, BDE will grant you the ability to deny access.
===
<sarcasm> Sure, that's why there are so many high quality, open source alternatives available, and why everyone uses them instead of Kazaa. </sarcasm>
Sorry, but the objective evidence just doesn't support your claim.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
For such domination to work, one must agree to it.
As such, it is important that people be aware that they are being used; they must be aware of spyware and corporate manipulations, they must in fact have the choice of not opting in.
And not opting in, I notice in this case, has become harder than just hitting the 'Decline' button on the install page. It has gone deeper; choosing is now predicated on there being a general awareness that corporate entities always want something in return for free goodies even if the string is all but invisible. (Though, not so invisible that it isn't reported on popular news forums. .
The meat just doesn't taste right if it isn't agreeable.
-Fantastic Lad
You know, it is funny that you all are complaining about someone 'stealing' your cpu cycles. I think you need to ask yourself why you even have the software loaded on your machine in the first place. You are stealing music and are upset that they in-turn are stealing empty idle cpu cycles.
-- Powered By Linux
Not only did uninstalling kazaa not remove the program in question, when i found it (nice that they install it in the windows directory) and used their uninstall, it was actually running as a browser plugin and told me to close the browser. Very sad indeed. I suppose all the k1dd13s need to do is put a User Agreement on their wormy email and magically transform from dork to corporate partner. I think the alternate should be true; this should be made illegal and harshly punished. I shudder to think of the network stolen processor and network use at some education institutions when they turn this 'zombie maker' on.
From Kazaa Terms of Use:
About new features:
-
4.2 We may add, delete or change some or all of the Software functionality provided in connection with KaZaA at any time. This may include download of necessary software modules. Any new features that augment or enhance.
This means that they can do whatever was needed to add this distributed network stuff.About downloads/installations without your explicit approval:
-
4.5 You acknowledge that KaZaA or parties appointed by KaZaA may from time to time provide programming fixes, updates and upgrades to you, including automatic updates to the KaZaA Media Desktop, through automatic electronic dissemination and other means. You consent to such automatic updates and agree that the terms and conditions of this Agreement will apply to all such updates.
This means that Kazaa may send you updates without any warning, and you agreed with this.Conclusion, everything Kazaa is doing is legal. They are not doing anything there's not in the Terms of Use accepted by every user.
-=-=-=-=
I know life isn't fair, but why can't it ever be un-fair in MY favor!?
You can remove the BD app from your system, it just take some patience and a little brute force. After the giant evil cameron diaz attacked, I wacked the BD app with a combination of file deletions and reg edit. Interestingly enough, Kazaa still works.
SD
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
Well let's face it, free software costs money. Right now all free software is either given away (Linux), or ad supported (KaZaA). We have seen many ad supported things fail in the last year from lack of revenue, so maybe this is the next logical step. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't mind giving away my CPU cycles while I'm using a program if it means that I won't have to pay to use it. KaZaA is great, and the ads in it are small. Give me KaZaA with distributed computing any day over KaZaA with half of my screen a giant flashing add that says "If this is flashing then you've won $1,000,000 in penis enlarging, cancer curing, brain improving, lose weight while you gorge yourself on sweets pills." My only regret is I feel that they should have told us users that this was there. I wouldn't have minded. The only thing that I don't like about all of this is that they tried to do it behind my back.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
IANAL. . . however:
Conclusion, everything Kazaa is doing is legal.
Just because they wrote this legalese into their contract, doesn't mean it's legal. If they include a clause that states, "You acknowledge that we have the right to sacrifice your firstborn child to Bill Gates," that doesn't give them any right to my son if I click OK.
This is even true outside EULAs. In legal contract matters, it's known as an unconscionable contract; and it's a concept that serves to protect people from just this form of predatory contracting.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
Thanks!
recipe using both peanut butter and spaghetti:
1 serving of spahgetti
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 half of a cucumber, chopped
pinch of green onions
pinch of cilantro
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
pinch of garlic powder
pinch of powdered ginger
mix everything but the spaghetti together, and put in the fridge
boil the spaghetti, and when done, put in a colinder and keep moving it under cold water until the spaghetti is cold
thouroughly drain the water and mix it in with the peanut butter mixture
refrigerate for 15 minutes and serve!
cold sesame noodles, just like the chinese restaurant makes. garnish with sesame seeds and carrot shavings if you like.
This software assumes that the owner of the computer (who installs the software) owns the right to the bandwith. In some places (commercial offices and schools/universities) this assumption isn't right or is suspect. I would bet that these fellas may have a nice law-suit on their hands (can you say preliminary injunction) by large corporations or universities who stand to loose alot of bandwith once this service is turned on. Furthermore, I bet some DSL/Cable agreements have anti-server clauses. This software would cause the user to violate their clauses and potentially disconnect them with fines from their ISP. All-in-all, it's bad business, bad karma, and it'll catch up to them.
However, I remember the concept of bandwidth as a commodity... and how that generally didn't work out so good, but maybe that changed now. Would the combination of bandwidth, storage and computing do better? The article a couple of days ago about sharing bandwidth is in the same category I guess.
Same issues of security and such, but I am thinking that the 'acceptance' from business and such could drive the technology in new directions... oh wait, that can be good AND bad sometimes.
I seek not only to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, I seek the things they sought.
"Quickly" is mendatious. The majority of end users will have port 80 traffic cached by their ISP, and you can bet that cache will be juicy-full of DoubleClick stuff. My ISP routes all traffic via my local access point, even traffic to other people under that access point, and they run a cache at the access point. So even if I were to get ads from the guy next door, it would still be slower than getting them from the cache. All this would do would be to cut down DoubleClick's bills for uncached accesses, and (interestingly) stop me blocking DoubleClick using my hosts file. If this latter reason is actually material, then it's a sad indicator that the ad market has given up any pretence that ads are in any way connected to revenue. If I've gone out of my way to actively block your adverts, and you force them on me anyway, what exactly are your chances of gaining one red cent in revenue from me? Farcical.
Hey, opt-in, opt-out, what's the difference, eh? To apply an equally muddled metaphor, they'll probably burn that bridge when they come to it.
Ah. Anybody with a typical residential DSL/cable connection should check their contracts. There will almost certainly be a clause in there that prohibits providing services to third parties, and especially selling services to third parties. Most ISP's have tolerated filesharing up to now because it's (generally) an active use thing. And CETI@home is low bandwidth, fully opt-in from the user side, and non-commercial. But this might be different. It's a commercial company using ISP bandwidth to make profit, and pass some of that (a very, very little) back to residential users, who have only agreed in general to provide services, not on an active case by case basis. This might be where ISP's start to draw the line.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
C'mon people, this must be another april fools joke, I cannot believe this!
It is messy. Ad-aware didn't see it so I had to remove a bunch of entries and dll's just like you said.
....... Thus ends my attempt at wit or whatever
Might also want to unistall the B3D updater from the startup files and take uninstall b3d projector from the add/remove programs list (it doesn't really remove brilliant anyway). This kills all ads as well as removing the spyware. After doing those and changing the bitrate quality allowed for audio files, I can download up to ten files at once, run quarter screen video, play solitaire and have notepad and Opera running without taxing my machine (Athlon XP 1500, 512M PC133, cable connection.)
Second thought, it might be easier to just download the lite version.
Reality is what won't go away when you stop believing in it. Philip K. Dick
That's not what's there now -- http://www.kazaa.com/en/terms.htm
But the fact that 4.2 isn't even a complete thought....
==============
4.2 We may add, delete or change some or all of the Software's functionality provided in connection with KaZaA at any time. This may include download of necessary software modules. Any new features that augment or enhance [sic]
==============
... makes me wonder if the web-site hasn't been updated. And it basically says the same thing in a little different terms, sans the bit about clauses outliving terminiation (I didn't see that when skimming, at least).
Anyone know where the EULA quoted above came from?
It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
I actually went out and downloaded Kazaa just to check the EULA on it. I'm pretty sure they haven't changed it in the last 10 hours. Here it is (fucking lameness filter won't let me post it):
Kazaa EULA.txt
-raph
Forget what was in the EULA that the user consented to. I as a network administrator do not permit my users to use their bandwidth for commercial purposes. If this really is something that Brilliant is planning, they'll lose a campus full of users in the process. We're not going to stop our users from downloading music (although we will slow it down so it doesn't affect other users) but we will not permit our resources to be used for commercial purposes. I'll block KaZaa if that's their real intent.
Mod this guy down, for christ's sake!!!!
This is a really good idea! More and more people have pretty potent computers (more or less) permanently connected to the internet. These are idling, wasting cycles most of the time.
So - why not make a distributed network where you pay people to process data for you? They download the client, sign up necessary information for you to pay them, and fire up their client. Client runs at the lowest priority, doing calculations in the background while they enjoy whatever they enjoy doing in front of their computer.
Currently, several such projects are underway, except they're free. If I got a few bucks a month for running some software on my computer, I'd be pretty happy.
If this thing got big, the computing power would be immense, probably equivalent of really hairy supercomputers. Imagine literally millions of good, solid computers running a thin client, silently crushing numbers.
You could even persuade ISPs to optionally distribute the technology, since the income from running the client could help finance the broadband connection, thus increasing their customer base.
Hmm. Whaddya think? Is there a market for this?
Stop the brainwash
All you bonheads spend all day whining about the "lame-ass" April Fool's jokes that wouldn't "fool anyone with an IQ over 60", and then as soon as Taco says it's over you all turn into a collective Gullible Gus like lambs led to the slaughter.
Use QTella on Linux for a clean P2P experience. Its great !!!
http://www.ajaygautam.com
I take it you've never tried Tan Tan noodles. (Essentially peanut butter and spaghetti.) They are quite delicious. I recommend them to anyone who isn't afraid of the calories. True, they have a bit of soy sauce, and a bit of pepper sauce mixed with the peanut butter. And possibly more (I haven't seen a recepie).
But just because something doesn't sound good to you, and just because you encounter a bad implementation, doesn't make it bad.
I imagine that after a bit of a shake out P2P + distributed computing will turn out to be an excellent dish. That doesn't mean that this is a good implementation. It appears to have too much centralized control. But with a few changes to the recepie...
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I don't think so. Time for me to dump KaZaA and find a new P2P system...I'm not interested in something using up my computer's resources and wearing out my hard-won components without asking me nicely or compensating me for it. If I'd been asked, I might have said 'Yes'. Since I wasn't, the answer will be forever 'No'.
See, there are LOTS of developing P2P systems out there who don't spy on computers to boost their sales. I don't NEED KaZaA snooping my system in order to target me with ads that never make it to my desktop anyway. Got to love ad-blockers...and software firewalls, too. *grin*
"Courage is being afraid to do the Right Thing, and doing it anyway."
No really! It's not an april fools joke! If you start typing any deragatory remarks about Microsoft, the trojan will ...../*I love my new Internet Explorer technology from Microsoft..*/
..../*XP is just fabulous*/
I know most of you won't believe me. But just in case, to disable it type in
managers...why god invented purgatory
To rephrase the above post -- how long will it take for someone to hack into/hijack the distributed computing system, whereby they can use it for DDoS, reverse engineering, sending spam, or whatever.
And per a point I brought up when Juno did this -- what if their network is doing something that is legal where they are, but is illegal in YOUR location? Who goes to jail -- You, or Brilliant's people, or Kazaa's people?? Three guesses, and the first two don't count.
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
This is what I've been using for about a month or two:
http://www.kazaalite.tk/
KaZaA lite works just like the original,
but Without Banner Ads and the other fluff like the Bonzai Monkey.
The current market cap of BDE is only $3 million.
;)
So for about $2 million, a group could obtain a controlling interest in the company.
How many slashdotters would go without lunch today and chip in ten bucks to take over BDE? Wouldn't it be fun to reassign the current CEO to janitor status?
Not to mention having control of their software.... it would be a great way to distribute Slashvertisements.
The current implementations of P2P computing tend to be invasive and, ok, evil. (I'd rather save that word for more intense areas, but the concept's the same.)
The reason that they are evil tends to be because they are the creation of commercial entities that intend to make money by stealing you information. This is not inherent (though on the MS systems that I am familiar with there is no effective security to prevent this from happening).
Commercial entities need to have something to sell. If you want to get a service from them, then you will need to pay them in some way. The "freebies" that they offer will always be a hook. Always. You may not be the intended target, you may steal the cheese, but the hook is there. Red Hat is trying to get commercial companies to buy software maintenance and development services. As a commercial entity, they distribute Linux at not much more than cost to lure in potential customers. It isn't free, but the hook is still there.
Non-commercial entities need to be able to pay for the activities that they engage in. So do individuals. You can always take an economic view of an organization or individual, and it must always either balence or yield a profit. Or be drawing down assets.
If you buy a pig in a poke you are likely to end up with a cat instead of a pig. Open source is partially the requirement that one be able to look into the bag before buying it. But if you can't, then you should expect that the seller is going to take such advantage of the fact as he can. Becuase he frequently will.
This isn't to say that Kazaa is in this case acting unethically. They have indicated that they will ask permission before adding computers to the distributed computing system, so one should, perhaps, wait until we find out how they will interpret that before getting outraged. They might not just say "the license already gave us permission". But it's also true that we can't know what will occur later. The license that was reported seems to be similar to the MS XP license in that it essentially gave them permission to install arbitrary software. And I find it quite difficult to feel comfortable with that. Especially on a system that gives essentially no protection against rogue software. (Similarly, on Linux I'm uncomfortable with the programs that require being run with root permissions.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
As IANAL, I grew curious after the bnetd stuff, and even more so now after reading this article... What would happen if you never agreed to the liscense? In the case of a net-app, this is harder to understand, but in the case of Starcraft, for example, what if I went to the store, bought myself some physical object which I then took home and modified in some way to skip the liscense agreement during the install process. I never agreed to it, so they can't find my liable under it. Standard copyright still applies (so I can't go distributing it) but then anything additional they might have thrown in wouldn't apply to me, and I could use the CD in any manner I chose as available to my under standard laws.
To clarify a bit... I have purchased a physical object at the store. A box with a CD, likely a manual and a jewel case. I may also have purchased a liscense. Now, if I ignore the liscense (as I might ignore the warranty purchased with a VCR, for example) and tinker with the CD and the information stored there using the tools I have available to me (as I might crack open the VCR case and solder things around, or pull out my set of highliters and emphasize particular passages in a book I've just gotten), what recourse does the company that has produced the CD have against me, if any, prior to my acceptance of the EULA?
In other words, what would prevent me from this act? I void the warranty (as I would with almost any physical electronic object purchased that I personally modified) and I, perhaps, forfeit customer support. On the other hand, by not agreeing I am entitled to deface or rearrange their code as I please (as I am allowed to write in a book I have purchased), reverse-engineer to my heart's content, and otherwise do those things expressly forbidden in the EULA.
So I ask again, what would prevent me from this act (except the lack of knowledge of how to bypass said screen during installation)? What laws exist that state that this is not allowed? And if it is allowed, then what right does BDE, in this case, have to your spare CPU cycles? Could you charge them (as in, make them pay-per-cycle), or use the PATRIOT act (mentioned in another post) against them?
Just a few thoughts that have been building up... Hopefully someone is still looking through the 300-odd comments here and will notice this...
~Anguirel (lit. Living Star-Iron)
QA: The art of telling someone that their baby is ugly without getting punched.
It looks like it installs itself as a separate program called "b3p". I'm not sure it it completely goes away, but b3p is certainly a "Brilliant" product. You'll have to close all browsers, and I had to reboot to get the uninstall to run.
If anybody in the UK has been foolish enough to fall for this Trojan they I'll draw your attention to the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Trojan's are illegal.
'The Computer Misuse Act 1990' Section 1;
1.--(1) A person is guilty of an offence if--
(a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer;
(b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorised; and
(c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that that is the case.
(2) The intent a person has to have to commit an offence under this section need not be directed at--
(a) any particular program or data;
(b) a program or data of any particular kind; or
(c) a program or data held in any particular computer.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to both.
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/Ukpga_1990
If anybody in the UK has been foolish enough to fall for this Trojan; I'll draw your attention to the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Trojan's are illegal under UK Law.
'The Computer Misuse Act 1990' Section 1;
1.--(1) A person is guilty of an offence if--
(a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer;
(b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorised; and
(c) he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that that is the case.
(2) The intent a person has to have to commit an offence under this section need not be directed at--
(a) any particular program or data;
(b) a program or data of any particular kind; or
(c) a program or data held in any particular computer.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to both.
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/Ukpga_1990
Apparently, some versions of cydoor (the spyware/ad trojan installed with Kazza) installed first, before the Kazza installer displays anything on your screen. Decline to install Kazza, but you still had cydoor running (next reboot, as a startup process). This is not the kind of behavior typical of any benign intent.
Criticism apparently caused cydoor to create a new (current) version, with some offensive behaviour allegedly removed (UID, install upon launch of the host program's installer, "uninstaller" does nothing, etc).
Still, extending any form of trust to the likes of cydoor and Kazza is simply out of the question. "A leopard can't change his spots".
Get Ad-Aware now, everybody (using or administrating Windows); but don't stop there. After all you are simply trusting one program to save you from another.
The sad truth is viligance and awareness is our only defense.
About CyDoor:
http://www.cexx.org/cydoor.htm
You didn't read my post. The very next sentence subsequent to the one you quoted read
Even the OED now acknowledges the use of split infinitives to be perfectly grammatical.
But so have you reiterated it:
Even the Oxford English Dictionary approves of split infinitives now.
At least we concur.
After reading this, I wouldnt be surprised if Brilliant has great financial interest in Kazaa and is using Kazaa as a shield from the DMCA, while they create a legitimate business behind it, and SECRETLY siphon resources from the free Kazaa network.
I also wouldnt be surprised if Kazaa and Brilliant brought down Morpheus in the interest of pursuing this great idea. As a matter of fact, i get interesting results when i search for "morpheus b3d" in the Kazaa client.
Hmmm.... anyone else have any comments on my theory?
-- Betting on the survival of the media industry is a serious risk. I advise investing elsewhere.
Great 4/1 Joke ! Hahah, oh wait . . .
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
URL for the story at MSNBC. I realize it's a subset of C|Net, but it's actually propigated to their site.
If they make your PC a SPAM node, will they help get your net connection back after your ISP cuts you off?
Everyone just leave Kazaa alone and come on over to Grokster, the water's fine.
Check out
http://www.project-insomnia.com/grokster
for details on how to neuter it of spyware.
Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
BDE is Brilliant Digital's proggy. Look for an uninstaller in Add/Remove.
Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
Even after uninstalling BDE, I still had the following registry settings left behind:
i cations\BDEViewer.exe
n i_auto_file
L AYER.BDEPlayerCtrl
L AYER.BDEPlayerCtrl.1
m artInstaller
m artInstaller.1
D \{51958169-D5E3-11D1-AA42-0000E842E40A} (which has a value of Reg_Sz BDEPlayer Control)
D \{67925165-C4B6-11D2-B9C6-0000E84F59A6} (which has a value of Reg_Sz BDESmartInstaller Class)
r face\{67925164-C4B6-11D2-B9C6-0000E84F59A6} (which has a value of Reg_Sz IBDESmartInstaller)
a uto_file\shell\Open\command (which has a value of Reg_Sz "C:\bde\bdeviewer.exe" -f"%1" (I just removed it at s3d_auto_file)
L ib\{82FC7881-AACC-11D2-B9C6-0000E842E40A}\1.0
n dows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Morpheus
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Brilliant Digital Entertainment\BDEInstaller
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Brilliant Digital Entertainment\Products
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\Appl
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\b3di
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\BDEP
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\BDEP
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\BDES
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\BDES
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSI
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSI
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\Inte
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\s3d_
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_SOFTWARE\Classes\Type
My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wi
YES. MORPHEUS
Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
I agree with you up to that point....
But more legislation isn't the best long-term solution. It's a quick band-aid fix to try to keep people happy. Like most computer legislation, it will end up restricting software that it was never intended to restrict.
The *real* solution is education. The masses aren't smart enough not to click on www.yahoo.com.exe which downloads a virus on their PC? Well, they need to learn then. Maybe they'll start getting more interested in learning after their drive gets trashed a time or two.
Of course, this also leaves lots of room for businesses to profit from building safer systems for "the masses" to use - which isn't a bad idea either.
Is this in Grokster too?
I just removed it from all my desktops.
If there's dubious stuff in your dubious software that you're probably using for dubious activities, well, what goes around comes around.
---- scrm
Someone striped Kazaa off the bundled software (spyare) and claims to make avaliable a clean version of the program. I have naver tested it, but you can find it on www.kazaalite.tk/.
As an aside, one of the funniest post titles I've read in a while.
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
"we're sorry for the spyware"
they remove it
a month later
"We're sorry for the spyware"
they remove it
goto 10.
As much as I love the P2P concept, if these guys go out of buisness or get the crap sued from them, I just hope EFF won't protect them in the name of P2P, because these guys aren't the Good Guys(tm). They are opportunists that are hiding behind ignorants and people that want to defend P2P to play their dirty scheme instead of being just dead honest.
It doesn't kill a buisness to mention any spyware or whatever, if people skip the warning and download it, well now It's their problem, but running it and acting like if you were transparent is just plain unethical, they did it many times, it simply piss me off. That's why I am using winMX since the first time I saw Kazaa doing crap to their users. It's been at least reported 2 times here if not more.
Again, being honnest about it won't change much, it'll just remove a FEW users like me and most of slashdot readers that want their privacy. Most of the people won't give a damn, so why being so dishonnest!? it could just trigger lawsuits against them for absolutely no gain.
The proof to this? well look at how many times you saw kazaa and spyware, and look at their userbase still growing (which doesn't make sense but again, MOST people just don't care, they'd sell their souls for free stuff).
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
There IS a uninstaller for BDE. In my machine it was under C:/WINNT/bde/ and it was called bdeclean.exe It's also available from the uninstall program. Now for the bad news: The uninstaller left all sorts of files around, including a re-installer. As has been mentioned, do a find on BDE & B3D, but be sure to look under [properties] [Company Info] to make sure it's from Brilliant, since some windows files have bde in their name. The registry was also stuffed full of BDE entries, even after the 'official' uninstall. If it created any files which did not have bde in their name, or if it modified any .ini files, I have would have no idea. Anyone have any information on where else these files may be hiding?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/732958.asp?0dm=C12LT
check the link before they catch on!
It's freenet without the free!
Seriously, when is somebody gonna prosecute one of these nefarious "free" software companies for attaching rider code with no easy way to remove it? Isn't this a virus, same as iloveyou or anna, attaching itself to something people want to download/lookat and exposing their computers to the world?
Sure, maybe the distributed client has more of a sandbox security model than your average virus. But these are not nice guy brilliant cowboy poet programmers riding into the sunset...they're wagemages forced to design an application to annoy people. Their hearts probably weren't in it. The code is probably full of buffers to overflow and apis to exploit. And since this code arrives along with an app people enjoy, it'll go right past their normal email wariness and antivirus paranoia.
This is dangerous shit.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
After removing the software I decided to run msconfig.
In the startup section BDE had inserted a command to run the setup for BDE with a "-silent" tag. I removed it straight away but it looks like it will reinstall itself without your permission if you uninstall it.
And what's wrong with that? Big tits and butts are fun.
As long as this doesn't prevent me from continuing to download 15-year-old Transformers episodes, I don't care.
Kaaaazaaaa simply won't run if you delete certain of its bundled adware. This is what makes it particularly annoying (though I hear this has been cracked for some versions). With most of the other P2P apps you can use Ad-Aware to get rid of the adware and not affect the function of the program.
There is no such thing as unused bandwidth. When the available bandwidth fills up, it forces your provider a costly upgrade, unless he wants the customers to see their Internet access slow down. The cost of upgrade is passed onto end users.
This IS a theft.
17779 eligible voters in a district, 17779 'vote' as one. This is Russia.
Read about it here:
. cg i?az=show_thread&omm=0&om=585&forum=DCForumID4
http://www.grokster.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard
Did anyone notice how the old Morpheus installer was aptly named "Morpheus-b3d-v2", BTW? BDE and B3D are Brilliant Digital. Makes me wonder if the "new" Morpheus still has ties to Brilliant Digital. So much for their claims of not having any spyware, eh?
Of course, that's just my opinion. Don't want anyone trying to SUE me over it now..
What I'm afraid of is the fact that since I have a "residential" DSL plan, I am not allowed to run any servers. If my ISP catches me running a server, they have the right to force me to upgrade to "business" account, or cancel my account altogether. If I my computer starts sending web-based adds to the people next door, won't that be port 80? Will my ISP know the difference? What am I supposed to do what Kaza has violated my contract with my ISP, without me ever being aware of it? What about people that pay for bandwidth? This whole thing makes me sick.
Sigs are out of style, so I'm not going to use one...oh wait..
"or something that uses spare cycle time for something constructive?"
So you won't mine me using your car this weekend, right? I already installed a key to your car when you last took it in for service. And you agreed not to be compensated.
Better than just sitting around in the garage, eh?
Buy Virtual PC. Spend the $200.
Then when you want to run a program you're not sure about, you copy a disk partition file, boot it and then install then install the suspicious program. If it works fine, and you're satisfied, you can load it on your host (real) PC. If not, you wipe the parition and you start all over again.
There are so many advantages to this, its hard to believe more people don't use it.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
The New York Times ran a story about this today, I don't have the url handy, but it's in the tech section (free reg, etc...)Although it is still a bit murky on the details, it seems this is actually the backbone of an alternate, pay network. It does mention compensation for users who act as hubs for content and ads, so there goes the "sue 'em for stolen cycles" angle.
Cache Rules Everything Around Me
hola,
1) does this affect the linux version that works with kazaa? (my guess is no)
2) if one run ZoneAlarm on windows and does NOT allow Kazaa to be able to run as server it should surely prevent this shit from working.
my 0.02
Slashdot just posted another story linking to http://msn.com.com/2100-1105-873416.html a few seconds ago, claiming that another P2P network has been discovered within KaZaA -- even though it's the same filing from the same company (Brilliant Digital). It was there for only a couple minutes, tops, until the editors figured it out.
:-)
Ha.
and cydoor and BDE Projector
m l
http://www.sonic.net/~patricko/RemovingKaZaA.ht
The TOS page they have on the web is just a small piece. When you install Kazaa, you get the stuff on that web page plus a whole lot more, including the BDE blurb.
Relying on this is dangerous though, because of what a previous consulting firm I worked for called "The CNN Factor". If it comes out on a slow news day and you end up on Lou Dobbs, your stock will tank. Even if there are 1000 other firms doing exactly the same thing, even if it's 100% legal.
Hell, ask the folks at Anderson how having an image problem can equate to corporate suicide. You might get away with it 100 times, but time 101 you end up on CNN, and that's enough.
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
Bad place to post this, but when KAZAA runs it attempts to locate other PCs on my local LAN. Most users won't see this, but doing a TCPDUMP under Linux you'll be surpised. Just wait until they really fuck you silly!!!!
This has been proven in court over and over. Check past slashdot stories on this and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Om, nomnomnom...
Thanks for the link, Kerio is nice. I was running ZA Pro, but the 'for dummies' interface was annoying me. I'm uninstalling ZA now.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
This has the potential to cost those who pay by the megabyte a great deal more than spam costs them. Some ISP's charge several dollars per megabyte beyond their set monthly limits, and it doesn't take particularly long (on scale of weeks) to get an extra few hundred dollars worth of traffic sent to you down the slowest connection if they use this in an irresposible manner. I suspect that they will assume that everyone is on an "all you can eat" internet plan, and shuffle the data around assuming that no-one will get hurt by this.
I really, really wish I had the programming skills to create a constantly mutating virus that blows away spyware, redistributes itself and then deletes itself, leaving the computer it infects better than what it started as uninfected. And hell, while it's at it, how about it blows some static or DOS attacks the servers of the evil entity of choice (RIAA, MPAA, Doubleclick, Brilliant, bonzi buddy, you get the idea...)
Kris
botboy60@hotmail.com
Nerdnetwork.net
and this is one of the many reasons I use KaZaA Lite
Knowing my luck this will get -1 Offtopic....
My life's goal is to get a score of +3!
Easy: their geeky friends would tell them "Don't download Kazaa: it's dangerous for you. Instead, download OpenKazaa: it's faster, safer, and still interoperates with the original version."
In different words, non-technical users benefit because a few technical users would quickly make a version without the security problems, something that can't be done for closed source code.
My point is as topic. A licence agreement is just that, a licence agreement. A software designer has a responsibility to design software that doesn't kill. No matter what the EULA states. Law overides EULA's. Even though the above case is extreme, there are common examples where law overides EULA's. For example, in Australia it is legal to decompile and disassemble software for the purpose of research or developing interfaces. Even if the EULA says its not allowed. Society has made a decision about what's acceptable and whats not, and whats economically and socially benefitial and these decisions are reflected in laws. Australia also has laws about the clarity of licence conditions, and just because you get a blind man to sign a contract doesn't mean its legally binding. The people purposing the agreement have a responsibility to explain the agreement to the reciever, even if they're not specifically asked. Kazaa's developers may not have aduquately explained their licence agreement fully. Since their licencing procedure is not necessarily legal, their licence is not legally binding. Legally, I have granted them no rights. So installing a alleged trojan is a breech of privacy and a illigal use of a computer system.
Of course, your local laws my be different, but from what I've heard, what Kazaa has done is deceptive, and hence, at least under my local laws illigal. I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but I couldn't imagine that Australia is the only place with privacy and deceptive licencing legisation.