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."

Comments

EULA

[ralian]

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."