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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."
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.
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.
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 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
Given that the supposed quote from the Terms of Service given in the page doesn't actually appear in the Terms of Use listed on the KaZaA site, it's probably safe to assume it's a joke.
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
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
jeez, april fools day has turned all us slashdotters into a bunch of cranky, trust-no-one cynics.
oh wait..
generic-man wrote:
;).
.Net (the reality so far) and Millenium (the research project) is that Java (the Millenium Java VM was called "Borg") has been replaced by C#.
l lennium/mgoals.html and http://www.research.microsoft.com/research/sn/). The only "fool" is the person who sits by and lets Microsoft use this to gain control of the entire computing industry on this planet forever (or at least the thousand year kingdom that is what the word "Millenium" means).
> KaZaA is a program used exclusively to steal music, movies, and
> software.
I wouldn't know about that, having (thankfully) never used it. I get my mp3's off my extensive CD collection (Manilow, Mozart, Mothra, etc. -and that's just the M's
> Windows XP is an operating system. It can be used for legitimate
> purposes.
Juno can be used for legitimate purposes. It started a distributed computing plan that required the user's computer to remain on at all times and connect to Juno regularly (at the user's expense if their access number was a toll number). That created a real storm of controversy.
Google can be used for legitimate purposes. Its toolbar is also a distributed computing application.
And please, do not think for a minute that Microsoft is far behind. Microsoft Research had a project called "Millenium" that called for distributed computing among other things. Millenium's marketing name appears to be ".Net". Ever heard of it?
If you have Windows XP, you have agreed to let Microsoft install any "upgrade" it wants to on your computer. That's all they need to sneak one of these applications on your computer and start harvesting CPU cycles, if they haven't already.
Ultimately, Millenium is to be a global super-cluster of all the Windows computers (if not all the computers period) in the world. Your data and applications will be stored where ever Millenium wants them to be stored (maybe even on one of your competitor's hard drives?!?). Both applications and multimedia content will run on a pay as you use basis (with digital rights management). The file system will be a universal data store based on SQL Server (say bye-bye to your favorite standard file formats). You will boot your new PC with the Millenium disk, and after a process similar to today's product activation, your computer will join (be assimilated by) the Millenium network. About the only thing different between
The above post is ***not*** an April Fools joke. It is based in part on documentation available on Microsoft's web site (http://www.research.microsoft.com/research/os/Mi
What happens when you embrace and extend Godzilla? Nuclear heartburn!
See "Godzilla 2000" (released in Japan as "Godzilla 2000 Millenium") for details.
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
If you're using Kazaa, you did consent. Read the EULA sometime.
4. Upgrades and Access.
(a) You acknowledge that BDE may from time to time provide future programming fixes, updates and upgrades to you ("b3d Updates"), including automatic updates to KaZaA and other software bundled with KaZaA, 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 b3d Updates.
(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.
Of course, EULAs have yet to be stress-tested in our court system, but are *you* going to have the money to win the court case?
Erik
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.
"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.