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CEO of Brilliant Defends Sneaky Installation Practices
Em Emalb and other readers sent in follow-ups to our earlier story about yet more bundled crapware with Kazaa. Kazaa says they didn't do anything wrong; and so does Brilliant's CEO. I don't understand why anyone is still installing Kazaa, given their track record. Brilliant's brilliant plan is to use your computer to distribute their advertising, and give out Altnet resource dollars in exchange.
The company's name, if not it's plan, is a stroke of genius...
then again, it is a Brilliant plan to take over the computing power of the world.
maybe if they would add the features we want into gnutella, or at least make it more scalable, we'd switch over!
this sig limit is too small to put anything good h
They didn't do anything wrong, but what they are doing is going to loose them users. Corporate types don't understand the mind set of computer users. And if they do, they ignore it.
ender-iii
Gaining access to someone's computer system through deceptive means, and using their resources and information for personal gain? Something like that, perhaps?
This means that the CEO of Brilliant is practicially Osama bin Laden! (or something like that...)
Got Rhinos?
What kind of ass would name their company, "Brilliant" anyway?
Walt Walterson.
tcd004
" don't understand why anyone is still installing Kazaa, given their track record."
Because 99.9% of Kazaa users don't know about slashdot, don't know about spyware, and don't even care when I tell them.
All they want is to add to their 100GB collection of mp3's.
Anyone living in the dorms right now can attest to this I'm sure. It also makes me realize where the RIAA is coming from, when kids literally skip classes to download more music and movies.
When I went to that news.com link the Gigantic quarter page size ad in that article has big bold letters that says "dont accept the lies"
heh.
air and light and time and space
i have seen a rampant posting of news.com.COM sites, i was wondering if anyone has caught on that these are a joke yet?
-ThE_DoOmSmItH
-TubaMan / ThE_DoOmSmItH
Here's how to remove the "Brilliant" code.
If the record companies had a central server with ALL their music, in high quality, with fast downloads, I wouldnt mind them either a.) stealing my extra cycles or b.) actually paying for it. That was my problem with paying for Napster. I am not going to pay for a product that isnt 100% gauranteed high quality. Just my $0.02
Whether its use is to destroy data or merely to send out data without your knowledge. Eventually there will be a legal battle over this. I don't care what the TOS say.
The reason people still use it, is because despite it's annoyances, it is /very/ easy to get a hold of software. I have a friend who swears by it, and related this bit of fact.
He just started classes and needed VB6 for the homework assignments. He went home logged on to kazaa, and withing 3-4 hours he had it downloaded and installed. Yes it is illegal, yes it probably shouldn't happen. But if he can save a couple hundred dollars while going to school, I know he'll do it.
Find him something else as good, without the annoyances, and I guarantee he will use it. Until then, he'll live with the pop-ups.
-= Xafloc =-
alinuxbox.com
N
The reason why people still use Kazaa over alternatives is that the Gnutella network tends to have poor selection, is slower, etc. etc. Personally I think AudioGalaxy is better than both, but then I prefer to less mainstream music it caters to.
As with all annoying advertisements the consumer has to balance the cost versus the benefit. Personally while I'd hate to have more ads, are they really using up that much more bandwidth than sharing my songs? Probably not. So long as there aren't pop-ups that my popup killer can't handle I don't really care. Besides which when I'm not looking for music I don't have Kazaa (or Morpheus or AudioGalaxy) running on my system.
I think that this sort of crap sucks but may be useful.
Maybe we will have a software disclosure requirement. All software should have a clear and complete explanation of what it does. If the function is not properly disclosed the supplier should be liable for any actions that may result.
Of course they should be what a reasonable person would expect, and accidents do happen.
Added benefit, open source software does fully disclose what the software does.
www.kazaalite.tk
Extra Features compared to original KaZaA
- No Adware
- No Spyware
- No banners
- No bitratelimit for mp3 files
- No irritating websites loaded into KaZaA
- No crappy BDE Viewer
- No f*cking Bonzi Buddy
- Set up multiple users with the included PseudoTrack tool
From what I have heard/read lately, it seems that this trojan program is silently installed on to a users hard drive.
If a user decides to remove their install of Kazaa, then Kazaa should remove ALL traces of what it put on a users computer.
By hiding it, and making it virtually impossible for a casual user to remove, this should definately be classified as a trojan. Also, I have heard that Kazaa claims that this program is only active when the client is runnng/connected. If this is the case, then why wouldn't it automagically uninstall if you chose to remove Kazaa from your computer?
I'm just hoping that, for once, the RIAA strings these people up. Ask for permission to use my cycles, I will probably let you. Hide it in your 1,000,000 page EULA, go to hell. This is almost as bad as when WebHancer was bundled with AudioGalaxy.
-S
We Apprentice Developers and Designers
I think 'parasiteware' would be an adequate term for Brilliant's "product". Like a tapeworm, it sneaks its way into your system and starts absorbing nutrients.
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
Speaking of kazaa...
Is the linux client officially dead? Can it be downloaded from anywhere? Does it work anymore? Am I the only person that used/remembers this buggy little text client?
We dance to all the wrong songs.
--Refused.
I'm pretty sure if you use Kazaa to pull any of the Celion Dion songs a black hole will form inside your computer.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
Someone got to pay for all the legal costs they're going to incur one day! Let 'em get a few ad dollars! Nothing wrong with that!
Um....Get Kazaa Lite...no more crapware, same old Kazaa.
I belive that companies should explicitely tell us that they are installing another program that does and not only in the EULA. I know that by saying this, spyware woudn't really exists and those installing these programs would be fully aware of what they do. Who want to get some dollars to allow the use of the bandwith they pay for. And of course that 'money' will only worth something on the sites that the spyware installer is affiliated with and it's surely not worth the money you really spend for their use of your computer, bandwith, etc...
Colosse.
Since the software isbeing used for illegal purposes, could the advertisers be liable? They are supporting it, after all...
Best Slashdot Co
What's a spyware free alternative to Kazaa, using the same network? There is more on Kazaa's network than any other P2P network I've used, so I'm not switching. Please offer an alternative client.
Why can't someone create a tool for me to pirate my music without any strings attached!!! This is soooooo unfair.
Why would Kazaa let Brilliant sink them like this. They seem to have a knack for letting any unscrupulous company bundle shiteware into their program. It's like watching a good friend date the same loser guys over and over again, not realizing... oh, sorry.
Before the flame war starts, the above post was a joke. It was intended to be sarcastic, not serious. Get a grip, people.
Got Rhinos?
Open source software keeps looking better and better all the time,
as commercial software just gets dirtier and sneakier...
I wonder where the EULA mania will stop?
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
blablabla..
3197 D) All your base belong to us for fifteen minutes..
The reason I still use Kazaa is simple. You can disable the spyware, and when it's done, Kazaa is quite simply the best P2P that I've found. I can always download anything I'm looking for and never have to worry about not being able to find something, because its always there.
As for the spyware, do a quick search on usenet or using Google and you'll find how to disable it. I've had all of Kazaa's Spyware components disabled for a few months now.
-Julius X
remove "-whatkindofspamdoyoutakemefor-" from email to send
Users DONT READ the EULA's, Users ARE NOT COMPANIES. THEY DONT CARE ABOUT EULA's. When was the last time you read it before clicking "I AGREE".
Im of the fortunate people who knows how declaw kazaa and all its crap that comes with it.
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
What I want to know is why Anti-Virus vendors don't just go a head and classify this stuff as a virus and do us all a favor and get rid of this crap for us.
Yeah, like a "start" screen with an integrated gecko component so we could browse slashdot inside our p2p app like I'm doing right now in KaZaALite. Tho if they put html in gnutella I'm sure we wouldn't have to map desktop.kazaa.com to /.'s IP addy in our hosts file to change the start page.
These links were posted today in Kazaa.com, but shortly after they were deleted. They were in a page where you could read:
"We are proud to announce our partnership with Altnet. As our relationship evolves you will see an evolution in p2p software, taking KaZaA to a completely new dimension without sacrificing any of the things you enjoy in the software."
Yada, Yada
"With Altnet, consumers will be able to opt in to making certain parts of their computing power available to businesses. This may include disk space, processing power or bandwidth. You will know exactly how a business would like to use your resources at the time of use. You choose what jobs can use your machine and which ones cannot. You earn redeemable points for sharing your resource."
Kazaa.com was so "proud" of this partnership that the page was removed from their server in the same day!
[snip] The news has also thrown the program's owner into the defensive. Hemming defended Brilliant Digital's plan as a way for all Kazaa users to have a "richer P2P experience," including faster downloads, new kinds of content, and the ability to be compensated for use of their extra computing power. [snip] emphasis mine.
First off, I don't use kazaa, and don't ever intend to use it. I hate spyware and all of the bundled crap that they distribute. Putting that all alside, who is there right mind would want to give a company that has placed software designed to take over your computer and use it for commercial gain without proper concent/disclosure their bank/ccard information.
Not I for one. Give me a break, next thing you know they will be distrubuting the richer p2p experiance of loosing your credit card info to 3 million teenagers who use it to buy the new celion dion albumn that crashes your computer.
-ryanYou know, I wouldn't mind if somebody actually decided to make this the "non-free" part of free downloading, but made it explicit that the cost is not money, but computing power. We had shareware and freeware and adware -- now we can have cycleware. Don't bury it in the EULA; put it out in the open as part of the exchange for use of the product. In return for the use of this software, you agree to let the business use some spare computing cycles for some purpose of their own. That's an equitable arrangement, I think.
Suddenly the guy who has the most powerful processor is really *really* weathy -- at least for a cycle-based economy.
The problem, of course, is what are they doing with those cycles, and how much can the cycleware pull from your computer and send elsewhere. If they're doing some kind of SETI@home thing, or cracking the genetic code of a fruitfly, I guess that's okay. If they're trapping my keystrokes or something like that, I'm likely to get pretty peeved.
Just another argument for applications running in tightly seperated sandboxy virtual machines, I guess.
GMFTatsujin
With companies bundling software like this with our downloads, how long will it be before the EULA says something along the lines of "By clicking agree, the user agress to allow our ads to be tatooed on their forehead."
I don't understand why anyone is still installing Kazaa, given their track record.
You get free sharing across a network, at the price of some advertising.
Lemmie put it into terms slashdotters will understand, at the cost of my karma (cause michael will slap this down in a matter of seconds):
I logged into slashdot today to find that there are LARGE ads in the middle of their articles! I don't understand why people use this site, after their trackrecord of ignoring their users, abusing their power, and insulting the users!
Is that example a troll? A flamebait?
Then so is the article explanation by michael!
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
I support several computer labs at a community college and kids constantly install these unathorized programs in the labs. The computers have some much crap on them that they have to be reimaged routinely. These media arts computers are so overloaded with Photoshop, QuarkXpress, Freehand, etc. that they are touchy anyway. Now add yahoo! messenger, msn messenger, song spy, audio galaxy, etc plus all the spyware crap to every machine. I did convince the powers that be that general labs should be linux or dual boot.
I think its disturbing that more and more programs are having spyware, trojans etc, and no one seems to care more than being a bit upset. Shouldn't these things be illegal, or what? I mean, would people think it's OK if their new car drove around by itself nightly, running over innocent pedestrians? (Think of all the gas lost).
You may get a message that the uninstall has been successful.
Search your computer for a "BDE" folder, which most likely will be found in the "WinNT" or "Windows" directory. In this folder will be a file called "bdeclean.exe". Run this to finish the first part of the process.
Delete the BDE folder.
Caution: An unrelated piece of software called Borland Database Engine also creates a BDE directory. If you think you may have this software installed, or if there is any confusion whatsoever, do not delete this directory.
2.In the "Temp" directory (this will normally be found inside the "Windows" or "WinNT" directory) is a folder called "Brilliant." This contains many files. Delete the entire folder.
3.After performing steps 1 and 2, you will need to locate and remove some additional Brilliant Digital files that have been placed in critical system-level computer directories. CAUTION: Deleting the wrong files could interfere with the normal functioning of your computer. These files will most likely be in the "Windows\System" or "WinNT\System32" folder(in windows XP I found them in Windows\System32\):
bdedownloader.dll
bdedata2.dll
bdefdi.dll
bdeinsta2.dll
bdeinstall.exe
bdesecureinstall.cab
bdesecureinstall.exe
bdeverify.exe
bdeverify.dll
Delete these files.
The ALTNET / b3d client does seem to install itself without asking you, but it sits quietly in the "installed programs" list, and can be uninstalled in 3 clicks (which I performed yesterday after reading Brilliant's plans for ALTNET).
Summary: I use KaZaA because it works, and only morons can't uninstall the spyware.
You bastard! That scared the hell out of me. I should have known better, it being done in Flash.
Evertime an article about how bad Kazaa, morpheus or music city are it should just include a link to Gnucleus as the solution.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
I must agree, FastTrack has much excellentness. I've used it (Morpheus, then Kazaa) to grab all of the Enterprise episodes in flawless VCD format.
Which do you think will come first, a widely-used open hack of FastTrack, or Gnutella being improved to the point where it's just as useful and easy?
dinner: it's what's for beer
Companies like these don't have a good track record for security. How long before the Kazaa/Brilliant virus sweeps the P2P sub-culture?
Remember Lexington Green!
People who install software whose primary purpose (don't lie, now) is to let them steal other people's property are crying because the software is stealing *their* property (their CPU time+ their privacy).
For some odd reason, I am not feeling especially sympathetic.
"After all, he can't build a peer-to-peer network using the computers of people who are angry at him, he says."
Is that so? He managed to get his software on millions of people's computers without the majority of anyone knowing about it or asking for it. Is it that much harder of a step to just activate this network without these angry people knowing about it? I think it would be quite easy, and not below this guy, or Kazaa, at all.
Let's see if we can sum this up...
KaZaa gets a lot of bandwidth from people who are downloading and trading music/video/software on a peer to peer basis. Many of these people do not own what they are distributing/trading. They are thieves.
KaZaa sells spare bandwidth on that network to Brilliant. Kazaa makes money off of the thieves.
Brilliant sells it for advertising, etc... they make money.
I know there are plenty of arguments about the true cost of music, so perhaps even the record companies are thieves. I think this is a case of everyone stealing from everyone. Except the artists, who are forever in the lurch.
I find it ironic that a wildly popular peer-to-peer tools that scares the bejesus out of the media conglomerates is being positioned as the secure delivery vehicle to cater to those same media conglomerates. Were I truly paranoid, I could dream up a scenario in which the RIAA were far more clever than we ever imagined and (a) pursued P2P tools via legal attacks while (b) preparing to use their popularity to distribute their own "secure" network tools for which they hold the keys. Then again, perhaps these Brilliant people are really just clever enough to figure out how to sell P2P to the media giants in a form they can stomach. A fancy trick, that, if they they pull it off.
Tangent:
It's weird, but as I've become a more experienced computer and software user, I've learned that less software is better for me and for my system. This is just one more example of that, as I see it. But unfortunately most computer users (by which, I suppose I mean Windows users) end up downloading dozens of programs they don't want or need. When I check out a family member's or friend's Windows computer they always have these huge Programs menus with entries they don't even recognize anymore. I suspect a lot of people will be surprised if this method of software delivery is copycatted (and I see no reason why it won't catch on very quickly) and months after they've downloaded, installed, and forgotten that VisualBasic gadget du jour that they got from C|Net's download center wakes up the trojan that came along for the ride and starts offering to sell them printer ink or viagra or green cards.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
Happy Birthday!
From the article:
.
When does the Altnet system become active, and what should people expect from it?
We're anticipating that in the next four to six weeks, the working components of the Altnet system will be activated or become active...So we expect between the next 60 to 90 days Altnet will begin making contact with the end users.
.
And then it will start to learn.
5 days later it will be fully conscious...
Hmm, This seems vaguely familiar.
-eddy
Excellent! I can't wait to get ahold of some of those Altnet dollars. I wonder what the exchange rate is on Altnet to TreeLoot dollars? I've punched the monkey too many times to want to change to a different currency.
Some of the best programmers in the world read this site, isn't there a way to add a user interface to "altnet" so the owner of the hardware can use the new p2p network! Then when I download metallica using the new software, the DMCA will go after this clown!
Fight the power!
Try this site:Kazaa Lite
They Claim: - No Adware - No Spyware - No banners - No bitratelimit for mp3 files - No irritating websites loaded into KaZaA - No crappy BDE Viewer - No f*cking Bonzi Buddy - Set up multiple users with the included PseudoTrack tool
Day in and day out people bitch about spyware this and trojan that..
Did you pay for the software? No You didnt.
Is there any harm in a company trying to profit off software they provide? Give me a break. This is nothing but Seti with a P2P attached.
Did you fully read the TOS that came with the software? If you didn't you have no right to complain..
Your all suck as much log as the people who complain about the president.. But never vote..
And sometimes I think some of you would complain if a person gave you a wrinkled $100 bill...
"No its wrinkled I want a new one damn it or I will refuse to take it at all!!"
Personal Website
How about making a hacked client that will have undesired results for these people that are hacking your PC? Honestly, this program is a trojan horse in the basic definition of the term.
Sig missing. Reward.
... but then I have to go and tell other people the terms of them, and how they are breaking their license. St00pid me.
The point is that even if they know they are doing something that the eula says they can not, or the eula gives M$ their soul, people don't care unless the terms are acted upon, or the software quits working.
but ya might want to run a search for BDE in your registry as well and look for keys that would still be left behind?
I don't use Kazaa but it would seem to me that if they are in the business of supplying secure digital content then their clients must be the same bunch as the RIAA and whatnot.
Now if I were copying mp3s illegally I sure wouldn't want them intercepting my search requests, collecting my IP addy and possibly responding.
That would be like the IRS bundling software with Quicken so they could monitor your financial transactions no?
...free beer, with roofies snuck into it.
The cornholing you'll get is an added bonus.
"That new software, the core of Brilliant Digital's Altnet business plan, has the ability to "wake up" and weld the millions of computers on which it has been installed into a new peer-to-peer network, in which each computer can talk to the other. That network, which would be controlled by Brilliant Digital, would be used to distribute content or perform complicated distributed computing tasks for Brilliant Digital's clients."
This tells me that the trojan software that Brilliant fooled millions of people into installing is probably capable of launching a DOS attack if some bright young hacker would care to reverse engineer their software.
What's that on the horizon?? It looks like a herd of lawyers rushing to court to file lawsuits!
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
You may have disabled all their known spyware components, but that doesn't mean you got everything...
Why is there a link to Flooz? According to the website they're bankrupt. Who would ever want money they can't spend?
Sure, some of the blame is for Internet Explorer, but I hate having programs automatically installed when I got to certain web pages...
Check your Windows folder out. Do a Find Files for Brilliant Digital and BDE (Caution: I believe you may find some files from a Borland app that have BDE in them too). Look in your registry too; there's a whole thwack of Brilliant Digital entries in there too.
Use Grokster. Cydoor can be disabled with tool available on the web and still allow Cydoor infected apps to run. I would look it up but I'm sure someone with your considerable computer prwowess can find it.
So...ahh...if you didn't get all of these files, does this make you a moron too?
---
I didn't want to leave this space blank.
Use KaAzalite and you'll miss out on all that free herbal viagara, low-rate home mortgages, and personalized merchant accounts you'll rack up just for spending a few hours downloading tunes.
I was looking for a Linux version of Kazaa and I found giFT. Has anyone used this? It sounds good in theory but is it very usefull in practice?
As I understand things, this software, activated and operating as a content server on my PC, would put me in violation of AT&T Broadband's acceptable use policy for cable modem service (don't bitch at me about how dumb the policy is, I don't like it any better than anyone else and I work for Broadband). The "penalty" for such violations can include having my cable modem service terminated. In such a case, where Brilliant has not taken steps to notify me of the software functions or to check about such term violations, shouldn't they be held responsible for my loss of service?
I dont know about you but now im looking at seriously dumping kazaa. Kazaa "was" good. Not anymore. The only reason they got the users they have now is from the Morpheus fiasco.
o l New Interface
---
Some excerpts from interviews and the kazaa site.
"stand by for something special!" - what do they mean by that. I DO NOT LIKE SUPPRISES. Dont they think they have "supprised" enough people already?
--
http://www.kazaa.com/en/kmd160.htm
---
Co
Our first major interface overhaul in a year! Give your KMD that 'XP Look'! And this is not all we are doing in the interface department... stand by for something special!
---
http://news.com.com/2008-1082-875620.html
There is the potential of compensation for users.
That's the whole purpose of Altnet. The benefit of distributed computing technologies in a global peer-to-peer network is such that many organizations that are using centralized servers models can begin deploying their technologies out to the ultimate edge. The ultimate edge is represented by users of this network.
So the benefits to businesses that are making use of Altnet is being passed on to end users, through a program based around "Altnet resource dollars." Those resource dollars are essentially a reward mechanism for end users who have opted in to the program, to gain a continuous benefit from making their resources available.
That benefit will manifest in inventory provided by Altnet marketing partners who are gaining bandwidth reduction costs and cost savings through the use of Altnet
---
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
Posted from CNet -
John Borland CNET News.com
Brilliant Digital Entertainment quietly installs its own software with every copy of the Kazaa file-swapping software. The Brilliant Digital software, which is being progressively distributed over the next few weeks, can later be remotely "turned on" to become part of a new network.
Executives from Brilliant Digital and Kazaa's parent company say people can uninstall the Brilliant Digital or Altnet software from their computers without interfering with the Kazaa program itself. This is true, but it's not an easy process.
These three steps will remove most traces of the Brilliant Digital software from most machines. CNET News.com did it using a computer running Windows 2000 (news - web sites), but the same process should work for other Windows operating systems. Please be aware, however, that these instructions represent just one uninstall method and may not be suitable for all machines and software configurations.
CNET Networks assumes no liability in publishing these instructions, which people may choose to follow at their own risk. As always, it's a good idea to make a backup of any critical files before proceeding.
1. In the Windows Control Panel, select an option called "Add/Remove Programs." One of the options will be "b3d Projector." Highlight this and click the "Change/Remove" button.
You may get a message that the uninstall has been successful. Search your computer for a "BDE" folder, which most likely will be found in the "WinNT" or "Windows" directory. In this folder will be a file called "bdeclean.exe". Run this to finish the first part of the process. Delete the BDE folder.
Caution: An unrelated piece of software called Borland Database Engine also creates a BDE directory. If you think you may have this software installed, or if there is any confusion whatsoever, do not delete this directory.
2. In the "Temp" directory (this will normally be found inside the "Windows" or "WinNT" directory) is a folder called "Brilliant." This contains many files. Delete the entire folder.
3. After performing steps 1 and 2, you will need to locate and remove some additional Brilliant Digital files that have been placed in critical system-level computer directories. CAUTION: Deleting the wrong files could interfere with the normal functioning of your computer. These files will most likely be in the "Windows\System" or "WinNT\System32" folder:
bdedownloader.dll
bdedata2.dll
bdefdi.dll
bdeinsta2.dll
bdeinstall.exe
bdesecureinstall.cab
bdesecureinstall.exe
bdeverify.exe
bdeverify.dll
Delete these files.
"Goodness, how did you people live long enough to invent tools?" -Hobbes (the tiger, not the philosopher)
I prefer using DC from neo-modus.com myself. Everything broken into hubs. I download lots of Grateful Dead/jamband music, and only in shorten format, so off to the SHN hub I go. You want Anime? Go the any of the *numerous* anime hubs. Star Trek, MP3's, Ogg, you name it there's a hub for it. Did I mention *NO* spyware?
This lesson was brought to you by the letter "Q" an the number 4.
--Dave
I know people have experienced problems with Gnutella clients in the past but Limewire has improved dramatically over the past few months. If your willing to spend $8.50 you can get the pro version which has no bundled software and has a few additional features. You can always use the free version and run Ad Aware to get rid of the additional apps. Limewire is open source too so you can compile it yourself and remove the additional apps plus it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The 2.3 version has a bunch of new features including the ability to search by media type: audio, video, programs, etc.
I don't understand why no one mentions EDonkey2000. Not only does EDonkey have a Windows and Linux client (with a GUI now), but it also allows downloads from multiple sources, so it if finds 20 ppl with the file, you can (potentilly) have a fast transfer.
There are hundreds of Edonkey hosts (which just manage the clients), and these have hundreds of thousands of files each. I've never failed to find anything I'm looking for on EDonkey, and its the only file share program I use.
I've installed P2P file sharing software.
I've used it to illegally download files. But this is not stealling. No matter how often I download a file the original creater (or the copyright holder, if they are not one and the same) still has the full use of this file.
But when someone takes up disk space, uses up CPU time and hogs bandwidth on my computer they are depleting resources which I can no longer fully use.
That's the difference between the two.
Because its written in MFC!
Tired of money-grubbing corporations running file-sharing software? Disappointed that Gnutella doesn't offer the community aspect you've been looking for?
http://www.beshare.com/
Now with Windows (and very soon Linux) file sharing:
http://www.ozone-o3.net/
I don't understand why anyone puts up with this... this is nothing more than a trojan, isn't it?? why doesn't someone write some "software" that will upload crap data all day long (www.kazaasucksafatty.com was visited a billion times)... distribute it...
free music free software free porn those are the 3 main reasons why i and thousands of others are installing kazaa
{TheT3chfreak}
.. I use this brilliant software called Ad-aware to keep my system free of spyware programs.
Kazaa downloads from multiple sources, as well, and simply has more users with more files available. Even if I can find everything with some other tool, there are better chances that I'll find more sites having the same file with Kazaa, and the "multiple sources" download will run faster.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
Here http://kazaalite.lunarpages.com/
ive tried it and its pretty cool, but they need mirrors.
"The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else." - Bush 05
The irony is that with all this underhanded maneuvering, combative bullshit, pushing the limits of business ethics, and general bad karma, these bottom feeders are still not making a penny! Nor is there any evidence they ever will. I'm glad I'm not a shareholder...
There are hordes of people who would download and use Kazaa even if they were aware (assumes alot) of a EULA that said "By agreeing to use our software, you support our policy of rectal electrocution torture of cute furry bunnies for no reason at all except our disagreeable sense of humor. In fact, each IP of each user on Kazaa has it's own bunny that receives a shock for each packet you receive on our network. Have a nice day."
;-P
Jokes aside, you are looking at the future of P2P my friends.
People are entirely willing to make the trade of bandwidth and processing power for services, if they don't have to suffer for it themselves, no matter how slimy the service. If the clock cycles and packet load is small enough, who can blame them?
You want mp3s? Serve ads for me. What the heck is wrong with that, really, from the users point of view?
Slimy? Yes.
Sneaky? Yes.
Underhanded and contributing to the corporatization and monotonization and overall disagreeable nature of the Internet? Undoubtedly.
But: A smart business move? Absolutely.
A win-win for vendor and end-user of a piece of P2P software? Completely.
Do you want me to suggest something UTTERLY EVIL? Howabout an end-user agreeing saying every night at midnight, 100 pieces of Spam will be sent out via their email client. If they write the software that anoymizes the Spam, i see hordes of people agreeing to this! And how far away is this really? And how hard would Spam be to fight then? Kazaa already has a prominent menu item which sends "use Kazaa" Spam to anyone the user wants to, all preformatted and ready to go.
Mark my words: this little "Brilliant" scheme is no blatant out-of-the way one-time dastardly move. It is the future.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Unless you are truly a power user, you do not have bandwidth to share. Your ISP probably sells you service, not bandwidth. That's why you can't call up your provider and say "Hey, when I download pr0n at 8PM my download is really slow, where's all that bandwidth I bought?". That's also why service providers are not happy about people setting up neighborhood 802.11 networks with only one person paying them for service (hey, you're just sharing your bandwidth, right?). No internet service ever gives you a gaurantee of throughput. In fact, every service provider over sells their bandwidth because most of your online time is spent reading not receiving (or sending).
You don't own the bandwidth, your provider does. If Brilliant is using that bandwidth, and is not providing the user with anything and is detrimental to the service of other people using that service provider, what you have is misappropriated bandwidth. With any luck AT&T will show up at Brilliant's office asking them to pay for it.
What Brilliant is doing is trying to make money by carving it out of the margins of the providers who would normally charge advertisers for hosting. The same amount of load is on the network, but the people carrying the load will get less income for it (and none of those companies have fat margins anymore).
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
This is something to be very afraid of if people who are not fans of Western culture manage to develop it first.
Interestingly, it looks like you could purchase access to this much computing power by buying out BDE for a mere $6 million.
Take a look at BDE's stock history.
.COM's that saw their stock go from ~$15.00 to it's current state of roughly 50 cents.
:)
BDE was one of the (many) hard hit
They are looking for a new revenue source, and they know now that selling ads for their web based animation movies isn't going to cut it. What better than an audience that for the most part is going to be completely unaware that they are suddenly a part of this (not everyone reads Slashdot).
What will the average user do? Ignore the ads. If the software bothers them, they they MIGHT delete it, but chances are that the AVERAGE user doesn't care, and BDE is completely aware of this fact. Honestly BDE has found a newly discovered resource, and they're going to use it. BECAUSE they want to make money off all those people sharing files. Honestly, probably not a bad idea. Share and share alike?
How many dorm-room based students will suddenly become a part of this network? Just think about the number of AIM clients running in the dorms, and you've got a good guess.
The average user doesn't really care about ads, or even processing, provided it doesn't interfere with the functionality of the computer.
Cheers.
- Sighuh?
Keep in mind Brilliant's stock history:
& t=2y&l=on&z=m&q=b
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BDE&d=c&k=c1&a=v&p=s
They've already lost tens of millions of dollars of investor's money, on a failed computer game system. They have to fight very hard to survive another quarter. With such desperation, it seems likely they'll do whatever they can to make some money.
I wonder at whose expense?
Your typical Windows user doesn't care. Back in '01 when the spyware stuff started to surface I told a coworker about it all. Her reply was "I have nothing on my PC for them to look at anyway and I don't care who sees where I go."
Jump on the e-donkey
Welp, I've liked KaZaA alot. Their interface is less bloat than Morpheus' and d/ls are fast. But these fucks just don't understand what the P2P revolution is all about. HINT: sneaking in extra unwanted software is not part of the revolution.
Time to switch over to Grokster, which doesn't -- yet -- have any of this bullshit.
On another vein, LimeWire is, as always, good. People complain about the slow speed of LimeWire...well, yes it downloads individual songs slowly. Did it ever occur to anyone to download many songs at once, thus to push your bandwidth to the max?
Also, though people complain about the ads and periphery bloatware software in LimeWire, you can remove any periphery software. Furthermore, you can always pay 8.50 and get just pure LimeWire. And if you don't want to do that, LimeWire IS Open-Sourced. Get the code and work with it to eliminate the shit you don't like.
If you really don't like the ads in Limewire, don't bitch about it. Get the source and change it.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
A much smaller and more general explanation for a seed AI is here at the Singularity Institute.
Plain and simple, you must be blind, incapable of using Google, or you haven't read a GNUtella News site for years.
... well, you are in serious need of being informed. Give Xolox a try. You will have tons of content available to you, if you give Xolox a few minutes to establish itself within the GNUtella network. Searching for and downloading popular content is fast and easy, while searching for rare obscure content is slower and more tedious.
Xolox is a GNUtella client for Windows that has supported swarming, resume, mirror searching, and many other useful features for a long time now. So long in fact, that this great GNUtella client is no longer being actively developed.
Seriously, I know I am sounding harsh, but either you are lying or
After that, search the net, using Google, for Xolox. Pay attention to dates of the sites/pages were created, pay attention to the numerous news articles and reviews and their dates, and ask yourself how you could be so blind... how you could have been out of the loop for the past couple of years. How the hell could you have not stumbled upon Xolox, the best GNUtella client, even after being no longer being developed for months?!? I think that you checked out Bearshare, Limewire, and formed your opinion. Either that, or you haven't even used GNUtella.
> If IE's Windows integration is a monopoly,
> then I'm all for the removal of Konqueror from
> KDE.
IE in Windows is not what was considered the monopoly. Windows is the monopoly; it is the desktop operating system used on over 90% of desktop PCs. IE's integration into Windows is a probably-illegal use of the Windows monopoly.
As soon as KDE has a monopoly in the desktop operating system market (which would be a REAL trick, since KDE is not an operating system), then I'll agree with you that Konqueror should be removed from KDE.
(And I did do a "No +1" for this off-topic post.)
--- Biffster.org
"Bite my shiny metal ass."
If you want a clean version of Kazaa go to http://www.kazaalite.tk
... limewires better anyway IMHO
or use clean-limewire
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire
its on the kazaa network it has no crapware.
At least it has less crapware.
EDonkey2000 is great. Even better is MLDonkey (an alternative eDonkey client): http://www.freesoftware.fsf.org/mldonkey/
Interesting that the distrubuted network software was introduced in the last two months. I remember running Kazaa at some point during the last two months and recieved a message telling me that a new version of Kazaa is available that will help increase the speed at which search results are returned. It then went on to say the sooner everyone installed it the sooner everyone would benefit.
Is it just me or was there something a bit deceptive going on herre??
Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?
for the tunes,vids, etc you are downloading..
Like a log of what you are doing, and your "credits" for it!
If you are unhappy, tell them:
http://kazaa.com/en/contact/feedback.htm
Be reasonable. If you just flame them, they won't take you seriously (and their customers service dept will be secretly happy that your going to their competitors).
I've managed to convince a few otherwise stubborn people that spyware, malware, and god-knows-what-it's-installing-ware are bad things. After trying several approaches, I found there's one argument that always seems to work: tell them that these sort of junk addons could delete their MP3 collection. The average KaZaA user, as you pointed out, doesn't care much (if all) about the privacy and security implications of clicking through the EULA. What they do care about is their MP3s, and you can use that thought to get them concerned about spyware. Think of it as reverse-psychology FUD; applying facts to a topic that's bound to scare them into paying attention.
To a lot of people, music trading is a compulsion, much like some people "collect" porn or warez. (The comment about kids skipping class to download more is a fairly sad indication of this.) It's not so much about using the stuff, as it is about having the stuff; the bigger the collection the better, etc. Compare someone who's really into MP3 swapping with someone who's really into warez. Chances are, you'll find that they have a large collection, the majority of which they never use personally, and some of which they probably don't even like but have saved to enlarge the packrat's nest. You'll probably also find that they're outright frightened by the thought of losing any of it, even the stuff they don't use. It's a hoarding mentality, regardless of whether it's warez, porn, music, or whatever.
With that knowledge you can make a pretty convincing argument, even to the most computer-ignorant people, about the possible repercussions of disregarding EULAs and letting the installer do whatever it wants. Toss around the idea that the spyware du jour might be a program written by record companies to delete all MP3s on the hard drive. Suggest that hidden background apps might be making lists of MP3 files and sending them to a record company's lawyer. These things are technically possible - and if this Altnet turdlet has been lying dormant and undiscovered in Kazaa for a few months, who knows what else is waiting? Maybe some innocently named function call in an installer-dropped DLL isn't doing what its name would suggest.
Don't get too technical (most people get lost if you say "RIAA" instead of "record company," for instance) but be sure to plant the idea that recklessly installing software could wipe out their music collection, or their porn collection, or [insert whatever data is most valuable to them]. You'll get their attention pretty quickly.
Shaun
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Most universities (mine included) have a policy against using university resources for commercial profit. In fact according to our AUP the students didn't have the right to click 'OK' to install the software. They don't own the bandwith and can't legally give it to someone else.
If someone anally rapes you, is it not a crime because you still have use of your asshole?
Is there any way to be certain the software from Brilliant will be removed if you uninstall Kazaa and delete the program directory?
Why on Earth should content owners -- notice how they're not even "content providers" anymore -- have any "control over the end-user experience"? Why on Earth would I be interested in using a network that gave them such?
Funny, when I buy a book, I can read it. Or read it aloud. Or throw it in the garbage. Or donate it to a library. Or lend it to a friend. Or tear it up and make origami out of it. (OK, not that last -- it'd be cool if I knew how to make origami). Last I checked, neither the author, the publisher, or the distributor can say diddly about my final use, except in the narrow sense that I cannot illegitimately copy it. Why should digital content be given any special treatment?
At least and at last, copyright holders are showing their true colors, with watermarks and generation controls and "authorization devices". It's not about stopping infringement. It's not about selling more stuff. It's about control -- about securing total control to allow eventual maximization of access and profit. And to hell with the end user if they don't like it.
Ah, Cosmo (of Sneakers , you said it best:
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
I searched the topics down to 1 and can't find a definitive answer.
with gator, it can get all his passwords that gator has, and doesn't it store your creditcard info?
I can only conclude this from my own experience and my friends'. I've NEVER installed Kazaa on my computer and I too have been infected by this "Brilliant" *gaghurl* virus.
OK, maybe 'virus' isn't a technically accurate description, but it sure covers the way I feel about this stinking lump of $#!+
I'm not the only one who's in this situation either: (never installed Kazaa, but has installed Morpheus).
Any Win users see how much msbb.exe (packaged with Sandra Sisoft and possibly others) sucks up for resources? 6MBs of Mem Usage! If your games are magically lagging all of a sudden I suggest you check for it in Task Manager.
30% off web hosting. Coupon code "SLASHDOT".
I have downloaded Kazaa and have been using it since Morpheus went to sh*t, er Gnutella. Its the best program out there for getting music/videos/movies, in fact it works extremely well. Do I care if a company is using my computer for advertising? Looking at the sites I view to create a marketing profile for me? Popping up banners ever couple hours? Using my computer for distributed computing? The answer is no. If these things are the price they want for this piece of gold then I will gladly give it to them and wont bi*ch for a second about it. It sounds like a good deal for both ends, them and their end users. We get the music, they get our consumer attention for a couple seconds and our unused computing power. Leave it to slashdot to bitch about everything that isnt absolutely free. This is a small price to pay to use their software.
If you want scalability, might I suggest Circle. Runs on Linux and Windows, open source, no hidden gotchas, and really scalable.
--
Paul Harrison
If someone anally rapes you won't go around claiming they stole your asshole.
Cydoor, is also installed with Kazaa and it a media / marketing company that targets users and suposedly doesn't keep track of recipient behavoir
you be the judge, and not that I'm pluggin this software, but Adaware does a decent job of getting rid of stuff like this.
--- "Just because you can....aw shit do it."
People are still buying and installing Windows, aren't they?
Gnutella? BWAHAHAHAA! Try Direct Connect, or even EDonkey. I can't speak for the second, but the first is WORLDS better than AudioGalaxy and Gnutella combined. mlylecarlin
It is, as expected, about as secure as goatse's rear end.
I could probably have an exploit ready in a few hours - I've already got some perfect-looking eip='AAAA' overflows from the analysis, it's merely a question of determining which one is the most convenient entry point.
Moreover, someone with real brains could usurp the p2p functions and clustering functions altnet already has available for the purposes of evil (or, at least, different evil); something that could easily support a next-generation worm right now, using Kazaa's own supernode structure as the initial vectors for a worm (saving you even the work of a divide-and-conquer or random scanner). Sound far fetched? Hardly, you might as well have a worm-writing SDK.
And with all the bandwidth Kazaa is taking up on many of the users' machines anyway (not to mention all the memory and cpu the other crap is eating), I doubt they'd even notice until a payload was triggered.
I simply can't be direct enough - get this out of your systems, and your users' systems, and your friends' systems, right now. This is not a benign toy, it is not the next distributed.net - it is big fat trouble waiting to happen.
I'm almost tempted to go ahead myself. Maybe it'd teach people a lesson: spyware = software you wouldn't install on it's own = spectacularly badly written, insecure, passively malicious software = bad.
I doubt it though. The sheep will just download _anything_ these days, it seems... *sigh*
The scary thing is that people are more reluctant to part with their money than their personal privacy, freedom, etc. After all, no one would pay for Napster, but most are too lazy to give a crap about spyware and freeloading capitalist distributed processing applications taking residence with them.
I don't expect the Next Big Thing from these people. Their filing looks like Yet Another Failed Dot-Com.
I'm not sure if this is part of the uninstall process (I doubt it). But when I unistalled brilliant's software I ran msconfig and checked my startup programs list. In there was a command telling it to run the b3d setup in silent mode. Is it trying to reinstall itself without you knowing?
Well, not a virus, but I'd certainly call it a trojan. So did Trend and McAfee when they came across the 'dlder' spyware that crept into many P2P apps last year, since it wasn't mentioned in the licence agreement, and some of the apps' companies claimed to have been unaware of it.
In the end, they backed down. McAfee still detects it, but only if you ask it to look for 'other programs' as well as viruses/trojans. There are a few other parasites in this category. But mostly, it's a case of "if it isn't used by 'hackers', it's not a proper trojan".
Luckily, there are others working on anti-spyware software. Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D are the most popular. more info + online check...
no more whining about crapware in kazaa or the death of (usable) morpheus.
;) it's great.
here is the next: KaZaa LITE
it is a 100% ad-/crap-/spy-/nonsenseware stripped (i.e. hacked) version of kazaa media desktop 1.5.
it has NO evil or annoying components in it, last recent build v10 is merely 1MB in size, bitrate limits, popups, blinking and non-blinking banners completely removed
and
it is 100% compatible to the fasttrack-network and is undistinguishable from original kazaa (from the view of the fasttrack network). that way it can't be shut off or rejected, and it works 100% the same as regular kazaa and the old morpheus.
not quite legal I think but absolutely perfect in usability.
if you guys got morpheus 1.3 to work under wine, then kazaa lite should work, too. nearly the same program like all the fasttrack clones...
and if the download mirrors of kazaalite are overloaded again, just try regular filesharing tools to download the kazaalite-installer.
don't complain it's hacked but not open source
there are hacked versions out, that are stripped from any unwanted and stupid crap. don't remember the sites or the names, but you can go to the KaZaa LiTE (kazaa filesharing completely ad and spyware free ;) works great) and click on links..., there are some other spyware-cleaner projects linked, with grokster, limewire, bearshare, audiogalaxy and imesh all cleaned from crap. but i only "tested" (hehe running 24h since 1 week) kazaa lite for now. no need for gnutella if i have crap-free fasttrack...
kazaa lite should also run under WINE-linux, too, but if you prefer gnutella for some reason, limewire in precompiled adware free java-version should be there...
after all, "live for the swarm"
Assuming the poster is correct with linking Altnet to Flooz.com...
How are they going to give out rewards in exchange for using your computer if Flooz is bankrupt? Look at Flooz's website.
This stinks, man. Never trust these deceptive practices or those who practice them...
I must comment on point 1 and 3.
1. "Morpheus is dead"
Not really. Their new approach is to sell music and we all know how well that goes, so perhaps they will die soon.
3. "Morpheus 2.0, BearShare and LimeWire were all huge resource hogs"
Morpheus 2.0 hasn't even been released yet (although the release date was the beginning of April), so I can't really defend it and I am not even sure if I want to. If you are refering to the current preview edition of Morpheus, I can agree, because it is basically an old version of Gnucleus with banners and bigger buttons.
Morpheus 2.0 will use Rebol IOS (in the same way they used the Fasttrack technology in previous versions) and I even sent a mail to Rebol, to confirm this, and got a reply:
Although I haven't tested Rebol IOS, Rebol itself is not a resource hog, and it is available for a large number of platforms. I am not sure if it will ever be as popular as the old Fasttrack network was with Kazaa and the old Morpheus, but I am looking forward to the new version. They have a clear policy against spyware, the client may work with other operating systems than Windows (at least the Rebol technology allows it), and oh, did I mention they are going to use Rebol? :)