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.

Comments

That's "Mister Karma Ho'" (how to remove it)

[Cpt_Kirks]

Here's how to remove the "Brilliant" code.

Re:That's "Mister Karma Ho'" (how to remove it)

[cscx]

You're kidding me, right? They just figured this out?!? I don't want to sound like a prick, but I removed this right away (along with clicktilluwin) back in the day when I used to actually run KazAA. Key is to MAKE SURE YOU ARE RUNNING A SOFTWARE FIREWALL. I recommend Tiny Personal Firewall. Cause it's free, small, fast, runs as a service, and highly configurable, and it's just plain ol' Windows forms, not that ooey-gooey-let's-dress-this-up-with-pretty-picture s type of software firewall. Only problem is that it can't compute the MD5 for network programs that you are running off a samba share, but that is not a big problem. Anyway, during the Kazaa install, it's amazing to see how many programs actually try to access the net. You basically have to sandbox the installer, it's pathetic. ClickTillUWin used to launch from a RAR SFX package hidden well within your %temp% directory, and there was always the BDE program in question, to which I never agreed to install. But it's there anyway, and you need to remove it. If I remember correctly, it installs something else after you uninstall it, or that may be clicktilluwin, so don't quote me on that. But those propagating "un"-installers are downright sneaky.

Just get KazaaLite

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Get Kazaa Lite

[spav]

Um....Get Kazaa Lite...no more crapware, same old Kazaa.

Why I use Kazaa.

[Julius X]

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.

Altnet announce on Brilliant Digital

[Jungle guy]

Check out these links: www.brilliantdigital.com/content.asp?ID=781 and www.brilliantdigital.com/content.asp?ID=779.

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!

How to remove - quick version

[tartanboy]

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(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.

Why I still use KaZaA

[seldolivaw]

1. Morpheus is dead, and Gnutella clients are improving, but are not nearly good enough yet.
   
2. I find what I'm looking for. The user base is huge, 1,000,000+ users online at any time, so I'm very seldom disappointed. Using LimeWire and Bearshare (which I tested out when Morpheus first died) successful results take longer and downloads are more likely to abort unsuccessfully.
   
3. It's slick. Morpheus 2.0, BearShare and LimeWire were all huge resource hogs, and took hours to even find some servers to connect to, far less find me any media. And -- a minor but significant point -- their interfaces suck big time. LimeWire's was the best GUI, but the worst results, sadly.
   
4. Only moron users can't tell that KaZaA is loaded with spyware. If you're moderately experienced, it's piss-easy to choose the "custom install" option when installing KaZaA. All the spyware programs are clearly listed in that install, and avoiding them is as easy as unchecking the boxes (though the install program is cute, and asks you not to "in order to support our software").
   

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.

Re:Why I still use KaZaA

[Tom7]

This is an excellent troll. So much so that I can't even resist responding!

KaZaa asks you about a *few* of the many spyware apps they want to install on your computer. But MANY of them are installed regardless of what you choose. Try running Ad-Aware on your machine, or check out the uninstallation instructions for their newest thing (they one that this article is about).

Re:Informed consent

[nuggz]

So, just because they don't read it, doesn't mean it isn't there.

When you sign a legal contract with lots of fine print you don't understand doesn't mean you aren't bound by it.

try limewire

[asv108]

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.