Kazaa Lite: spyware-free version

Pig Hogger writes "According to this VNUNET article, KAZAA-Lite, a new hacked version of spyware-ridden KAZAA file-sharing software is being circulated, sans spyware. The new, improved version has apparently been hacked by a russian programmer, as a matter of course."

Comments

Is it actually SPYware?

[EggDye]

This is something I've been wondering about this Kazaa controversy. Sure, an unwanted program designed to take up your hard drive space and CPU cycles is "bad"-ware. It is certainly "undisclosed"-ware and "unwanted"-ware. I would even go so far as to say it is "Flushing Kazaa's reputation down the toilet"-ware. However, is "spy"-ware the right term? While a distributed computing program probably does report a fair amount of information back to the main server, it isn't usually designed to spy of the user.

What I find very strange about this whole thing is why Brilliant Digital Media wasn't more upfront about their program. Would the average computer user totally reject the upfront trade of "You get to use this neato-keen file-sharing network for free, and all you have to give us is a little bit of the computer time and space you aren't using"? I guess it would have just killed them to be honest and straightforward about the deal users were making. To paraphrase a saying "The respect you give is the respect you'll receive".

Re:How long will it last?

[Ilgaz]

Hmmm... You forget something. In fact they forget it. What happens if installer exe copies itself to users shared files folder? Right, P2P :-) How they can shut down 80M servers?

If they manage to stop it (we all know they have that power), it will be a proof for RIAA whatever that its a centralized network.

IMHO people should use gnucleus (http://www.gnucleus.com) and WinMX (OpenNAP protocol) but anyway...

Is a "hacked" version more trustworthy?

[Anonymous Coward]

How much more trustworthy can this hacked version be? At least the makers of the official product have some accountability.

Two common misconceptions in this thread..

[Yakman]

I've noticed two common misconceptions - that the people running Kazaa (Sharman Networks?) can block this client easily. And also that they can stop the client being hosted on websites.

First, it's not that easy to block the client because the client is the same as the one you get from the Kazaa website, it's just had all the spyware and other crap removed. So basically the only way Kazaa could block it is by releasing a new client version and blocking all old versions.

That'd mean all users would need to download a new client (not just the users of Kazaa Lite). Plus the guy would just remove the spyware from the new version and put that up as Kazaa Lite again.

Secondly, if they somehow get the guy to stop allowing people to download from the website the guy can just go and stick it on Gnutella or another P2P service and magic - suddnely it's on 1000s of computers out there.

Basically, as someone else has said, the cat's out of the bag.

Re:Two common misconceptions in this thread..

[Skirwan]

Secondly, if they somehow get the guy to stop allowing people to download from the website the guy can just go and stick it on Gnutella or another P2P service and magic - suddnely it's on 1000s of computers out there.

Is anyone else out there chuckling at the shear meta-hilarity of this whole thing? You're talking about using a peer-to-peer network used primarly for piracy to distribute an illegally modified binary used to connect to another peer-to-peer netowk which is also used primarily for piracy.

We're rapidly approaching the point where the effort it takes to pirate something is less than the effort of going to a store and actually buying the damn thing.

--
Damn the Emperor!

Warezdot.org???

[WhaDaYaKnow]

WTF? I mean, are we going to see front-page links to warez copies of AutoCAD here soon, just because we don't agree with the way Autodesk wrote their software?

It baffles me, because the link is obviously to a piece of software that is not legal, no matter what license agreement or personal feelings.

For a site that is supposed to be so Open Source aware this seems especially strange. Open Source does not condone piracy. Instead it allows for alternatives. So why not have an article about a good Open Source alternative, instead of linking to illegal software?

(Yeah, I don't like spyware either, but if people are stupid enough to install it, then that's there bad. It's an other thing for the company to make it clear that the spyware exists, but these are law-technical issues. Which should be dealth with seperately.)

Re:Warezdot.org???

[tftp]

There are however MANY people here that insist that P2P network are very useful for non-illegal means, although I've not really heard a lot of good examples...

An example you want? Here is one, judge for yourself how good it is.

There are countries other than United States, and those other countries often have sane copyright laws (probably because they didn't have legislature as corrupt as US one). In those countries music and other works of art fall into public domain much faster than in USA.

Some works were always in public domain. Take, for example, songs of Vladimir Vysotsky, even when he was alive. Other works, of other artists, were copyrighted but became public domain long ago, according to laws of that country.

It is a big mistake to treat the whole world as an extension of USA. The world is much larger, and it is not obeying the same insane laws that americans do. Most of the world does not even care about american "top 40" or whatever it is called. Most people on the planet would not listen to those sounds even if they are paid to do so. Finally, most artists in the world have nothing to do with RIAA.

Re:kazaa-lite

[Colz Grigor]

Seems it's not so 'clean' after all -

Cydoor - cd_lint.dll

Well I'll be darned ! - still trojaned :)

If you were intelligent enough to compare file sizes, however, you'd notice that the cd_lint.dll is different than the cd_lint.dll that comes with the bloadted and user-abusive version of Kazaa.

Now why would you suppose that is?! Perhaps it's because Kazaa checks for the cd_lint.dll and won't run without it? Yup. That's it!

So the cd_lint.dll that comes with Kazaa lite still has all the components that Kazaa checks for, but it does nothing.

No trojans for Kazaa Lite, but I think the world would appreciate if you would continue to use them. You're not ready to breed.

::Colz Grigor

Re:kazaa-lite

[Anonymous Coward]

it even says during install "kazaa lite will put a dummy cd_clint.dll in the install folder, this is a harmless version that does nothing, although older ad-aware versions mark it as spyware. this is not true and please choose 'ignore' on this file when running ad-aware"

so we can safely assume that this person cannot read. if microsofts EULA has text like "bill g. is allowed to rip your still beating heart out of your chest if you refuse to burn your linux box" he wouldn't even notice...

Russian law

[k98sven]

Just a thought: Given that Russia does not have a DMCA-type law,
how motivated would they be to extradite these guys to the USA?
(Given, of course, that they figure out whodunnit)

It seems to me the russian police have a bit more important things to do..

Any russians here who'd like to comment on this?

Author's reason to do this...

[jakobgrimstveit]

This explanation is available within the installer file (v1.6.0, english). All in all, this sounds very reasonable and plausible to me:

*** Important Note ***

Why was KaZaA Lite created?

For the same reason as the one why CNET has recently removed KaZaA from its download listings. Alongside the original KaZaA some third party software is distributed. This normally would not be an issue for me since it is mentioned in KaZaA's legal notice. But in this case this third party software severly threatens our privacy. The software from Brilliant Digital goes even beyond that point, acting more and more like a virus. The real workings of these third party software is not sufficiently explained to the end users by KaZaA. The legal notice is very long and difficult to understand, particularly for those whose native language is not English. Fact is that most users of KaZaA don't even know that there were some third party software installed by KaZaA, or more important what that software does. When KaZaA is uninstalled, the third party software is not removed. Removing all traces of this third party software is very difficult, even the biggest computer geeks have troubles with it. Virtually impossible for an average user. KaZaA should make very clear what is installed alongside the KaZaA client itself and what that additional software does, before an end user downloads or installs the KaZaA client software. This way an end user has the choice of using the KaZaA client including all third party software, or not using the KaZaA at all.
Until this happens I am giving the average user a choice to be able to use the KaZaA client without being mislead by KaZaA. Those who have some real knowledge about computers were already able to make their own 'clean' KaZaA client software.

It is not my intention at all to stop KaZaA from earning advertising revenue. In fact, I am thankfull to KaZaA for creating their great software and the FastTrack network. I only want to make clear that KaZaA has to stop misleading the people who use their software. The majority of the users of KaZaA Lite abandoned KaZaA long before KaZaA Lite was created for the reasons I have outlined above. Or they previously did not wanted to use KaZaA because they were aware of its implications. KaZaA Lite users now are a part of the network. The increased number of users on the network due to KaZaA Lite is beneficial for KaZaA, since a large network attracts new users.

"KaZaA, the way P2P should be". I hope this becomes true in the future.