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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."
A program used primarily for copyright infringement has been reverse-engineered and redistributed. Does this mean that the DMCA has officially cancelled itself out? :)
software thats been hacked by a friendly neighborhood russian hacker. its new kazaa light, with new and improved spyware, and a few extra trojans as an added bonus!
I ate my sig.
The site for the KAZAA without adware/spyware is chock full of pop-ups for "free cellphones" and the like.
"Dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire" --Robert Frost
Been using it for 2 weeks now.
Boy is life good without tons of popups.
And my firewall hasn't busted Kazaa Lite doing anything funky either.
Low popups, low funk, all good.
yummy.
There are some mirrors at http://www.kazaalite.tk/ when kazzalite.com crumples under the slashdot effect.
I'm at 50, so I'm not karma whoreing.
Is this some sort of CPM joke? This thing doesn't run on my computer. I tried doing chmod +x and downloading it multiple times, but it still doesn't work.
Besides that, the files are 10 days old. That's old software. How do I know that there hasn't been any bitrot?
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Kazaa Lite is 'spyware free' says creator
By James Middleton [19-04-2002]
Hacked version of file sharing software Kazaa users can now get hold of a hacked version of the peer-to-peer file sharing software which claims to be spyware free.
Earlier this month Kazaa users discovered that the client software includes what is effectively a Trojan program which connects to another network called Altnet and taps the user's processing power and storage space.
Brilliant Digital Media, the company behind the stealth peer-to-peer software, plans to activate the software on users' machines in the next few weeks and sell the resources to be used for distributed computing.
But recently released Kazaa Lite software is a hacked-up version of the Kazaa client without the third party software or banner adverts.
Created by a Russian programmer known only as 'Yuri', the illicit Kazaa Lite was developed as an alternative 'non-misleading' version of the software.
Kazaa Lite has also caught the attention of Sharman Networks, the developer of the original Kazaa software. Sharman said that it will vigorously defend its rights but has not said that it will take legal action against Kazaa Lite.
It would be difficult to block Kazaa Lite clients from accessing the Kazaa network simply because of the openness of the system which lets millions of users log on simultaneously.
KazaaLite.com has reported over 80,000 downloads since the program was released and no interoperability problems with the Kazaa network.
More info can be found at Kazaalite.com.
Instead of Kazaa et al I have switched to Gnucleus. This is one of the only real Open Source Gnutella network clients for Windows. For Linux there are so many great Open Source Gnutella clients.
It works great. No spyware or addware, and since the Gnutella network is an open P2P network it can be expected to exist when all the other proprietary networks have been closed.
According to this this article Sharman Networks is planning on taking action against Kazaa Lite...i figure it wont be long till their network wont work properly with the program (much like Morpheous).
Oh well im sure those fun-loving Russians will fight back when it happens, should be fun to watch
For the DIY-crowd, ad-aware will clean up the mess Kazaa leaves behind without too much hassle. Grab it here. It's quite nice package, too. I have it running at every startup and it's not that rare to get a "visitor" regularly. In fact, it's so nice I've been thinking of investing the $15 for the plus-version.
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".
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.
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.)
"Lite" in this case means removing all the scumware from Kazaa, not removing IE (because it uses IE for content, and while you may think IE is "bad", it's not typically considered scumware). Thus, it still requires IE, and if that keeps the normal Kazaa from working under WINE, this version will be no different.
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.
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...
Wait a minute...that was a while ago.
You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
It took a while to realize what kind of spyware kazaa was, even with lots of people using it for a long time.
Now we have this 'hacked' version with the spyware apparently removed. I don't know the author, there is no company behind it, it is not open source... and nonetheless we all jump over it, trusting it does what it says...
How do I know it doesn't contain some extra spyware?
I have not any indication that kazaalite is not a legitimate software, but again, I have not any indication on the contrary... I think there is something very wrong in the way we accept and instantly trust new software.
My question is WHY should I trust this more than kazaa?
What happened with Linux version of Kazaa client? Are there plans to make it back?
Be careful of saying things like "the only way Kazaa could block it is...". There is always another way. In fact, I thought of one while reading your post:
Imagine that one of the pieces of spyware is designed to send out an "I'm alive!" message to a central server, to let it know that it has an activated client. This isn't too hard to imagine, I don't think. Suppose Kazaa blocked access to its network to any host that did not send an "I'm alive!" message. There you go, it's blocked.
Now, the Russian folks could combat this with two different techniques: modify the Kazaa client itself to send out the "I'm alive!" message, but this will likely cause CRC/integrity checks to fail.
The other possibility is to create a new process that sends the "I'm alive!" messages to the spyware servers. Problem with this is, it isn't much better than the spyware it replaced, in terms of system and network resources.
Easy. None of the damn things scale.
Napster was great untill too many people used Napster. Then it was Gnutella, but soon too many people used that too. Then Morpheus, then Kazaa... Each emerges, gains popularity, and is destroyed by it's own popularity.
Here's a clue - any network where a message from a client is supposed to perpetuate to every other client is doomed to failure as the number of users increase. No amount of CPU or bandwidth that we will see in the near future can save it.
Who is starting the next P2P sacrifical network? Might as well get on board before it becomes popular and the honeymoon ends.
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)