Slashdot Mirror
Spyware Makers Resent Cleaned-Up Versions
Tri0de points to a ZDnet artcle on a programmer who's taken it upon himself to release spyware- and adware-free versions of popular file-sharing programs. "'He's done Grokster and iMesh. And he's not alone. His work, now available through the Grokster and iMesh networks themselves, joins that of other programmers who have previously "cleaned" programs such as Kazaa and Audiogalaxy in a campaign against "adware" and "spyware."
Is the shoe on the other foot?'"
between ad-ware and spyware.... especially since the spyware in RadLight uninstalls Ad-Aware. Sure there's something saything that it will disable Ad-aware buried somewhere in the EULA, but we all know how long and complicated those things are.
I think it's very funny that it took another hacker to figure out that kazaa etc. could be disabled in this way. If the RIAA had any brains at all, they would have figured this out and ... uhh ... wait a minute, maybe Yuri == RIAA?
Get mozilla. It has popup filtering built in. Trust me, it is a *godsend*
This is actually what happens in some industries: publishing, film and the like. That especially in the lower levels, people are willing to work for free or close to it, so that it becomes impossible to make a living in it. (How do they do it? More often than not, the ranks of publishing houses and indie film studios are filled with trust-fund kids and rich kids whose folks are willing and able to underwrite the first few years of their careers. The publishing industry in particular is ripe with rich girls who are keeping busy until they get married.)
In the case of Kazaa, its actually quite easy to make your own 'lite' version, there are plenty of sites with instructions on how to do this. Taken from a post to usenet:
/* Install KaZaa 1.6 */
1) Install the new KaZaa, then close the application when all finished.
/* Begin Brilliant Digital Uninstall */
2) In Control Panel, click Add/Remove Programs and find "b3d Projector".
Uninstall this application (make sure all browsers are closed or it won't
work)
3) Find a folder called "b3duninstall" located usually directly in your
Windows folder. Delete this folder.
4) Locate the following files:
> bdedownloader.dll
> bdedata2.dll
> bdefdi.dll
> bdeinsta2.dll
> bdeinstall.exe
> bdesecureinstall.cab
> bdesecureinstall.exe
> bdeverify.exe
> bdeverify.dll
They are usually located in your Windows/System, Windows/System32 folder.
Rename each file adding a ".bak" to the end. (or Delete them if you don't
care about backing them up)
-->Note to Borland users: Borland software creates files that start with
"BDE" as well, so be careful.
/* Brilliant Digital Uninstall done, proceed to Cydoor crippling */
5) Download the dummy cd_clint.dll package at
http://www.cexx.org/cd_clint.zip
6) Go to your Windows/System32 folder. Find "CD_Clint.dll" and rename it to
"CD_Clint.dll.bak"
7) Extract the "CD_Clint.dll" file from the package you got in step 5 into
the Windows/System32 folder (thus replacing the old CD_Clint you backed up
in step 6).
/* Cydoor crippled. */
I.O.U One Sig.
I think he was saying that as long as programs include spyware, someone else will be there to release a castrated version.
- Free tabletop fantasy gaming! Grey Lotus
For those interested, there's an interview conducted by Zeropaid of Dr. Damn. In related news, Zeropaid recently added several interviews, including: Pablo from Blubster, John Marshall creator of Gnucleus (victim of Morpheus PE rip off), the Limewire Team, Team XoloX, and Travis Hill of MediaEnforcer. Interesting read, a while back Zeropaid also reported on Sharman Network's attitude towards Kazaa Lite, the spyware-free Kazaa by Yuri.
"The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
I'm pretty sure that very shortly after Music City released the "preview edition" of the new Morpheus after being reamed by Kazaa they made the source code available for it (as I remember, a face lifted gnucleus). So how did they steal source for a month ? You don't have to release source until you release the binary. And if you don't release the binary you never have to release the source.
NZ Electronics Enthusiasts: Check out my Trade Me Listings
Or you could just go with IRC (obligatory link for newbies) and screw all that schmansy luser "p2p" crap. :)
Ooops.
Ad-aware removes some files that are part of KaZaA Lite that are meant to fool the modified KaZaA into thinking that the spyware is still there. You probably removed the "dummy files" that need to be in place to fool the KaZaA in KaZaA Lite.
You probably didn't have spyware afterall, but ended up crippling KaZaA Lite with Ad-Aware :-)
Anyway, why are you using that proprietary, closed source P2P tool anyway? Check out Gnucleus for Windows, a GPLed Gnutella client with swarming and SuperNode support, and tons of users without spyware, limits, or the RIAA on its tail: (http://www.gnucleus.net)
This sig provides no comical value.
For everybody who jumped on the bandwagon about the evil in the replacement dll for cydoor I went and did a little research..the code is distributed with the binary and all it is is the Cydoor SDK implemented except all the functions just do nothing or return 1. (www.cydoor.com/sdk helped them out on this one)... If your really that worried about this then just recompile the DLL on your own. The source is in www.cexx.com 's ZIP file of cl_clint.dll... The only thing I've found is that the version of KaZaa I have crashes if I try to use the DLL althought I haven't tried compilig it myself yet... They refer to this as the "AdWare Condom"
If religous zealots don't believe in Evolution, then why are they so worried about bird flu?
The act of duplicating a file from one computer to another computer is not illegal, nor will it ever be.
:) Good luck.
Allow me to qualify.
"The act of duplicating a copyrighted file without permission from one computer to another computer is illegal, and always has been, save only for fair use."
Fair use claims also have to be made in court, btw.
(see http://www.copyright.gov/title17/ for more information. IANALBIPON/.)
That's probably because all the author did was replace the dll with one that just does nothing.
AD Aware just checks if the dll exists, and voila, you got a hit.
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
If you run the normal version of Kazaa and use adaware to remove cydoor it will refuse to boot up anymore. The included file is nothing more then a dummy file. If you read the installation instructions of Kazaa Lite it says that when Ad Aware finds this file to ignore it because it is nothing more then a dummy file which i have personally verified.
In a world where the vast majority of individuals have never heard of GNU, Richard Stallman etc.etc. this product is free.
Yes it's free as in "free beer" and not "free speech" but the reality is that the masses don't give a flying fuck about the "free speech" bit.
For them, the criteria for something being free is:
If both answers are "no" then it's free. Period.
Whereas we like the idea of having the source code, being able to modify it and pass it on, your joe sixpack just wants to know if he's going to get the police come chasing after him if he gives it to a load of mates. He doesn't care about the source code (mainly because he can't read it and wouldn't know what to do with it) and he's certainly not interested in making any modifications and redistributing it.
Under this, the following products (and many more) are considered free:
and so on and so on.
So the point here is that although it's not "truely free" it can and will still be considered "free".
And until the GPL is known to the majority of the people in the world, this is the way "free" is always going to be considered.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.