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KaZaA Collapses
MikeKD writes "according to SFGate, KaZaA has announced that it will fold due to the cost of defending itself against the RIAA & MPAA. The timing is notable since on Monday, Altnet (owned by Brillant Digital) announced plans for "sponsored listings in peer-to-peer search" on its "separate [and] secure P2P resource-sharing network"."
Being on the Internet does not make one immune to copyright laws!
I have been pwned because my
Aren't the dutch representatives (the ones beeing sued) not the owner of the software (and with it, the newtork) any longer? Well why should RIAA & Friends sue them any longer? Why didn't they already filed suit against Sherman Networks in OZ? Or does anyone know if they alleged them already for copyright infridgement (lol)?
The Web site and the software behind it are now owned by a privately held firm called Sharman Networks, based in Vanuatu, an island in the Pacific.
This promises to be an interesting legal battle, esp. for jurisdiction and enforcement of any rulings. The question is: Will the servers be moved to Vanuatu as well?
Line 9: Argument of type SIGNATURE expected.
guess i'll have to get my movies and porn somewhere else, it's not like there's a lack of choices
Why would anyone wanna use Kazaa when you could use DirectConnect?
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
I haven't finished downloading Star Wars yet !!
"The collapse of Kazaa, however, is not expected to slow trading activity on the company's network, one of the most popular file-sharing sites in the world. Kazaa said it has sold the network to another firm that the music and film industry has not sued yet. " They sold off all their assets and now they're cashing out. Big deal.
"Kazaa said it has sold the network to another firm that the music and film industry has not sued yet."
:P
Just give them time, just give them a little time and they will have sued every one in the entire world
Sent from your iPad.
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but I'm gonna bet that I'm not the only one who is unhappy about the legality of it, but excited that KaZaa might crash and burn.
Long live Gnutella!
-Jeff
Property is theft.
Why run away to Vanuatu if there's nothing wrong with what you're doing?
Because it is clearly an illegal operation and they are simply taking it offshore to make it more difficult to sue. I gotta side with the plaintiffs here, it really does seem to be a shell game.
I have been pwned because my
The new WinMX v3.1 is a lot better than any filesharing program there is right now. They recently added lots of new features to make file searching and downloading more efficient. I won't miss Kazaa. (Although it's sad the MPAA & RIAA are getting their way.)
money == überlaw :(
...Spy Software companies and makers of other beneficial consumer products wholly unrelated to virus software announce that they expect a downturn in profits and expect to lay off 75% of personnel."
Seriously folks, is this really a bad thing?
P2P software is a nice idea, but I would be more interested in them if they were more user controllable. I'd much rather have a P2P network comprised solely of individuals that I trust than to be connected to a sea of people do not know eating my bandwidth searching for things I do not have and do not want.
Give me a P2P solution that allows me to selectively authorize requests to my system and communicate only with those other people that I wish to communicate with. A mini P2P between myself and my friends.
Once more unto the breach dear friends...
they were crap, and pulled all kinds of fucky tricks like spyware...
good riddance.
It never ceases to amaze me that the major record companies don't see *free advertising* when it's in front of their faces. Those folks who pirate content and don't end up buying that content wouldn't have purchased it in the first place, so there is no net loss. Those who would have purchased the content that they download can access a wider variety of content online, and will end up purchasing more. MP3 quality is a far cry from CD quality, afterall.
Just look at what videotapes did for the movie industry (and when VHS/Beta first came out, the movie industry feared that these would kill the movie industry). They took the technology that they feared, ran with it, and ended up making MORE $ from video sales than from the box office.
Right. No, your other right. No, the other other right.
Surely if they go down, then all the clients will have nowhere to connect and hence not be able to locate other people connected on it. Unlike Gnutella in which each user maintains a list of nodes and tries all of them until it finds one connected in which to pull off other nodes.
This would also explain why the need to "log on" to kazaa and why it's relativily (compaired to Gnutella) fast to find the nodes.
Or am I missing something?
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
Kazaa no longer owns the client or the website. It sold them to a Vanuatan based company called Sharman Networks (originally thought to be based in Australia.)
So, basically, Kazaa BV sold the application to Sharman to sidestep the lawsuits. Action failes and Kazaa BV goes down anyway.
I spose they've just put Sharman on notice.
Janie took my gun...
If the people running this do decide to thumb their noses at everyone, move the servers to this island and continue to do what they'd like, they better not live in the US, because they are still liable and will be hauled into court.
So the owners better move with the equipment if this is the route they are planning on taking.
*no where in the article did it say these things, this is just a hypothetical situation*
...that "organizations" (they act more like companies like MS, don't they ?) like RIAA and MPAA are able to force other companies out of business simply by filing lawsuits until the company in question is running out of money.
And it's a shame that no one stops those a******s at RIAA and MPAA. They both have far too much power at their hands and play us consumers for a sucker...
Their pricy hands even reach us here in Europe... scary thing.
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
My life is a joke... I spent the last few weeks writing a p2p program.
Just finished, at 5 a.m. Guess I don't want to get sued
It was fun while it lasted...
Surly there's a country somewhere where this kind of activity (suing someone until they break, even though you might not have a leg to stand on) is illegal.
Isn't this equivalent to racketeering or something.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
and I was looking forward so much to be part of Brillant Digitals altnet :p
But humor aside - since the software and the side are owned by another company they will have to sue them too to completely shut down the KaZaA network, right?
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
If I create a system which enables people to share files, how do I violate anyones copyright?
And if it does violate something, where is the magic line: why could not for example usenet news be considered as similar system then? It can be used as an organized tool for sharing copyrighted material. Should server admins start making sure that no copyrighted material is posted - and if yes, how do you make this possible? In my opinion, this Kazaa case is exactly similar.
They can keep running Kazaa and it's future breed into bankcruptcy, but it will not solve anything. They are just playing cat'n'mouse. Someday, they will notice that mice fuck much more, kill one, and you have a dozen new. Someday, they will realise that they have to affect something else, this something else is in "peoples mind" and is the reason why Kazaas are created.
I'm actually quite taken with Kazaa's strategy. It seems like they're just going to keep "selling" the name and technology to own of their own subsidiaries or spin-offs, then fold whatever part of the company is currently being sued.
Of course, it's a scam, and the [MP|RI]AA can just pursue the new owner... who can just sell on the name and technology, and fold. They'll have to actually go after the owners personally, which is a completely different proposition.
I'm not exactly enamoured with Kazaa (gnutella for me, thanks), but I think they've hit on the only possible defence to the "litagate them into submission" tactics that the [MP|RI]AA are increasingly turning to. However, it's yet another indicator that if you want to start an innovative business, don't do it inthe USA, or in anywhere with strong treaties with the USA. That part is very sad.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
And IMO it's not even about their experience with VHS time-shifting and video sales making them more money after they complained, as you correctly pointed out. (Of course, they also get a tax on blank media, still, for some reason...)
I think the real conflict is about control. Control of artists, users, and any possible bottlenecks between them are therefore a GOOD thing, to the RIAA, because that's control and they fear losing control even more than losing money -- even if it would lead to a better product for consumers (or better compensation-levels for musicians, who must also be controlled).
JMR
(My opinions only, nobody else wants 'em anyway.)
Try e-gold - (contact me). I'm NOT e-
Heh! Last time I checked, Vanuatu had no extradition treaties with major countries and totally safe banking for any kinda money you don't want people to be able to take via lawsuits etc.
;*)
In fact as of about 4 years ago, it was a major offshore banking nation.
We knew Sharman Networks were kinda scummy, but at least they are smart scum...fearless and inventive
Check out scumware.com and Parasiteware for more info on these. Another case for AdAware!
Never email donotemail@WeAreSpammers.com
Ok, how about I create a website which allows people to submit houses that are worth breaking into and also lets other people search for those houses in their area. It'll provide the address, approximate value of stealable goods, what the security is like and times when the occupants aren't home. And because it's submitted by the users, the company isn't liable by your logic.
... perhaps they should try mp3.com
Would YOU like YOUR house on there? No? Didn't think so.
The law is being infringed and the buck has to stop somewhere, either the company is punished or the users are punished. I say the people who are profiting from the theft of intellectual property (through banners) should be punished. This is similar to the police targetting drug dealers instead of users.
And yes I am aware that legitimate artists use P2P to distribute their work
And no, I'm not a troll, but I suspect that the illegal-mp3-downloading moderators will think otherwise.
CNet has a longer article with quotes from testimony, etc. @ Kazaa, Morpheus legal case collapsing.
Don't get me wrong, I use it just the same as you do: downloading music and software I'm not planning on paying for. Sometimes it's just to try the software and music out, but it's still software and music piracy. I don't agree with the copyright laws, but I know it's true.
Just because a lot of people break the law, it does not CHANGE the law. The best way to fix a law that stinks is to help to make a change. Breaking it in rebellion and not accepting the consequenses makes you no better than a riotous mob or a child caught stealing in the candy store who throws a tantrum.
I'm not even saying that the lawsuit has a solid base to stand on, nor am I saying that it's fair how they'll run companies like KaZaA out of business... All I'm saying is, "don't act so damn surprised! you're stealing!"
Who mediates your information?
If you're going to trade files, trade directly with your friends. It's faster and more reliable...
And besides, copying files for private purposes is not illegal AFAIK, at least not where I live, so giving a copy of the latest Britney Spears (yeah right) album to a dude of yours probably isn't illegal no matter the case.
this works for me:
mldokey open source edonkey client for most unix platforms.
hopey
The content is okay if you like Pr0n, what is annoying is that the names given to the files are not accurate at all and sometimes you wind up downloading a movie you already have.
For music, I mostly don't have too exotic tastes (well, and I buy the CD's anyway) so it works out quite fine. My sister is more an alternative music fan, and she seems happy. At least, I saw her burn several CD's lately with downloaded covers from the net and all. So the selection must not be too bad. Of course, the more users we get, the better.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
A big company repeadly sueing lots of little companies, and if they loose the case, they keep sueing until the little company is no more.
Also theres the ' Not only would large corporations lobby that one to death' issue this is why i said racketeering, not only are they focusing on potential threats to there power in companies and individuals, but also governments ( and not doing to bad a job by the looks of the DMCA)
As for piracy, remember the good old days of tapes, now how many of your tapes were coppied from mates etc.... Piracy is a poor excuse.
What the RIAA want is market controle, the ability to create 'Stars', and to a large extent sway the market they are selling to to fit the model they want to use. i.e.
take
1 Shit song, but a bit hummable (must be owned by the label)
1 or more Prity bird[s], (helps if they can't sing that well, and will sign anytthing to get there face on T.V.)
2-3 months of promotion, try to push for kids T.V., make the 'Band?' appear to be popular (buy this record or you'll have no friends should work).
Keep on the boil for a few months, or untill people realise that the birds can't sing, and the song is shit.
Sue anyone trying to free music from your grasps untill they die a horrible death.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
Is this true? Regrettably, Gnutella doesn't seem to be as effective for P2P, so it would be good if Kazaa clients can continue. In particular, it is plagued by tar-pits, that is people setting themselves up as supernodes or for unlimited uploading without having adequte processing power or bandwidth.
Because of thinking all of us are morons...
geez
I for one dont think so. First of all Kazaa, Morpheus, Bearshare etc is one of a wast number of ways to get illegal content from the internet. FTP, Friends, IRC, SMB shares, Usenet, maillists with ftp addresess sent out etc. etc. The dont stand a chance to close down much. Especially since they havent got a fixed target. They try to get the biggest players down but there are quickly someone else there to fill the gap. How can you shut gnutella? Shut bearshare and then someone else sets up a hosts cache in tanzania, uzbekistan or perhaps write the ip with laser on the moon where noone have jurisdiction.
They are fitghting a loosing battle and hsould rather think about how they can make money on this. To shut filesharing down is probably not possible.
HTTP/1.1 400
"You can kill me, but two more will take my place."
Seriously, if they released the code to something like Kazaa people could just modify that code a bit, close it up, and overrun the RIAA with court cases.
Filesharing tools doesn't violate copyrights.
People violate copyrights.
Will work for bandwidth
At least we can say we stuck it to the man ... who stuck it to the man!
How about P2P company ownership - i.e. an ownership token can be passed through the network. Each time legal action is instigated against an owner the token is passed on.
The cost of constantly instigating action against an "owner" would cripple potential action
-
Hmmm this could do more harm than good in the long run. I personally think there are to many people who don't want to take responsibility for their actions. Perhaps its time tht everyone took on the industries and knocked it through their thick heads that people are tired of being ripped off.
But hey I won't hold my breath and expect to see that sort of consumer action in my life time (if ever). We live in a flock (as in sheep) society - easy pickings for the wolves.
.
"Things that you own end up owning you" - Tyler Durden (via Diogenes of Sinope).
You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
know when to walk away, and know when to run..
Ok, so after Napster, Morpheus/KaZaA, people will now use Direct Connect...
Or usenet, or message with FTP upload/downloads.
When will RIAA and co understand that there is NOTHING they can do about P2P and data exchange!
Unless they manage to somehow stop the internet as we know it, but I don't think they can get away with that kind of murder...
Black holes occur when God divides by zero.
The people that made Kazaa are already rich off the sale of the Kazaa network, the Kazaa software does not need the company for it to still work. Kazaa is folding so that it can't lose the people that made Kazaa any money. Even the RIAA is acusing them of doing this as a dodge.
Presumably the company that now owns the Kazaa network will also get sued, however it's a private company in Vanuatu... maybe to make it hard for the RIAA to sue? If this company hasn't ever distributed software to US citizens then it'll probably be even harder to sue. I dunno, IANAL, but it sounds like this is just Kazaa not playing the RIAA's game to me.
The most important thing to remember about Kazaa is that you shouldn't use it...
Same excellent P2P but without the spyware and ads.
Keep in mind that some websites that Google indicates were once uploading it might have stopped, either because of bandwidth problems or because Sharman's lawyers have been breathing down their necks.
So, be patient and it might help to concentrate your search around non-US websites.
Apparently they are going to start charging for search results on their p2p network. Here is a quote from the article about what they are rolling out.
"These technologies include TopSearch, a sponsored link engine that enables content owners to promote their content and receive preferred placement in P2P search results".
Sound familiar? Sounds to me like RealNames and we all know how successful that was.
We already have distributed networks like SETI@Home. Would it be possible to set up a "distributed server"? Something like a centralized Napster-style database. But, instead of it running in a central-office on a farm of servers -- it would run in a distributed manner by combining thousands of machines together. Each machine would donate 2 Mb of hard drive space and a small amount of memory and CPU. I have not done much reseach into this, but is it possible to build a distributed server? Obviously you would have to have redundancy built-in in case parts of the network failed. But, imagine 50,000 computers all combined to created a centralized virtual-server that all the other nodes connect to. Is it possible?
Are you sure about that? Don't they use "FastTrack" as their underlying software? A few months ago KaZaa fucked over the people at Morpheus because they wouldn't play along. One day the Morpheus network worked -- the next day it didn't. That seems to indicate that there is centralized control somewhere.
Do you think it is at all possible that KaZaa will open their source code or documentation of the network protocol?
Taken from "An Open Letter to the DOJ" by Ganesh Prassad on LinuxToday:-
The world is learning the cynical lesson that the American justice system is a mere extension of the free market -- you get as much justice as you can afford to pay for.
The months are just too short. I can count the number of days on one hand.
You ever hear of Hotline - while its really client/server, it offers everything else you are looking for and its free. Try Carracho if you are an OS X user.
Sound waves should be free!
Let's all look at the simple, most basic real world example of this entire issue: A Search Engine for for the internet. Google will do just fine. I can surf Google all day long and find tons of sites on warez, cracks, serialz, credit card numbers, passwordz, mp3s, etc, etc... Where does the buck stop in this case? I don't see Google getting slammed with lawsuits. In fact, I don't see any search engine bearing the responsibility of what their results turn up. Now tell me how a P2P file sharing program is so different? I can search for any file on a Kazaa like any search engine out there, illegle or not. And now all of a sudden the responsibility rests on the software? No, I can't buy into that level of hypocrisy. The only concievable change I could see being made to the current P2P systems is not making the downloader anonomous, making the actual P2P network policable. Beyond that one point you didn't mention, the comparison doesn't hold water. Pure and simple, the P2P networks are weak targets that will fold easily under pressure in most cases and "the Man" is more than willing to go after them. Pick a bigger target like a Search Engine and now your "all of a sudden" trudging into the murky waters of free speech and the outcome of any lawsuit is far from certain there.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
For most people, myself included, I think that mp3s are fine. I have a decent stereo setup, and I can't really tell the difference between a properly ripped 128 mp3 playing through my Apex DVD/MP3 player and the cd I ripped it from when I flip back & forth on the same system. It's fine for my needs. Certainly there are lots of improperly ripped mp3s out there if you're downloading stuff, but if you rip your own cds carefully there's not much of a sacrifice.
It seems to be a fairly common practice of large cash rich organizations to sue smaller companies for valid reasons or not, i.e. patent/copyright infringement, or alleged variations becuase they a) are really infringing, or more often b) are a competitive threat.
IIRC M$ used the very same tactics aginst smaller companies in the past that posed a threat to various M$ interests.
If you can't beat them legally, sue them, and if they're small enough they will be forced out of business by excessive legal fees.
Karma is a bitch. Kazaa had it coming. Piss off the RIAA/MPAA? That's a given. Piss off your users? Sooner or later, you're screwed.
My words are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
Hasn't anyone here heard of AudioGalaxy? If I want pr0n or movies, then I'd have used Kazaa, but for music I always use AG Satellite... surprisingly their music dBase is a LOT bigger, plus they actually host indie artists whose music you are free to download without ANY copyright (ok, I might not be using the right term here so no post-whippings! :) )
Put it this way... if you want commercial stuff, look on Kazaa. If you want that, plus lesser-known, indie, underground, or even oldies, go AG.
You can always go old school too, since AG has a "backup plan" in case somebody goes after them for their sharing. They've been offering an FTP search database as well. I still remember that back in the day when it was called the Borg Music Search.
Mouse, Mice. Goose, Geese. Moose... Moose?
Many people are making the claim that it's people that stead and not the software or network. That's true to an extent, however depending on the tools, the people may not steal the music/movies if they didn't have them, or at least they would do it as much.
Whether something like this should be legal or not depends on the amount of damage done by the tools. Example: Many types of guns are legal in the United States, and many types are illegal (like some automatic machine guns). The ones that are illegal can be more dangerous and do more damage when used than some of the ones that are legal.
That's why I agree that Kazaa and the like should be shut down, they can cause much damage to the companies that own the copyrights to the music/movie and may make it harder for them to keep producing it.
I normally bash open source hippie zealots.. but this is one case where an open protocol with some solid open clients is the only thing that will survive, because it doesn't present an easy target.
Any p2p type app based on a single company is going to fail
A machine gun can punch holes through internal organs, causing painful and near-instantaneous death. A file sharing program merely allows people to make copies of data, without even damaging the original data, much less anyone's internal organs. There is no comparison. If P2P networks really did as much damage as a machine gun to the members of the RIAA, they would be too busy dying in pools of their own blood to file lawsuits. Maybe then I would feel sorry for them.
...but only maybe.
Why don't you and your friends set up your own Gnutella network?
- SMJ - (It's not just a name: it's a bad aftertaste.)
Its who has more $ to throw around. Sort of like poker. .if you cant call you fold.. even IF you got the better hand.
Not saying they do or dont, or if they are right or wrong, its just sad to see you can truely BUY justice..
Sort of like celebs getting a slap on the wrist when if *I* did the same, my ass would be in jail.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Will the MPAA/RIAA go after Microsoft since people can and do share files via Netmeeting and Messenger.
As a regular Slashdot reader, this gives me another chance to plug Gnutella! It sucks, it's slow, and it doesn't work, but it's OPEN SOURCE and that's all that matters! Now for another session of not finding anything with Gnutella, your OPEN SOURCE lack of solution!
Napster, scour, kazaa... all it goes to show is that commerical p2p has its flaws. The problem from what I can see is that they try to retain some control of the network, at which point RIAA says "Hey, you can stop this at anytime, do it!" and they have to. However, I'd love to see them go after gnutella. With dozens of free (beer and/or speech) clients and a pretty much completely decentralitized network there really is nothing they can do about it. Unfortunately there isn't too much on gnutella (content wise, as compared to fastrack) but when they're the last game in town I'm sure it'll get better. I'm sure limewire (the commercial gnutella company and yes they give it away, but they still sell stuff) loves this. They easily have the best gnutella client (morpheous has some stuff to work out) which is multi-platform and would probably love to have kazaa's share of the population.
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
The Fasttrack network is P2P, should Kazaa wish to pull their plug, that doens't make it impossible to connect to the Fasttrack network.
Personally I'm glad to see Kazaa go, they were a fucked up corporation who sold out their user base to Brilliant Tech.
The problem is, I _REALLY_ like the Kazaa interface (wish I could ctrl+click to select multiple files in the traffic window)
Solution: www.kazaalite.com
Keep the P2P network up untill the RIAA comes after the private citizens, then we will show them who owns what!
-Doug
Q. What's it take to get a story posted on
I believe I found and downloaded the kazaa-lite client (version 1.61) in under a minute. Took longer to type in this reply!!
sure the RIAA has deep pockets, but what if they suddenly have dozens and dozens of targets? It definitely costs them money to find, target and threaten people who create p2p systems (which in and of themselves aren't illegal)... :) so that when one gets threatened they can comply (much as I'd regret caving in, most individuals or companies for that matter don't have the resources to take on RIAA) but two more applications would pop up to replace the fallen...
we just need more people to develop / expand the codebases with their own flavor of p2p (make them interoperable please
It couldn't have happened to a nicer spyware distributor...
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
MP3 quality is a far cry from CD quality, afterall.
Not always. A specific preset in LAME 3.92 will provide transparent reproduction at an average data rate of 192 kbps. Read the "quality" section of r3mix.net to learn more.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Whilst Im all for the idea of open source, clean file sharing stuff, all you people arguing that Limewire/GNucleus are betteer than Kazaa are seriously short sighted.
The facts are simple, Kazaa has: More users, more files, faster downloads, faster searches.
When I tried GNucleus and Limewire one afternoon I found both of them to be clumbsy, slow, unreliable and neither had the file I was looking for. I was back to Kazaa in a flash. Im sorry, but those are the facts as far as I can see.
loply.com
Randy's Law: As the number of P2P networks decreases, the number of files available for trade for a given unit of work for a trader decreases, thus providing a negative growth factor to the P2P networks. ===========
This post is protected under the DMTA (Digital Millemium Trolling Act). It is illegal to moderate it as a troll.
so, what does this mean for the other remaining fast-track fileshare copmany Grokster will they be forced to close too, it's very rare for you bump into another grokster user among all those kazaa results anyway.
ah well, theres always Gnutella
Software Freedom Day!.
It isn't the answer, but its in the right direction. If a company owns the sharing network, even a Peer-to-peer network, it will fall. Public domain P2P is the only thing that will survive.
Question
http://www.ironfroggy.com/
...kinda like watching a shark eat a vulture.
Weaselmancer
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
From the CNET article:
"Executives from the RIAA said that Kazaa, Sharman and the other parties were simply trying to evade judgment by shifting corporate assets between different companies.
'They're playing an international shell game, trying to make a mockery of the judicial process,' said Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president for the RIAA."
As opposed to the [RI/MP]AA who are playing an international monopoly game, trying to get both boardwalk (congress) and parkplace (the judicial system), bankrupting the other players through "rent." At least in the board game monopoly, you have a chance to roll and move past your opponents hotel traps.
It never ceases to amaze me that the major record companies don't see *free advertising* when it's in front of their faces.
Here's a tidbit of info I paid $300 bucks in college to learn:
There is no such thing as free advertising. By definition, advertising is when an entity pays another entity to convey a message. Included with the purchase, the entity designing the message virtually gets total control over the format and content.
If it's not being paid for, then it can't be totally controlled and so it isn't "advertising" by definition. Companies don't like that. A good impression isn't guaranteed if a company doesn't have total control over a message that's about them.
You can download several napster clients, and they auto-connect to free napster server.
Cat's out of the bag, napster lives on....
I've used it. I paid for it. Read about the problems in www.gnutellaforums.com. Basicall, swarm sucks. It can't maintain multiple connections consistently, and it seems to get to 99% and take FOREVER to finish the last 1%.
Of course they're going to blame their failure on the RIAA or whatever. It sounds reasonable to most people, and therefore is a great face-saving excuse. "We had this brilliant idea, and it would have all been great except for THOSE GUYS!" Gimme a break. Do you really think they'd ever admit their business just plain failed, especially with such a handy excuse being available? I'd take this one with a big grain of salt.
Where does the USA allow non democratic government to flourish and kiss but??
Saudi Arabia baby!
I think it's the perfect place for Kazaa!
I thought Kazaa, Gnutella, etc were all decentralized and couldn't be shut down. If they're decentralized, how can they be shut down like Napster? Will the RIAA be able to do the same thing to GNUTELLA?
The utter idiocy of the "designers" of the software is evident if you've ever watched your firewall deny KaZaa SYN packets for sometimes hours, all from the same source IP's, as they mindlessly try to connect to a KaZaa host that's no longer on the IP you've just inherited.
Although it's hard to imagine, KaZaa is 'way worse that Yahoo! chat hosts trying to connect to a chat host that's long gone.
Idiots...
t_t_b
I'm on PJ's "enemies" list! Are you?
Now where am I going to get my amateur porn from?
Kazaa (and Morpheus before its collapse) was the best place to acquire and trade amateur porn, which I should note is completely legal.
Zoot!
I'm sorry but exactly where does KaZaa infringes on the copyright law?
I may be obtuse... but i was imagining that the users where the ones that where infringing the copyright laws...
Why doens't RIAA and is lackleys sue AOL (the ICQ owners) on the same grounds? And just in case, why not Microsoft itself?
Copyright law violations are done by the users and they should be the ones to be sued...
Contributory is just an excuse to ilegally prossecute software developers... because if the specific software is contributory... so it is the OS in which those softwares run... and we all know who makes it...
Just my 2 cents on this so debated problem...
Cheers...
I'm amazed that the Slashdot community and the developers in general are not motivated and interested by the GNUNet project, that provides an encrypted, secure and private access to P2P.
The system is still in experimental stages, but it is *very* promising, and solves several of the issues in Freenet.
See it at http://www.gnu.org/software/GNUnet/gnunet.html
DC is great for huge files like movies, but Kazaa has the best network for smaller files - mp3, etc. and also the advantage that there are more than 1000 people to share with at any given time.
DirectConnect and DC++ are Napster-style clients that connect to central Napster-style servers - albeit distributed, private servers. The average server is just somebody's home computer, and most cannot handle more than 400 users.
Kazaa is orders of magnitude more scaleable.
DC encourages sharing.
I use them both, personally...
Absolutely. I don't condone any kind of porn, that said, I think people in China should be immune to US laws.
They are immune unless they choose to defend themselfs... and at that point they accept to be bound by those laws.
The problem is that in any case people get prossecuted and charges whithout been there (the word elapses me)... when the case should have been dismissed because of be out of jurisdition.
You may go to US one day and find the FBI at the airport with some hand-cuffs and a court order for your arrest... It is justice...
Cheers...
After what Kazaa did to MusicCity Morphius (eg. forced them off their joint P2P network without warning), it serves them right! In a market that is based entirely on appeal (generally from reputation) and customer satisfaction, how can any P2P service try to play "hardball" with its "competition" and expect to come out ahead? I'm all for the Napster-esque services, open source, and variety, but I can't see how any P2P services can survive an RIAA onslaught without a glowing reputation, a strong userbase, and the respect of the P2P community. Kazaa, obviously, did not have all of that.
This is why its important to support open P2P protocols such as GNUtella. Several great GNUtella clients make using the network a snap. I recommend either Gnucleus or Xolox. Both connect to the same distributed GNUtella network and both are free to download and easy to use.
So you're saying that "legitimate artists" shouldn't be allowed to distribute their own copyrighted work in the way they see appropriate? Well, I'm glad that you at least acknolwedged that there are "legitimate" artists outside of the RIAA!
P2P is just a way of transporting data. It shouldn't be banned anymore than HTTP, IRC, FTP, TCP, or the telephone system.
I don't think you're a troll! ;-)
P2P can do more than just share music--it can share any type of file. It also can be used for real time chatting and group messaging. Think Usenet, the WWW, and IRC/IM all in one decentralized (meaning you're not dependant upon crappy unstable ISP's or spyware companies' servers) package. I imagine P2P technology could also make it possible to create citywide intranets that aren't reliant on any ISP or servers. Just think: plug in a wireless network card and some software and go. No need to find an ISP--you can play games, send messages/files without intervention or assistance from any specific organization--just like the internet used to be.
Back to the bastards: The entertainment cartel mostly seems to go after third parties instead of the people who are doing the copyright infringement. Like universities who were merely providing internet access for their students--they didn't tell the students to use Napster--they didn't even say anything about Napster--the students found and used that program on their own, yet universities where named in the lawsuit!!! That's like suing a telephone company because someone had played music through a long distance phone line. How could the telco be responsible for that? The universities?
Their whole plan appears to attempt to maintain their monopolistic position and control the internet rather than stop copyright infringement! Copyright infringement was around long before it was viable on the internet. Ever hear of anyone taping off the radio? How about copying audio/video tapes of copyrighted material and giving them to friends? Just because it is possible for a device to do something illegal, and some people do it, it doesn't mean that device should be banned. There are thousands of illegal things that could be done with a hammer or a car or a cat or a peice of wood. Why not ban those too?
It's the entertainment cartel's fault that P2P is mostly used for "pirating" because they're the ones that were screaming that P2P was only intended for "stealing" their music, and so people heard that and thought: "I can get free music if I run this P2P thingy? Cool!" P2P could do so much more. However stupid people like you and stupid people that believe you have amplified these misconceptions about P2P systems--thereby causing them to be mostly used for such purposes.
Having been involved with peer to peer technology even as far back 1989, i can say that it truly is wrong that people would steal intellectual property such as this.
I had worked for 11 years at a company of which i wish to remain nameless, who had basically specialized in developing secure tunnels for transporting data between various companies. We had actually been instrumental in developing various P2P methods and protocols such as RTP and ACIX just to name a few.
The company had actually decided to release this software to the public after many years, but it was to remain as a beta testing project as opposed to just releasing a final product.
We had seen countless terrabytes of pirated software and proprietary data go through those pipes, until one day we just came to the realization that this was just clearly wrong.
This was taking money from companies who had worked hard to develop something, then just giving it out to the public.
What Kazzaa is doing is wrong anyways, and should be condemned.
Yeah, at least that's what my roommate told me (he uses Kaazza) From what he said it doesn't sound too useful as you could only talk to someone who owns a specific file.
However, there are P2P systems that have IRC like chat channels and Usenet like messaging. The Circle is one.
Hey - be quiet! Every time an app gets too popular, it gets all the leet d00dz sharing viruses and ruining the network with hacks, or it just gets shut down. If you really like DC for legit p2p (as I do), please BE QUIET!
*sigh*
As far as the legality goes: I was the IT Manager for an Australian based, publicly listed, Internet Casino. Our corporate office was in Australia, our servers, and our gaming license, were in ...Vanuatu.
The whole time (about a year, pre dot-com bubble) it was ILLEGAL to run an Internet Casino in Australia. No worries! Put your servers in Vanuatu, and don't do any advertising in Australia.
The point? As long as there is one country on earth that is prepared to "turn the blind eye" - nothing can be stopped on the internet, as there are no borders.
Get used to it!
Slashdot reporters should really do better job and dig into deeper before reportong news.
KaZaA doesn't collapse, but Dutch company called Kazaa BV does and as it has been reported earlier, Kazaa BV sold all its assets including Kazaa trademark and technology to Sharman Networks.
So basically Kazaa BV is an empty shell, of course there is no point wasting money on lawyers to defend itself
saprophyte Botany. a plant that derives nourishment primarily from decaying organic matter, such as certain fungi and bacteria; the term saprobe is often used for a fungal saprophyte. Thus, saprophytic.
I stopped using kazaa a long time ago. Do you really think that there is anything good coming out of a program that only is used to download illeagle materials and viruses? I was on it for months, and i don't think i saw anything on it that wasn't piracy. I think you should learn to live without piracy. I did.
Wow, 5 years of trading files, want a sticker?
/., news for NERDS.
In my day 6 YEARS AGO (yes, way back in late 96) you could get mp3s STRAIGHT THROUGH SEARCH ENGINES! People (usually students) would just have websites and you could download straight from them. Finding songs were easy: just search Yahoo (96 is pre-Google). Sure admins would eventually catch on, but it would takes weeks because the enormous traffic wasn't there like it would be now. Later on in 97 things changed when Audiogalaxy came out with their site, with ftp listings. Actually Audiogalaxy came out with a download utility not long after, so you could download straight through a Audiogalaxy program without a separate FTP, and that was long before Napster was even thought of.
heck my first mp3 player was a cassette player! Output sound card to cassette recorder. CD recorders were just barely pushing 2x by 97 (I remember buying my first 2x8x Sony for $250).
So before you go ranting about how you're such a "pioneer" and how "historic" you are deserving our "respect" for downloading mp3s prior to P2P, please remember where you're ranting at, this is not your neighborhood bar, this is
oh yeah: converting from mp3 to wav WASN'T automatic either! It would take FOREVER because at that time WinAMP did not output to a wav format via diskwriter and a pentium 120 wasn't exactly the fastest processor for decoding.
:(
I'd have to go into DOS and manually convert each mp3 to wav in order to make ONE CD playable in a cd player.
my only regret was not registering mp3.com when I first discovered mp3s. I would have been rich and famous by now
In the pre-Google days it was Boolean search on Altavista: (sharia NEAR law) AND (osama NEAR (binladen OR "bin laden"))
But still respec' wid da big up to da max to da mp3 hAxOrS
A caveman dreams of being us, the incalculable power and riches. We dream of being Q, then what?
I wish binLaden smashed planes into the Supreme court instead of WTC. Amen.
This gets +5, Insightful?
Is everyone here fucktards?
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"