Kazaa Continues to Evolve

Finally by batboy78 · 2002-09-23 03:05 · Score: 4, Funny

I like to have all of my pr0n named properly

Re:Finally by gabec · 2002-09-23 06:11 · Score: 3, Interesting

so what's to keep the MPAA from making a bunch of profiles and then going around marking legitim...err.. uh... appropriately named files... as fakes?

The clock is ticking by Njoyda+Sauce · 2002-09-23 03:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

How soon till the RIAA slams Kazaa as long and hard as Napster? Surely they don't think that joining forces with European companies somehow protects them from the long arm of the RIAA?

--

You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever.

Re:The clock is ticking by forgoil · 2002-09-23 03:29 · Score: 3, Funny

Why shouldn't RIAA stop them? If they would have done legal business instead of spreading illegal copies of copyrighted material I don't think that RIAA would stop them.

Whine all you want, but it is justifying theft, one way or the other, to think that it is ok to have services such as Kazaa.

I hate RIAA as much as the next guy, and I am not too happy about MPAA either, but then again, I am not happy about a lot of things really, but that doesn't make me some kind of moral superhero for the people...
Re:The clock is ticking by NineNine · 2002-09-23 03:31 · Score: 3, Interesting

What I'm wondering, and I've asked this before, is is there any way for the RIAA to "shut down" Fasttrack? Is Fasttrack as distributed as they say it is? If there were servers for the RIAA to attempt to shut down, is it enough to shut down all of the Fasttrack network?
Re:The clock is ticking by Zhe+Mappel · 2002-09-23 03:41 · Score: 2, Insightful

I hate RIAA as much as the next guy, and I am not too happy about MPAA either, but then again, I am not happy about a lot of things really, but that doesn't make me some kind of moral superhero for the people...
Not for "the people," no. But when you uncritically parrot the sentiments of our economic masters, who decree that one must never share one's music, then you become their hero. Or stooge, as it were.
Re:The clock is ticking by SirSlud · 2002-09-23 03:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

> Whine all you want, but it is justifying theft, one way or the other, to think that it is ok to have services such as Kazaa.

We should shut down FedEx too. Last I heard, they had delivered lots of illegal things to sketchy people. Clearly we must ensure that people are on tigbht-fitting technological leashes so they don't have to think or act accountable for their actions. Welcome to utopia, where, if you can physically do it, it must be okay! Never think about the consequences of your individual actions again!

Would you be the first to turn in your friends and family, or are the people that made the tools responsible for bending and warping their puny little minds into acts of wonton piracy?

--
"Old man yells at systemd"
Re:The clock is ticking by psxndc · 2002-09-23 04:13 · Score: 2

Most likely, the judge in the case won't know a bit of difference between Kazaa and Napster.
I'm as anti-RIAA as the next guy, but legality-wise, what is the difference between Napster and Kazaa? Not technically-wise, legality-wise. Both allow the trading of music on a massive scale without the artists' and record companies' consent. Personally I think the the record companies rape the artists and the consumer, but that's not the issue. Kazaa and Napster promote priacy. For me personally it also promoted buying a crapload more albums, but I know and am fully aware that was I was doing was stealing (in the sense of getting something I didn't pay for. I realize that stealing also implies depriving someone of the original possession which is not the case here, but I digress...).
psxndc

--
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
Re:The clock is ticking by xigxag · 2002-09-23 04:30 · Score: 2

Both allow the trading of music on a massive scale without the artists' and record companies' consent.

It's the Internet which allows it. Kazaa merely facilitates it. And of course, it's the participants who perform it.*

Napster was deemed illegal because it was considered to be an active participant in the filesharing process. The case against Kazaa is somewhat harder to make.

(*And it's me who italicizes it.)

--
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
Re:The clock is ticking by JoeRobe · 2002-09-23 04:45 · Score: 2, Interesting

"...one must never share one's music..."

Who's music? Your music? Music that you wrote and recorded?

You may want to share music files, but don't be mistaken: it's *not* your music unless you're the artist that made it. If you buy the CD, then you own a little round piece of plastic, but you still don't own the music.

--
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Re:The clock is ticking by NeMon'ess · 2002-09-23 04:51 · Score: 2

Napster only existed to share music. Kazaa allows file sharing of any file type. So if I write an e-book and want everyone to copy it, with Kazaa they can find it easily. Kazaa has more legal uses than Napster.
Re:The clock is ticking by Bamfsog · 2002-09-23 05:00 · Score: 4, Informative

The difference between FedEx and the Kazaa/Napster networks is that the MAJORITY of the file sharing network's content is a problem. Their primary business and attraction to end users is the illegal content.
There was an article in the news the other day about a guy selling weed at KFC, and slipping it into the orders. The majority of the business being done was still tasty chicken, so KFC wasn't the problem. If they had removed 90% of their menu and replaced it with Weed, then they would be shutdown.
Re:The clock is ticking by fish+waffle · 2002-09-23 05:06 · Score: 2, Interesting

...is there any way for the RIAA to "shut down" Fasttrack?

Fasttrack is proprietary, so any guess may be correct. However, they do describe their network as formed from regular nodes and 'supernodes' that act as directory services for the regular nodes. Registration is used to find the initial supernode(s), but after that it is p2p (and supernodes can appear/disappear).

So, perhaps you could shut it down by demanding kazaa tells you about all the supernodes it knows about, and following the links. That will not get everyone, since links are transitory by nature in p2p, and so being exhaustive would be impossible. Alternatively, you could demand kazaa release all the registrant names, and use those as a starting point. But not everyone will have registered (you can find your way onto the network without registering), not everyone will have been entirely truthful when they did register (credit cards will help, but not guarantee), and besides that's a lot more work.

Alternatively, you could force ISPs to filter out Kazaa traffic. This works poorly; ISPs will not filter their traffic for just anyone (and there are costs/tradeoffs involved), and people would just hide the traffic some other way anyway.

So, there is no 100% way in a technical sense. Of course there are lots of imperfect solutions, and there may be a balanced level of enforcement that would keep it out of the mainstream---the answer could be yes in a pragmatic sense.
Re:The clock is ticking by Archfeld · 2002-09-23 05:09 · Score: 2, Troll

BULLSHIT IT IS MY MUSIC the INSTANT I PAY FOR IT.
I can alter it, change the way I listen to it, edit it, time shift or media shift it in any fashion I want. What I can't do is provide it to others for free, or resell it. Beyond that it is my MUSIC, and if the RIAA thinks differently they are STUPID. I treat a CD I bought just like a book I bought.

--
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Re:The clock is ticking by Planesdragon · 2002-09-23 05:13 · Score: 4, Interesting

1: It's "wanton", not "wonton."

2: FedEx and other true "Common Carriers" have no way to tell that the contents of one wrapped package are illegal--and if they do (i.e., it's got a "do not export" label on the outside and is being shipped to Iraq), they've probably allready been sued to stop & check.

VCR recorders were declared legal because a significant legal use was declared--and then followed through on. What's the significant legal use of KaZaa, again?
Re:The clock is ticking by SirSlud · 2002-09-23 05:30 · Score: 2, Interesting

> What's the significant legal use of KaZaa, again?

Until it is shown that most people pirate content that they either already own, have owned, or purchase legally in the future, there's not much one can say to that. This would really be the "smoking gun" - getting a statistic that really spells out what percentage of KaZaa downloads are listened too "illegaly" (in that once its listened too, the listener should either own the song , purchase it in the future, or decide s/he doesnt like the song and never listen to it again). I really have my suspicions that the number is not nearly as high as the RIAA is trying to spin it to.

I don't have much sympathy for the RIAA tho. Yes, the rules are in their favour, but they are really abusing the system to stymie any possibility of competitors in the online music distribution industry. Its an industry that should already exist, but the RIAA's tactics just delay the maturation of the industry for us consumers.

All of this belies this simple fact, a fact that many others here have echoed: were it not for Napster, the RIAA would have *less* money in its pockets thanks to the music I discovered that I wanted to buy. It's as simple as that.

--
"Old man yells at systemd"
Re:The clock is ticking by fandelem · 2002-09-23 06:18 · Score: 2, Insightful

It is your COPY of the ARTISTS MUSIC, for your own personal use, yes. You can edit a track on your CD to your heart's content, as long as it's for personal use. The minute you distribute this in any way, it infringes on the copyright (which you have stated). Just like you buying a book, you could write a different ending, but when you start to claim that it's yours/selling it, it doesn't really go over to well, now does it?
I think you're not on the right topic-- The topic is regarding sharing files (ie. infringing on the copyright), not your rights concerning personal usage.

--

--even a broken watch is correct twice a day.
Re:The clock is ticking by forkboy · 2002-09-23 06:32 · Score: 2

What's the significant legal use of KaZaa, again?

1. Porn. Lots of it. All you can ever want. Much of it put there by the people who own it to promote their websites.

2. mp3s that you legally own. I dunno about you, but I am picky about what I listen to. I own the CD to just about every song that I possess in mp3 format. (bootlegs not withstanding) I just like them in a portable, network-transportable format. Many people such as myself do the same.

3. Distribution of free and open source software. Can't get into Redhat's FTP site? None of the mirrors giving you a good connection? Pull the ISO off of Kazaa.

Yes, there is a hotbed of illegal activity there, but there's just as much legal activity. Just like Vegas. (but without so many hookers.)

--
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
Re:The clock is ticking by dustman · 2002-09-23 07:10 · Score: 3, Funny

Would you be the first to turn in your friends and family, or are the people that made the tools responsible for bending and warping their puny little minds into acts of wonton piracy?

Arrr, me eye spots another trade ship from the orient! Ready the cannons, and pull hard to starboard! Wonton soup for everyone who lives through it boys, and if luck be with us, we'll score some crab rangoons and general tso's chicken!
Re:The clock is ticking by Archfeld · 2002-09-23 08:25 · Score: 2

I see your point. This is not directly germane, but in an effort to ensure the Corporate right to profit, they are going to ensure I can't exercise my free use rights. I think the governemnt needs to tilt the field towards consumer free use and the burden of ensuring a secure system should rest on the producer NOT the consumer. The existing laws COVER this situation and should be exercised, we DON't need more legislation, the only ones who benefit that way is the lawyers.

--
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Re:The clock is ticking by Catbeller · 2002-09-23 09:57 · Score: 2

Actually, you do own the book and the words on them. This has been established for centuries.

You can read them aloud, make a copy of them, chop them out of the book and make bomb threats with them (which would make it a real crime), set them on fire, write an article about them and quote selected portions. You can resell the book, because you own it -- the publishing company does not own it, and has no rights to it. Period. Tho they are currently trying.

About ten years back, RIAA tried to shut down CD resale shops. They failed. About the same time, they tried to to shut down digitial audio tape. Blank CD's. About fifteen years before that, they tried to make casette tapes illegal. The screamed that the music industry would collapse if copies were possible. They were wrong.

The movie industry tried to outlaw video tapes. Video tape machines. CD-burners, I think, were a target. Failed, failed, failed.

I understand the book publishing conglmerates are trying to use the wonderful new intellectual property theory so successfully used by audiovideo corporations to shut down book resales.

I can only attribute the new successes of these conglmerates to annihilate 200+ years of property owners' collective rights to their purchases to a new quasi-religious belief in the supremecy of corporate rights uber alles... the old adage "the business of America is Business" raised to biblical power.

If these extremely radical rewriting of national -- hell, international -- laws get the heartfelt support of just about every business-connected American, our future will be sealed books with embossed licenses.

The idea behind copyright was to encourage artists to create works to benefit mankind -- not to make a profit for all eternity. They were granted a limited time to pursue benefit of their monopoly, at the end of which they were to surrender the property to the commons. This system has worked wonderfully for two centuries, providing the world with incredible insights and art not previously seen in such volume.

And now, incredibly, a radical movement of corporate takeover of content is throwing our laws out the window. I'm astounded "conservatives" swallow this horse#$*& with such glee. This is radical political thought more violent to the collective spirit of man than the old dartboards of Communism and Socialism.

Intellectual Property is a notion cooked up in the early 20th century, and is anathema to the intent of the writers of the U.S. Constitution. Those writers decided to promote arts for the benefits of all. IP is for the benefits of those who can afford a printing press, a bleacher of lawyers, and the shackling of content creation for their own selfish purposes.

Knowledge is not property. Ideas are not property. In essence, the Constitution provides a clear declaration of a granted license to businesses to control the right of distribution -- for a limited time. It does NOT say that the artists OWN the works. Does NOT. It was assumed that ownership of an insubstantial thing as an idea was ridiculous and unenforcible. But they get to print and control printings by others to make a profit. For a couple of decades.

Interestingly enough, it took 120-130? years for American courts to recognize copyrights of other nations' artists. We stole like hell from anyone else.
Re:The clock is ticking by Dirtside · 2002-09-23 11:11 · Score: 2

1: It's "wanton", not "wonton."
Mmm... wonton. :) Seriously, though...
What's the significant legal use of KaZaa, again?
That thread's been argued to death (and is unresolvable without hard numbers), so I'll ask another one: if 95% of the citizens of a country ignore one of its laws, should the law continue to exist?
I'm not saying it should or shouldn't, in general, or that this specific kind of copyright infringement should or shouldn't be, but it's certainly something to think about. When everyone's doing it, should we punish everyone, or rethink the law instead? Or is there another option?

--
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Re:The clock is ticking by Planesdragon · 2002-09-23 12:06 · Score: 2

Until it is shown that most people pirate content that they either already own, have owned, or purchase legally in the future, there's not much one can say to that.

Those are still illegal actions. What's ethical and what's legal are not always the same thing.

All of this belies this simple fact, a fact that many others here have echoed: were it not for Napster, the RIAA would have *less* money in its pockets thanks to the music I discovered that I wanted to buy. It's as simple as that.

I wish it was as simple as that. But the courts can't say "RIAA, you're making more money, so shut up." Control of who gets to copy what songs is important--especially when unfinished works of art are being distributed through the world's most efficient method of mass distribution.
Re:The clock is ticking by Planesdragon · 2002-09-23 12:09 · Score: 2

if 95% of the citizens of a country ignore one of its laws, should the law continue to exist?

No. But until the legislature repeals said law, it does exist and "should" be followed.

And, of course, there's the fact that some laws are there to move against people's base nature. (Speed limits, nondiscrimination laws, outlawing dueling, anyone?)

When everyone's doing it, should we punish everyone, or rethink the law instead?

Both.

Observation by poot_rootbeer · 2002-09-23 03:08 · Score: 4, Insightful

'This gives legitimacy to KaZaA' means the same things as 'This paints a big bulls-eye on KaZaA's back for Rosen & Valenti to shoot at.'

How does this give legitimacy? by BoomerSooner · 2002-09-23 03:09 · Score: 4, Funny

The line is what? "Sign up for broadband and you can steal even more music online!"

Sounds legit to me. (end sarcasm)

Legitimacy, arrrrr by tuxedo-steve · 2002-09-23 03:09 · Score: 5, Funny

To quote the article, 'This gives legitimacy to KaZaA.'

Yes, and to quote the KaZaA CEO:

"Arrr, me harties! This be giving us legitimacy! We sail for New Orleans, with our bounty of broadband gold and pirrrrated MP3s!"

Just because you're the King of Spain's privateering vessel doesn't mean you don't have a peg-leg and a parrot. Get me?

--
- SMJ - (It's not just a name: it's a bad aftertaste.)

Don't download it! by Mr_Silver · 2002-09-23 03:09 · Score: 4, Informative

Obvious point for some, but still I'll make it.

Wait until Kazaa Lite is released before you go downloading it. Unfortunately www.kazaalite.com doesn't work any more but doa2.host.sk (which is where www.k-lite.tk points to) does.

At the moment they only have 1.7.2 up there, but give them a chance and check back next week.

--
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.

Re:Don't download it! by NineNine · 2002-09-23 03:35 · Score: 2

Well, Kazaalite.com is hurting, but luckily, you can get Kazaalite on Kazaa! I get quite a few people downloading my copy Kazaalite with either grokster or Kazaa.
Re:Don't download it! by Schnapple · 2002-09-23 03:46 · Score: 3, Informative

How do you know they didn't put another "home-made" spyware into Kazaa Lite?
The way you know is this - you fire up Ad-Aware, the NAV of Spyware, and you check. Check before and after you install it.
The deal is this - "real" Kazaa has spyware. Remove spyware and Kazaa refuses to run/work. Kazaa Lite is a hacked Kazaa that uses an empty file instead of the Spyware DLL Kazaa uses. When you install Kazaa Lite it tells you to let a particular file slip past Ad-Aware, as Ad-Aware will think it is a spyware file but really it's an empty useless file (pop it into Notepad to verify).
If Kazaa Lite "pulled a Gator" and just replaced Kazaa's spyware with its own then Ad-Aware would catch it. Is it possible that Kazaa Lite could just replace the spyware DLL with its own? Yeah, it's possible, and if that possibility scares you off then file sharing is not for you.

--
Schnapple
Re:Don't download it! by NineNine · 2002-09-23 03:47 · Score: 3

If you're still getting ads after removing Kazaa and using Kazaalite, then you have something else still installed on your box. I've checked Kazaalite, and it's very clean. Don't badmouth Kazaa Lite when the culprit is your own machine.
Re:Don't download it! by kasparov · 2002-09-23 04:07 · Score: 3, Informative

Do you know how many geeks you file sharing? Guess how many of us download and install software, open a network sniffer, and watch the traffic that goes by... I guarantee that you'd have verification that Kazaa Lite included spyware within an hour of them adding it.

--
There's no place I can be, since I found Serenity.
Re:Don't download it! by forkboy · 2002-09-23 06:48 · Score: 2

Anyone with even a modicum of technical saavy knows how to monitor traffic on their box. Kazaalite does not have trojans, virii, or spyware, I assure you.

Between antivirus companies and people like me who obsessively watch network traffic when they're bored, anything shady would have been caught a while ago.

--
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.

wow by laserjet · 2002-09-23 03:09 · Score: 3, Interesting

Here's the main gist of the article, boiled down into a single rock:

"Under the deal, KaZaA's owner, Sharman Networks Ltd., will advertise high-speed Internet access provided by Tiscali, an Italian Internet provider, to its tens of millions of European users. In return Tiscali, which serves around seven million customers in 15 countries, will pay Sharman a "bounty" for each KaZaA user who signs up for its high-speed access service."

Seems like an OK move for both companies, but I think there are so few people that actually look at and consider banner ads that it won't do much good. On the plus side, Kazaa gets another partner.

It does seem a bit funny that a high speed ISP would partner up with a file-sharing company that eats up all their bandwidth. While some ISPs are figuring out how to ban them, others are joining with them. I hope they have a lot of bandwidth to spare.

--
Moon Macrosystems. Sun's biggest competitor.

Re:wow by amorsen · 2002-09-23 10:52 · Score: 2

It does seem a bit funny that a high speed ISP would partner up with a file-sharing company that eats up all their bandwidth. While some ISPs are figuring out how to ban them, others are joining with them. I hope they have a lot of bandwidth to spare.
File sharing is just about the only way they can sell high-speed connections. There are practically no content providers for high-bandwidth content. It is nice to have web pages download slightly faster, but for most users the difference is not worth the extra cost. Personally I went for ADSL because the alternative around here is to pay by the minute. I want to be on always, the bandwidth is secondary.
Tiscali is one of the nicer ISP's, at least here in Denmark. They do not mind sharing of connections or running servers.
Incidentally, I find it sad that we are calling ADSL high-speed.

--
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?

Self Moderation by QEDog · 2002-09-23 03:09 · Score: 2, Insightful

"Kazaa's new software allows people to rate files so that corrupt or false files will quickly collect ratings poor enough to warn people away from downloading them. "

I wonder how long till this system is also exploited to give poor ratings to the real files. Maybe some other alternatives to self moderation can be used.

--
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham

What about the other wrong labels? by Corvaith · 2002-09-23 03:09 · Score: 3, Informative

The one time I tried Kazaa, I didn't drop it because of the ads or any of that junk. I don't like it, but that's life. I dropped it, in the end, because every time I tried to download /anything/, it seemed like, the labels were wrong. The filename said one thing, the label said something else, and the thing itself was usually some third thing. I don't /think/ that the MP/RIAA has been masking Eminem as the Indigo Girls claiming to be Ani Difranco, but... I suppose I could be wrong.

Re:What about the other wrong labels? by Suppafly · 2002-09-23 03:27 · Score: 2

Yeh, I love how someone will download something, think it's someone different than it is and rename the file before sharing it again, paying no attention to the id3 tags.. Doesn't every use winamp? I'm amazed at how often I'll get mp3's which are labeled wrong, but have the correct id3 info because the person who originally ripped them used a service such as cddb.
Re:What about the other wrong labels? by NineNine · 2002-09-23 03:38 · Score: 2

Well, the great thing about Kazaa is it's viral. If you get a song that's wrong, you can either nuke it, meaning there will be fewer bad copies out there, or you can rename it yourself, and that copy will propgate faster than bogus copies.

Rating System by SealBeater · 2002-09-23 03:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

Quick question on the rating system. What's to stop the same people who are
saturating KaZaa with false files to simply rate good files negatively? That
way, they don't even have to flood the network, all they have to do is stomp on
a file at a time and nobody is going to download it to see if it's good or not.
Is the rating system simply going to make it easier for companies to steer
people away from good files?

SealBeater

--
-- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!

Re:Rating System by hey · 2002-09-23 03:38 · Score: 2, Interesting

The MPAA proxies would be outvoted millions
to one. Since there are millions of Kazaa users.
It would be hard for the MPAA proxies to simulate
being millions of users.
Re:Rating System by z4ce · 2002-09-23 04:15 · Score: 2

I agree. It seems pretty flawed. I'm sure the theory is the number of users rating it will overcome the RIAA's attempt to mark it bad. But, what if the RIAA is the first one to mark it bad? And what if they register 1000s of accounts? It seems to me the answer to this file trust problem is to assign a modified web of trust to people using PGP/GPG keys. Maybe someone will implement it in giFT...

Ian
Re:Rating System by Erasmus+Darwin · 2002-09-23 04:36 · Score: 2

"The MPAA proxies would be outvoted millions to one. Since there are millions of Kazaa users."
That's just flat-out poor logic.
For any given file, only a small percentage of the total Kazaa users will download it. Of those who download it, even fewer will rate it. There won't be millions of votes for any song on Kazaa unless someone rigs up an automated voting script.
Re:Rating System by RollingThunder · 2002-09-23 05:36 · Score: 2

Except that the real ones will be getting the positive votes. Slowly, they will begin to pull ahead of the pack, and thus gain more attention - and a similar increase in getting good votes, until there's a clear authoritative "Fooblah Slim - Grok my Parser Up.mp3".

Re:I take it from the summary... by milesbparty · 2002-09-23 03:12 · Score: 2, Informative

I've never tried Kazaa, but try Ad-Aware by LavaSoft to clean up the spyware. It's always worked well for me on software like Bearshare.

--
eMelody Web Directory add your site today!

Tiscali == Full of FTP Abusers by Frater+219 · 2002-09-23 03:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

Perhaps this will cut down on the number of port-21 scans I see from Tiscali. At present, they're one of the largest sources of scans for open anonymous FTP servers, right behind Wanadoo. The abusers are looking for FTP servers that allow both upload and download in the same directory. When they find them, they fill them up with warez, porn, and movies.

Now, you may think, hey, free warez, porn, and movies ... but I'll bet you don't work for a site with a few hundred technically bright but security-dumb scientists. These folks like open FTP because it makes it easy to collaborate and share data, but they don't like having their disks fill up with blowjob MPEGs.

So if Tiscali can get its warezers and pr0nsters running Kazaa and shoving spyware onto each other's systems all day, maybe they will go away and leave my users' port 21 alone.

Re:Tiscali == Full of FTP Abusers by Hieronymus+Howard · 2002-09-23 03:45 · Score: 2

This should really piss off the pr0nsters:

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/home/ftp/pub/blowjob.mpg bs=1024 count=100000

HH
Re:Tiscali == Full of FTP Abusers by PD · 2002-09-23 06:46 · Score: 2

Even better would be to make a driver that hooks up to /dev/blowjob. As long as you read from that device, it delivers a snippet over and over again. Why waste the disk space?

--
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.

I'll be glad when kazaa dies.. by Suppafly · 2002-09-23 03:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

As someone who has to do network support, nothing is worse than a computer which has had kazaa and the accompaning spyware installed. That new.net crap ruins the winsock stuff forcing a total reinstall, and those spyware proxys have people complaining about QoS when its the proxy which is providing the crappy service. I await the day we come to /. to bury kazaa, not to praise it.

Re:I'll be glad when kazaa dies.. by shepd · 2002-09-23 04:05 · Score: 2

>you can fix the winsock problems by removing tcp/ip and then removing the mstcp tree in the registry.

That's assuming the user was intelligent enough to keep their CD. Since about 50% of the machines I work on have pirated windows, and worse yet, they didn't even keep the CD-R their brother/niece/friend installed it from, and the dough-heads didn't copy the cabs to the HD, I can't always fix it the "easy" way.

Remember, there's (may even be more!):

- Win 95 original
- Win 95 B
- Win 95 OSR2
- Win 95 OSR2.1
- Win 98
- Win 98 SE
- Win ME
- WinNT 4
- Win2k Professional
- Win2k Server
- Win2k Advanced Server
- WinXP Home Edition
- WinXP Professional

Too much stuff to lug about, not to mention it would be illegal for me to have many of those...

--
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC

Re:how does this give legimacy(sp)?? by SirSlud · 2002-09-23 03:17 · Score: 2

Because the company thats advertising in this case has money, and (presumably) decent laywers.

Let the pissing contest begin! Down with the RIAA! :)

--
"Old man yells at systemd"

Interesting developments by Scarblac · 2002-09-23 03:18 · Score: 5, Interesting

There are several interesting developments here. For one thing, Tiscali allies with Kazaa - a natural step for them, because after all, they want to sell bandwidth, and why would people need a lot of bandwidth, if there weren't any applications like Kazaa?

Then in the second article, one of the things that's mentioned is that they partner with a music company for which Kazaa is actually the only way it distributes its music. This may be good for Kazaa's legal case, after all Napster seemed to lose mostly because they couldn't show that their networks were used legitimately at all.

On the other hand, I wonder what the judge will think of the new feature against 'bogus music and video files', that are inserted by the record companies to make the network useless. Almost all of those files will make themselves look like songs that are actually illegal to trade, so making a feature to stop them, however useful and natural to make, could be seen as actively helping to download copyrighted stuff.

But I can't really see them winning the case in the US anyway, after Napster.

--
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.

Re:Interesting developments by Jeppe+Salvesen · 2002-09-23 03:56 · Score: 2

Almost all of those files will make themselves look like songs that are actually illegal to trade, so making a feature to stop them, however useful and natural to make, could be seen as actively helping to download copyrighted stuff.

Not at all. The WYSIWYG feature merely make sure that the user is in fact downloading what they think they are downloading. That would also prevent a ten-year-old from downloading the "Donald Duck gets a blowjob" mp3 when he/she in fact was looking for Britney Spears.

--
Stop the brainwash
Re:Interesting developments by jbolden · 2002-09-23 05:11 · Score: 3, Interesting

Then in the second article, one of the things that's mentioned is that they partner with a music company for which Kazaa is actually the only way it distributes its music. This may be good for Kazaa's legal case, after all Napster seemed to lose mostly because they couldn't show that their networks were used legitimately at all.

The problem is there are much better ways to distribute legal stuff than Kazaa. A rootless peer to peer setup involves enormous networking overhead (over 1/2 the packets) that you wouldn't have with the standard download systems. I think almost all anonymous peer-to-peer file shares are going to face this problem; if what was being distributed was legal you wouldn't go to this much trouble.

I think the best thing for Kazaa would be to get political stuff of an extremely non mainstream nature: everything from KKK literature to communist party literature to anarchist stuff to taliban philosophy to Turner diaries traffic to taiwanese indepence writings ... That way there is a good reason to be doing in anonymously and at the same time its highly protected. The downside is you might end up attracting enemies more powerful than the MPAA and RIAA.

Re:What? by SirSlud · 2002-09-23 03:19 · Score: 2

But it sounds like this ISP is in support of Kazaa, and won't be a pushover.

The RIAA wanted Kazaa dead before, but now they have to deal with a company with money. Different ball game for RIAA, don't you think?

--
"Old man yells at systemd"

Re:I take it from the summary... by lordkuri · 2002-09-23 03:19 · Score: 2, Informative

FYI... if you use Ad-Aware to remove the spyware components of Kazaa, it kills the program.

-LK

Tiscali? Arggh by perlyking · 2002-09-23 03:20 · Score: 2

Spam I report often originates from Tiscali accounts. I wouldnt give them any of my money for that reason.

--
no sig.

That's all well and good... by Dirtside · 2002-09-23 03:20 · Score: 2

...but if Kazaa evolves to be radioactive and fire-breathing, I'm leaving the island.

--
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased

How odd that an ISP wants warez kiddies by vidnet · 2002-09-23 03:21 · Score: 4, Insightful

Most ISPs seems to want to block or limit throughput for heavy traffic apps like this. What exactly is Tiscali trying to do?

Are they trying to round up all the kiddies on their network, driving bandwidth costs down?

Re:How odd that an ISP wants warez kiddies by SirSlud · 2002-09-23 03:29 · Score: 4, Interesting

Maybe Tiscali recognizes that if Kazaa has been downloaded 120 million times, there can't be that many Kazaa users that are full blown warez kiddies.

Most of the people I know who p2p (I don't out of sheer laziness, but then again, I've stopped buying music due to the crappiness of product right now) were not bandwidth guzzling warez monkeys but just wanted a recording of a top 40 song that they could have taped off the radio twice an hour anyhow.

So maybe Tiscali sees p2p as broadband's killer app, and has taken a more objective analysis of how their bandwidth will be affect by this partnership rather than just assuming that they'll only attract the types who throttle the pipe.

--
"Old man yells at systemd"

Re:Legitimacy? by Suppafly · 2002-09-23 03:24 · Score: 2

Yeh, its also not really possible to add legitimacy to a company whos primary objective is to distribute software which facilitates distributing illegal music and software.

Here's a good test I've developed to tell if a company is legit. Does it bundle spyware with the software? If yes, its most likely not legit and will be sued out of existance sometime soon. Does it facilitate transfering music and video on a peer to peer level, if yes its most likely not legit and will be sued out of existance.. With kazaa, both are true so it'll be gone soon.

First impressions by EpsCylonB · 2002-09-23 03:26 · Score: 4, Insightful

they are promoting bands and videos on the search page but to play them you need to update your DRM software.

seems to me that kazaa could be trying to set it's self up as a media delivery system when palladium and all the copyright protection is implemented.

KaZaa != freedom by The+Ape+With+No+Name · 2002-09-23 03:27 · Score: 2

KaZaa is the biggest piece of shite ever. It shouldn't even warrant this fluff post on /. . Spyware. DNS hijacking. It completely fucked up our DynDNS system with CommonName.

--
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.

Re:KaZaa != freedom by Quill_28 · 2002-09-23 03:56 · Score: 2

KazaaLite

Re:I take it from the summary... by pangur · 2002-09-23 03:30 · Score: 2

If you ue AdAware to remove KaZaa's spyware, KaZaa will no longer function.

When you start it up, it says something to the point of "Hey, you agreed to run this spyware. I'm taking my ball and going home". The sofware just exits at that point.

I don't know of a way to get around it other than installing KaZaa on a crappy laptop I don't use (200Mhz) and only turning it on when I download stuff.

Re:I take it from the summary... by NineNine · 2002-09-23 03:33 · Score: 4, Informative

No need to wait. The lite version has been out for quite some time... http://www.kazaalite.com

Legitimacy? by csnydermvpsoft · 2002-09-23 03:33 · Score: 2, Insightful

Woohoo, Kazaa joined an affiliate program. Does that that give my favorite pr0n site legitimacy too?

Re:I take it from the summary... by ncc74656 · 2002-09-23 03:38 · Score: 4, Interesting

FYI... if you use Ad-Aware to remove the spyware components of Kazaa, it kills the program.

IIRC, Kazaa needs Cydoor to run. Fortunately, there's a dummy Cydoor DLL available. (Can't say that I've used Kazaa or Kazaa Lite in a while, though...I started running Shareaza recently, which is spyware-free, ad-free, and works with a true decentralized network.)

--
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.

Re:Why kazaa? by NineNine · 2002-09-23 03:41 · Score: 2

Kazaa has a HUGE advantage over Gnutella. Kazaa has many, many more times the number of users and number of files that Gnutella has. And, that difference is only going to grow. Somebody downloads both, sees that Kazaa has a hell of a lot more, they use Kazaa, and share their files on Kazaa, thus improving Kazaa.

"more sources needed" by British · 2002-09-23 03:49 · Score: 2

Does anyone else get 99% of their dl requests stonewalled with "more sources needed"? Reminds me of all the failed transfers I had with napster, yet no problems getting mega-rare tracks from AudioGalaxy.

I was hoping with less and less P2P services, people would flock to a common one, hence boosting the available tracks out there.

Bad BroadBand; Good Cycling Team by The+Ape+With+No+Name · 2002-09-23 03:51 · Score: 2

It's a shame that JaJa is associated with Tiscali.

--
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.

Did you even read the article? by Jeppe+Salvesen · 2002-09-23 03:52 · Score: 2

The new Kazaa version attempts to address these exact issues. They will even reward the users that rate the content with priority when downloading.

Now go away, you over-moderated troll!

--

Stop the brainwash

Two words......... by Ride-My-Rocket · 2002-09-23 03:55 · Score: 2, Informative

"KaZaA" and "Lite". http://www.kazaalite.com/

Re:Why kazaa? by FooBarWidget · 2002-09-23 03:57 · Score: 2

Exactly, I want to just open the program and search & download the files I want. But I don't want to wait 7 hours until I'm finally out of the "remote queue" so the download can begin at 3 kb/sec while connected to 6 people, so I use Gnutella.

Nooooo... by shepd · 2002-09-23 03:59 · Score: 2

Cleaning up KaZaa ruined machines makes me a decent part time living! :-)

I'd be out of business if it weren't for KaZaa and WebShots... (well, not really, but I'd be out of _easy_ jobs).

Don't worry, I always tell my users not to use these programs after I've cleaned up their messes.

--
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC

Re:Nooooo... by FallLine · 2002-09-23 04:49 · Score: 2

I don't think it's quite fair to compare Webshots and Kazaa. Webshots may interfere with the operation of your computer in some circumstances, but no more than any other app that runs in the background like that. Webshots is not engineered to mess with your computer and it can be easily disabled. Granted, many users may bog down their systems with it, but it's a trade off between features and responsiveness that one can consciously make. Kazaa is an entirely different animal.

How to buy great music by Jeppe+Salvesen · 2002-09-23 03:59 · Score: 2

Here's my Quality Assurance procedure when I buy new records:

1. Browse the reviews for stuff that looks interesting.
2. Jump online and find samplers
3. If samplers are good after about three listens, buy the disc.

I've avoided quite a few downers by following this procedure.

--

Stop the brainwash

Re:How to buy great music by jbolden · 2002-09-23 05:14 · Score: 2

I don't find that much connection by how good a group sounds live and how good their records are. In most ways this method is less accurate then going by the one or two songs on the radio.

Oh, GREAT! by Asprin · 2002-09-23 04:00 · Score: 2

I can't wait for the first time I can't Meta-Moderate because we've been Googled!

By the way, does anyone know if this will solve the slashdot-effect-site-caching issue?

--
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie

Re:Tiscali == Full of FTP Ab..isn't this illegal? by Frater+219 · 2002-09-23 04:19 · Score: 2

I always thought this was illegal.

What, portscanning? In the U.S. at least, some courts have ruled it legal, whereas some courts have considered it an element of computer crime. I don't know what the case is in Italy.

It is theoretically possible to block IP scanning almost instantaneously, if there was a protocol that traded information with other clients when it was abused.

Sure. Now, tell me how you'll secure this protocol from forgery -- so that when Joe Hacktivist gets pissed off at CNN kowtowing to Red China again, he can't just tell the world that CNN is scanning him and get them cut off the Net.

Think also of the sheer quantity of processing that is involved in maintaining routing tables now, and how fucked-up the Net gets when routers do stupid things or when rogue ISPs (like Above.net) propagate fraudulent routes as a mechanism of censorship.

Typo in article by Spunk · 2002-09-23 04:27 · Score: 2

... Kazaa will carry ads for Tiscali's broadband services in return for a cash 'bounty' ...

Kazaa users are often called pirates, right? In that case, I think they mean booty.

Arr!

Re:KAZZA LITE by beebware · 2002-09-23 04:30 · Score: 2, Informative

Pssst: http://www.fasttrackmovies.com may be able to help you there.... Have a read (and, hopefully contribute) to the forum as well..

Re:What? by Suppafly · 2002-09-23 04:56 · Score: 2

but I should be able to watch my DVDs wherever I want on whatever I want, Listen to my music wherever I want, in the car, on the way to work, in the bathroom.

You can do that without kazaa, and infact downloading stuff off of kazaa is not fair use at all.. its one thing to steal music, its another to try and justify it as legal. If you really want fair use, you are entitled to it, but you have to make the copies yourself instead of downloading them.

I'm curious to know what you think of Andromeda... by turnstyle · 2002-09-23 04:58 · Score: 2, Interesting

"I await the day we come to /. to bury kazaa, not to praise it"

I'm just curious if you would consider my software Andromeda more friendly for your network. It's not like the main P2P networks insofar as you can't really use it as a mass anonymous downloader.

However, you can use it to stream your collection over a local network and/or over the Internet. Basically, it bulds a complete streaming web site from a collection of MP3 files. PHP and ASP versions are available.

There's no spyware, it doesn't need to talk 'outside' of your network, and it transfers over http so there typically aren't firewall hassles.

Best, -Scott

--
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda

Re:I take it from the summary... by e2d2 · 2002-09-23 05:21 · Score: 2

I use the KazaaLite version and although I can scan for spyware and not find any just fine, it still pops up advertisements using IE. I left kazaalite on one night a few days ago and come back to 10 pop up ads on my tool bar. Maybe not spyware under a strict definition but a pain in the ass nonetheless. Oh well.

Great a way to get rid of the virii infested asf's by Billly+Gates · 2002-09-23 05:29 · Score: 2

I can't wait for the new legitimacy testing. I am sick and tired of the stupid porn baitbus ad which, by the way has virus encoded in its format every single time I download porn. These assholes just add some extra garbage bits to change the size and then they change the name. Its still the same old file advertising their porn and opening up a million websites at once and uploading the litmus worm on my system. I updated my system so the virus won't execute but I want to get a gun and shoot those motherf*ckers. Litterally %70 of the porn out their is from 1 of their 3 ads! I bet they have a bot that changes keeps remaining the original video file and storing and hoping suckers download it and spread it some more.

Another obnixous one is abunch of stupid kids singing to a midi file playing and they disguise their mp3's with names like Metallica-for-whomthebell-tools or Nirvanna-come-as-you-are-accoustic-rare.

What is wrong with these downloaders? If you guys get burned, please do us all a favor and just delete the bad movie and mp3 files?

--
http://saveie6.com/

Re:Why kazaa? by FooBarWidget · 2002-09-23 05:44 · Score: 2

The network can't be killed but the clients can. Shutdown FastTrack and Kazaa and the clients won't be able to find each other because they can't connect to the first server.

Re:I take it from the summary... by DennyK · 2002-09-23 05:54 · Score: 2

I started having that problem with my (older) neutered version of Grokster. To fix it, I just turned off all scripting in IE. Grokster continues to work fine, but it no longer displays popup ads. I haven't tried the new version of Kazaa, but I'd guess the same trick would probably work with it.

DennyK

Don't use Kazaa, try Edonkey by Jacek+Poplawski · 2002-09-23 06:03 · Score: 4, Informative

I think Kazaa will die like Napster or AudioGalaxy did. Don't use Kazaa. Please try edonkey2000 network. It's free, it's available not only for Windows, and you don't need to watch any commercials.

official (closed source) client: edonkey2000
free (GPL) client: mldonkey
free, Windows-only client: emule
ShareReactor community: ShareReactor

Re:I take it from the summary... by arkanes · 2002-09-23 06:57 · Score: 2

You can go one step further and just add the domains it calls up to the restricted zone in IE. I forget all the domain names, but the kazaa lite site has a list of em.

Re:Why kazaa? by gabec · 2002-09-23 07:02 · Score: 2

Actually, the biggest reason to use the FastTrack network (KaZaA, Grokster, etc.) for ME is because of reliable and fast connections. Every time I've tried Gnutella to find files, first, when I start the app it'll take forever to successfully connect to the network and second once I do find files it'll say "50 people have this file" and it still takes forever to download it... why? Of those matches most of the connections fail or time out. FastTrack is almost always fast in both initialization and reliable file transfer.

Re:I take it from the summary... by Suppafly · 2002-09-23 07:12 · Score: 2

You most likely have other spyware stuff from other programs.. don't forget that audio galaxy and many other p2p services install spyware as well as several webpages exploit active x scripting to switch you over to useing their popup generating proxies.

Re:Linking to NYTimes though Google by Suppafly · 2002-09-23 07:18 · Score: 2

All this annoying NYTimes user name nonsense would go away if slashdot would enter into such an agreement with NYTimes. Now THAT would be something worth donating for.

Why should /. pay for a partnership, when they can just append &partner=SOMEOTHERPARTNER to the end of the links and achieve the same effect for free?

How 'bout...... by Y-Crate · 2002-09-23 07:58 · Score: 2

...it evolves into an OS X version?

Please?

(There is a serious lack of P2P software on OS X, all help is appreciated)

Re:KAZZA LITE by slaker · 2002-09-23 08:01 · Score: 2

My boss had a "bring your kids to work so they can play with Kazaa on the multiplexed cable connection" day, and ran into exactly that problem. ... of course, two hours later, the nine-year-old was doing direct searches for that stuff.

Me? I blame Disney.

--
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K

Re:I take it from the summary... by NineNine · 2002-09-23 08:19 · Score: 2

Also, unless you get the newest HOSTS file from kazaalite.com, the "home page" for Kazaalite is still the official Kazaa page, which DOES cause the popups. So, just get the hosts file at kazaalite.com which will redirect the kazaa home page (hardcoded in the program) to the kazaalite home page (no popups of any kind). Also, it's a really good hosts file that kills a LOT of ads (including some here on Slashdot)

Re:I take it from the summary... by DennyK · 2002-09-23 09:25 · Score: 2

True...but it's easier for me just to block all scripts. I don't use IE for web browsing anyway, so I just leave it set to ask before it does anything. Then I can just tell Grokster "No" and the occasional IE-only site that I have to visit "Yes"... ;)

DennyK

Re:Legitimacy? by Catbeller · 2002-09-23 09:30 · Score: 2

illegal music and software.

Illegal music.

Why am I the only one I know who is terrified that possessing and listening to music can be illegal?

Not your music by 0x0d0a · 2002-09-23 10:13 · Score: 2

Actually, "yours" is defined by the legal system, so, no, it isn't yours.

You have the right to own and listen to your copy, though. You also have a few other specifically granted rights. But you do not hold the copyright on the music, which is the mark of ownership of that music.

You do own the raw CD, and you could melt it and then do whatever you like with the raw materials...but you do not have ownership of the data that comes pre-recorded on the CD.

--
May we never see th

Piracy? by 0x0d0a · 2002-09-23 10:17 · Score: 2

Until it is shown that most people pirate content that they either already own, have owned or purchase legally in the future....

Riiight.

Also, purchasing in the future does not make pirating the song legal. It also makes sense not to have that make it legal -- to some degree, you decrease the value of the song by listening to it, since the best time is the first time. Also, the artist/company does not have your money in the meantime, and cannot be using the money to produce more goods or earn interest.

It doesn't matter what you're doing is even in the RIAA or even artists' best interests -- it's still illegal.

Now, whether you're concerned over whether what you do is a crime is your own concern...

--
May we never see th

Re:Piracy? by SirSlud · 2002-09-23 14:22 · Score: 3, Insightful

> to some degree, you decrease the value of the song by listening to it, since the best time is the first time

Many songs take _more_ than one listening in order for you to appreciate the value (in fact, most, unless you're really lacking in any appreciation for music.)

What you're proposing is perposterous. By your logic, we should prevent friends from hearing the album we just bought because they should buy it themselves. Think about what you're saying. Do you really owe studios a buck when you watch a movie at a friends house? You've just decreased the value of the product! No .. because labels know that if your friend likes it, they'll buy it themselves.

You sound like the reason you buy a CD is to listen to a song once. The poor pop music industry sure makes it feel that way, doesn't it? People forget that you buy albums because you want to hear the song many times. If you listen to something once, what you want is the radio to play it, or to go over to your friends house to hear it (uhoh, call the police!)

You have to be kidding me that you really consider that when you go over to a friends house to check out a new album, you're decreasing the value of the product. I suppose that should be illegal too?

--
"Old man yells at systemd"

Fasttrack can be shut down by 0x0d0a · 2002-09-23 10:22 · Score: 2

Yes. The network was not originally based around a single central point of failure, but in an effort to make money, the Kazaa people added a centralized authentication system in. If this point is shut down, the entire network goes down.

--
May we never see th

w00t, it's already there... by rsborg · 2002-09-23 10:38 · Score: 2

Wait until Kazaa Lite is released before you go downloading it. Unfortunately www.kazaalite.com doesn't work any more but doa2.host.sk [doa2.host.sk] (which is where www.k-lite.tk points to) does.

It's there. Here's the link
(note: I hope they survive the slashdotting)

--
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting

Re:Legitimacy? by toupsie · 2002-09-23 12:14 · Score: 2

Still better than AtI and nViDiA.

--
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.

FTP? Why not scp? by rjkimble · 2002-09-23 15:31 · Score: 2

These folks like open FTP because it makes it easy to collaborate and share data, but they don't like having their disks fill up with blowjob MPEGs.

FTP? Don't you think it's time to look at scp? And ssh? Don't tell me they're still using telnet!

--

Guns don't kill people -- people kill people.
But the guns seem to help a bit. (apologies to Eddie Izzard)

Re:FTP? Why not scp? by rjkimble · 2002-09-24 06:06 · Score: 2

Well, I wasn't suggesting anything outlandish. I think ssh/scp or something similar are pretty much required these days because of all the jerks out there with high speed access to the Internet. I acknowledge your point about lack of anonymity, although couldn't you create a special "anonymous" user ID that required no password? OTOH, an anonymous ftp server that allows uploads is bound to bring you the grief you mention.

However, I don't buy the "science, not IT, runs the institution crap." I realize that's a political reality for you, but I'm old enough to have seen the transition from slide rules to calculators, not to mention computers, so I'm not exactly a neophyte. I also realize that many of my colleagues don't take such changes well, so I know exactly where you're coming from. However, somebody has to bite the bullet and accept the inevitability of change. I'll bet their lab instrumentation has kept up with the times.

One thing you say that I won't accept is that blocking telnet makes you a "fuckless IT asshole." There are zillions of acceptable ssh clients covering pretty much every OS, especially any OS that has a telnet client. And using ssh is virtually identical to using telnet, so there's no retraining required.

In general, I think the best approach is to team with the folks who understand the value of better technology and enlist their assistance in bringing around their colleagues. I also recognize that such techniques take time. A couple decades back I was a mathematician teaching physics in the physics department at a U.S. service academy. I developed some really useful data analysis software that I shared with my more adventurous physics colleagues. After a while, even the "curmudgeons" were interested in using my software, seeing the vastly more efficient data analysis being performed by the ones using my software. By now, everybody sees the value of computers, but then again, the really old ones have retired and the new guys have grown up with the stuff. I wish you luck!

--

Guns don't kill people -- people kill people.
But the guns seem to help a bit. (apologies to Eddie Izzard)

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