Shutting down Kazaa

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Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday January 26, 2003 @04:40AM from the tough-to-do dept.

An anonymous reader writes "There is an interesting wired.com article on the fight between the world's media corporations and Kazaa. The lengths Kazaa has gone to to keep itself immune from attack (incorporated variously in Vanuatu (where?), Estonia and Australia), seem to have largely paid off - until now."

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Kazaa participation level by skermit · 2003-01-26 04:42 · Score: 3, Informative

If you're not getting the downloads or results to searchers you used to, it might be because you're "leeching". This little utility (scanned with latest version of AVP, F-Prot, and Orion) maxes out your participation level, allowing you to leech to your heart's content.

http://kazaahack.250x.com

--
-Christopher Wu
http://www.christopherwu.net/
1. Re:Kazaa participation level by Kaz+Riprock · 2003-01-26 07:32 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Because of the intense bandwidth being consumed at universities across the nation for uploads and downloads thru the Kazaa ports, many schools are cracking down on fileswappers (not for copyright, but to keep the network traffic managable). In that way, a lot of college students will leech because if they spike the upload bandwidth, the IT police knock on their door and terminate their in-room connection. This has been covered here at slashdot before.
  
  --
  Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
Kazaa vs eMule by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-26 04:44 · Score: 5, Informative

Kazaa is P2P for the non-power users...I urge everyone to try out eMule / eDonkey....file integrity is next to none other and speed is remarkably impressive (considering the chunk based downloading system). Check it out!
1. Re:Kazaa vs eMule by UnuMondo · 2003-01-26 04:48 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  I also find giFT a great service. It's mostly Linux users apparently, so plenty of oggs and a great deal of music for nerds like ourselves.
  
  --
  GPG Key ID: 8C444E97 Fingerprint: E7BA D851 9714 8D97 C4F9 1777 8168 6913 8C44 4E97
2. Re:Kazaa vs eMule by fault0 · 2003-01-26 05:27 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  The problem with eDonkey is that it's pretty centralized in terms of the way OpenNap was centralized (actually more, as there is no "networks" in eDonkey). If the RIAA/MPAA saw eDonkey as a threat, they could easily take down the individual server operators (like the RIAA once did with OpenNap server operators)
  
  Overnet tries to solve it, but it's just not there yet compared to KaZaA and even giFT/openFT. Hopefully it will be in the future, because I love ed2k and related services.
3. Re:Kazaa vs eMule by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-26 05:30 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  I'll vouch for this. eMule is several times more reliable and useful than kazaa and gnutella/2. It's extremely easy to spot fakes on eMule. It's extremely hard for systems like overpeer to work against eMule. Sharing at reasonable speeds is also forced by the client; on kazaa you constantly get downloads in the .5k/sec-2k/sec range, on eMule this rarely happens, if you have more than 20 or so sources, you are pretty much guarenteed a fast download, even on files in the gigabyte range. Network exploits are also quickly taken care of by eMules open source developers.
  
  Also for anybody who thinks the donkey network sucks, you have probably only tried the actual edonkey2000 client, don't use that one, it realy sucks, the author loaded it up with spyware and did a realy hack job on it (although he did a very decent job on the network protocol). Get eMule instead, it's GPL too.
4. Re:Kazaa vs eMule by chabotc · 2003-01-26 05:38 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Incase some people do want to try out mldonkey (i would advice it), these links will allow you to hit the ground running:
  
  downloads:
  * edonkey2000: http://www.edonkey2000.com/ (official client page. Has a almost working linux client to.. windows client is good)
  
  * eMule: http://www.emule-project.net/ (considered the best windows client. Also open source)
  
  * mldonkey: http://www.nongnu.org/mldonkey/ (linux client, with GIU, Web & telnet interfaces. Considered 'best' on linux. Open source)
  
  * cdonkey: http://cdonkey.suche.org/ (some seem to like it, i don't want to touch it)
  
  Good content sites:
  
  * http://www.sharereactor.com (between its own listings, and the content in the forums, this is a unbeatable resource!)
  * http://www.filenexus.com (sharereactor 'competitor', much smaller, but does music)
  
  * http://www.sharedfolders.net (place where ppl can share their own 'releases' and faborites.. some good stuff can be found there, but takes a bit of work)
  
  Enjoy, and welcome to the donkey file sharing world ;-)
5. Re:Kazaa vs eMule by bsharitt · 2003-01-26 05:51 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  For the Mac users there's Jim, which is a giFT client. It can be found here. Binaries and all. I've found the network to be much better that Limewire and all those Gnutella clients, although there isn't as much content yet(that's why more people need to use is).
6. Re:Kazaa vs eMule by GeckoFood · 2003-01-26 05:51 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  ...file integrity is next to none...
  
  Shall we assume you meant second to none? If you really meant "next to none" then it's a wonder anyone uses it at all!
  
  --
  Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!
Whatever by drunkmonk · 2003-01-26 04:46 · Score: 4, Informative

This is a measure/countermeasure race, one that the RIAA/MPAA cannot win. Technology changes faster than litigation can be processed, so for every Kazaa that is shut down, the people who are going to develop the next generation of file-sharing utilities will learn from the mistakes made, both legal and technological, and create better tools. There's only so much that litigation can do to prop up a failing business model.
kazaa by pummer · 2003-01-26 04:50 · Score: 3, Informative

KaZaA, as we know, is laden with spyware. use kazaalite.
1. Re:kazaa by edox. · 2003-01-26 05:01 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Diet Kazaa is much better than kazaalite you can change your nearest supernode[find a t1 or higher super node]. It has ip browser that show the ip address of the remote user. It blocks upgrade notice. You can customize ur kazaa remove the media bar, remove the menu bar etc.. all that kazaalite lacks
  
  .
  
  --
  quote:port 17 udp
2. Re:kazaa by (rypto* · 2003-01-26 05:23 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Get it here Its worth endorsement
  
  --
  #3 pencils and quadrille pads.
Vanuatu by errxn · 2003-01-26 04:51 · Score: 5, Informative

I got curious, so I checked it out. It's a small island nation in the South Pacific. Here's a map, for the interested:

--
In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
Re:How? by swordgeek · 2003-01-26 04:54 · Score: 4, Informative

Fairly simple. Kazaa is a proprietary client using a specific, 'proprietary' protocol[1]. There's only one company behind it, even if the distribution itself is well, distributed.

Now something like Gnutella is going to be near impossible to kill.

[1]proprietary is in quotes here because the very concept of a proprietary network protocol is somewhat questionable. Suffice to say, it's not an openly revealed protocol.

--

"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Re:Where? by epicstruggle · 2003-01-26 04:59 · Score: 2, Informative

Here is the correct link

--
"Im drowning here, and you're describing the water!"
What About Gnucleus? by ras_b · 2003-01-26 05:05 · Score: 4, Informative

I'm surprised i don't see more mention of Gnucleus for file sharing. Why don't more people use this? Gnucleus is an open source client for the gnutella network- no ads, no spyware, and no hidden corporations running it. I have been using it successfully for a long time, but whenever i ask others what they use it's always "kazaa". I don't get it.
Statutory damages for copyright infringement by yerricde · 2003-01-26 05:05 · Score: 2, Informative

If the fine for a song were $150,000, well...

It is. Instead of taking actual damages, a prevailing copyright owner can elect to take statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work, as defined in Title 17, United States Code, section 504. And for a sound recording, statutory damages can potentially reach $300,000 because copyrights on two separate works are infringed: the copyright on the melody (owned by the songwriter or by the songwriter's publisher) and the copyright on the sound recording (owned by the band or by the record label).

--
Will I retire or break 10K?
Re:Interesting ads by proj_2501 · 2003-01-26 05:29 · Score: 2, Informative

DirecTV is actually owned by GM.
Does it even work on dial-up? by yerricde · 2003-01-26 05:30 · Score: 2, Informative

I'm surprised i don't see more mention of Gnucleus for file sharing. Why don't more people use this?

On my dial-up connection, I was never able to start even one download with Gnucleus.

I have been using it successfully for a long time

Are you on dial-up or high-speed?

--
Will I retire or break 10K?
Until Now? by m1a1 · 2003-01-26 05:41 · Score: 4, Informative

Until now implies that something can be done if the judge rules in favor of Hollywood. This is simply untrue. As you can gather from the article, the CEO of Sharman Networks has not set foot in the U.S. and will not do so. Sure the company is on trial, but all that exists of them in the United States is lawyers. How they expect to get traditionally uncooperative countries to shut down servers I don't know. It will be interesting.
Re:DC++ by fault0 · 2003-01-26 05:41 · Score: 3, Informative

> I happen to be on one hub which requires 100gig verified share and 10mbit of bandwidth...

Which is *very* easy to fake. I can grab dc_gui from here, install it, goto the user prefs tab, goto shares, change the size offset to 150.43 GB (or whatever you want), and add a virtual share directory of my current download directory.

If I really did want to share anything, I could change the QOS settings to low cost IN the client, or add a very small upload bandwidth limit (minimum 0.5 kb/s in it)
Re:KaZaa vs. RIAA by MKalus · 2003-01-26 07:20 · Score: 2, Informative

Also, if charging $15 is so evil, how come every band I see selling CDs at their shows charges $10-15? Do you yell at them for "exorbitant" markup?
Those bands usually sell a lot less CDs AND at the same time foot the bill for the production and duplication themselves.

Having said that, a CD that sells a million times shouldn't cost $15/piece, considering that thanks to mass production the profit is going up, no?

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Re:The American idea of corporate everything by Anonymous Coward · 2003-01-26 11:44 · Score: 1, Informative

Yes they do get your money.. you said you buy cds from the band. Any blank cd purchased results in money to RIAA.. they ASSUME that it will be used to pirate... therefore they get a cut.

Essentially if you pirate music, you paid for it if you burn it on CD. At least the RIAA part is paid for...