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Google Removes Kazaa Links, Keeps Sponsored Links

Posted by timothy on from the conspiracy-or-happenstance dept.

SanityInAnarchy writes "Everyone should remember when Google removed several links that Sharman (owner of Kazaa) claimed were infringing their copyrights. At first, only real results were touched and sponsored links left alone. Well, that sponsored link was removed, but there are quite a few left on a search for 'Kazaa Lite' that, if they aren't infringing Kazaa copyrights, openly advocate piracy. Well, maybe not quite, but I still can't believe they expect that phrases like 'complete albums,' 'full-length movies,' and 'Napster lives' are to be interpreted as '100% legal.'"

17 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. Sic Transit Gloria Kazaa by Empiric · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When Napster did it, it was cool and unique.
    When Kazaa did it, is was merely cool.
    When Kazaa Lite did it, it was down to just another corporation, profiting from piracy.

    Besides, last I heard, the Kazaa network is rapidly becoming useless, probably due to most everyone going "read-only". And probably everyone on Slashdot knows what the obvious, technically-properly-done successor is, so I won't even mention it.

    --
    ~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
    1. Re:Sic Transit Gloria Kazaa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      How can they go after freenet? "We know you have encrypted files on your computer which may or may not be our copyrighted material." It could just as easily be my home movies I uploaded to freenet so my family could see them.

    2. Re:Sic Transit Gloria Kazaa by bersl2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That doesn't preclude them from trying... after all, they have started becoming more innovative in the method of attack (i.e., the P2P-Porn bill). And do not forget, this is the RIAA; they do not let such things as facts and logic get in their way.

    3. Re:Sic Transit Gloria Kazaa by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wow, iRate is awesome! Doesn't seem like the architecture is very scaleable, though. I wonder if this concept could be made P2P, while still having a reasonable guarantee that the music you get is Free? I think Bittorrent could be used as a model. The server could store all the available music, and send it out to people sometimes, but clients could download songs from each other when possible to reduce the bandwidth load on the server. That way you can download from other people, but if you use a server that guarantees it only has Free files, you won't have to worry about unknowingly committing copyright infringement.

      --
      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
    4. Re:Sic Transit Gloria Kazaa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Gnunet is going to be the real nightmare for the RIAA.

    5. Re:Sic Transit Gloria Kazaa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      There's not much content. It's pretty unpopular. I don't think it will become popular until there is a Windows port and I don't think that will happen until a couple of the more popular ones get attacked by the RIAA.

  2. Time for us to run our own search engine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Google is a single point of failure, and the people running it seem determined to fail.

    We need a peer to peer search engine. We could build it out of the current peer to peer network search engines, which all suck, BTW. I think I would put up with long-running searches for non-censored results.

    One method might be to use something like Filter Proxy. This proxy looks at all the web pages you visit and indexes them. If we can share and search each others proxies, our own browsing will be the indexing of the internet, thus avoiding having to write a spider and obey robots.txt and stuff like that.

    At a minimum, we need to get the project started and start using it, building up the databases.

  3. Of course they are by evilroot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Of course such phrases can be considered %100 legal. Suppose you sell complete, legal albums from your band on your website. Being excluded from Google results would be quite damaging.

    Also, belive it or not pr0n is perfectly legal and one of the single most profitable businesses on the Internet. "Full length movies" etc are buzz phrases from porn sites, and if Google starts filtering that too how much further is it to content censorship? For a Slashdot story I really don't like the pro-copyright law spin on this article. Terminating links for whatever reason is a bad thing. Go after the sites themselves for infringement, not search engines.

    1. Re:Of course they are by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The result will simply be a search engine in a foreign country which doesn't have to obey such a ridiculous law.

  4. Get it straight. by mindstrm · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's not about what is legal or not, it's about complying with a DMCA request.

    Google will remove what they need to in order to avoid a DMCA dispute, the path of least resistance. Any other removals would constitute more work on their end.

  5. Google: "Don't be evil" by cubal · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Remembering that google's motto is "don't be evil", we again see some of their rather odd decisions. First it was "pornography is alright, but hate isn't", now it's "copyright infringement is wrong, but open advertising of piracy is ok"...

    hmm, could it be that "stuff that could get us sued is evil", and "stuff that we get paid for is fine by us"?

    Just a thought.

  6. Kazaa sucks. Kazaa Lite Rules. by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Kazaa lite is the only way to fly. I've used it since it first came out, not because it "made it easier to pirate songs/movies/etc" but because it came out ad and spyware free! If you use plain kazaa, you're a fricking idiot.

    I don't see how anyone can jump up on a high horse and claim kazaa is better/worse than kazaa lite. Like, its magically not the same filesharing if you're using Kazaa lite. As far as I'm concerned, kazaa is just a crippleware version of Kazaa lite.

    Just my opinion.

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  7. DMCA Notice by CausticWindow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why are Google always linking to the Chilling Effects website? Why aren't they hosting the DMCA Notices themselves?

    Would they still be in DMCA violation if the DMCA notice with the removed links were hosted by them?

    What about Chilling Effects? Are they in DMCA violation by hosting those notices?

    --
    How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
  8. What if I post the DMCA'd links here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I post the links for Kazaa Lite downloads that Google had to remove here on Slashdot, will Slashdot get a takedown notice? If so, will Slashdot comply? Moderators, please mod this up so that it will show up in the Google/Google News search index!

    a. http://www.kazaagold.com
    b. http://mp3download.com
    c. http://www.kazaalite.tk
    d. http://www.kaaza.com
    e. http://doa2.host.sk
    f. http://www.k-lite.tk
    g. http://www.kazaa-file-sharing-downloads.com
    h. http://www.kazaalite.nl
    i. http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/mirror.htm
    j. http://www.kazaa-download.de
    k. http://www.zeropaid.com
    l. http://www.kazaalite.nl/downloads.htm
    m. http://kazaa.infos-du-net.com
    n. http://www.kazaa-lite.tk
    o. http://www.kazaa-lite.info

  9. Re:Successor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I went to the music store today and was thinking about buying some... but the two I wanted were $18.99 each! $19 freakin bucks for a piece of plastic with some sounds on it. Needless to say, I did not buy.

  10. Usenet archive is real problem by Jacek+Poplawski · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Please read this .
    I mean following fragment:

    FOR GOOGLE GROUPS, YOU MUST IDENTIFY EACH MESSAGE THAT ALLEGEDLY CONTAINS INFRINGING MATERIAL BY ITS MESSAGE-ID.

    So, they bought DejaNews, they own probably only existing complete (?) Usenet archive, and NOW they want to censure it!

    I don't care about links, if you want link you can find it in many places. Problem is Usenet archive. There is no other place where you can find posts from 1995 or even 1992.

    Dear google, I fsck your link database, but leave Usenet archive unchanged, you are not creators of that content!

  11. Testing the waters. . . by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Google is no longer completely controled by the good guys.

    Honestly. . .

    Who here really believes that THE #1 gateway website of the entire WORLD hasn't been targetted? As we've seen thus far, if you are a Scientologist lunatic, or a Zionist anti-defamationist lunatic, or an RIAA lunatic, then you can make the Google boys jump.

    Any guesses as to what a government "We'll cut your fingers off and dump your body" secret service spook can make a Google boy do?

    Right now, the jerks on the switch need to be very careful; if they remove pages, they need to do it in such a way as to make sure it doesn't raise world ire to combustion levels. At the moment, it's all about a little here, a little there, warm up that pot bit by bit.

    What can you going to do about it?

    Stay aware. Bitch loudly. Seek out and re-post 'offensive' material. If somebody doesn't want something read, then make damned sure it gets read.


    -FL

    --Everybody dies. Why not do it with honor? It's going to suck either way.