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Court Docs Reveal Kazaa Logging User Downloads
Dan Warne writes "The most explosive documents in the ongoing Kazaa court case have emerged today, including logs of discussions between parent company Sharman and the Estonian developer of the Kazaa Media Desktop. They include extraordinary admissions like: "Reporting will make Kazaa look like spyware, as soon as it becomes evident we record downloads and playbacks, users will flee to competitive networks" and then "One can argue that we have knowledge of copyrighted material being downloaded in our network and have to install filters. If we are reporting [gold] files, then technically we could do the same for every file." Finally, "RIAA [could] collect the IP addresses for everyone who has searched for or downloaded that file." Despite the Kazaa developer's concerns over these issues, Kazaa went ahead with the logging." (More below.)
Warne continues "APC Magazine journalist Garth Montgomery, who has covered every day of the trial in the Australian Federal Court, says: "In a nutshell, this has got to rate as the most explosive document revealed. It makes it damn near impossible to maintain the separation theory that Sharman and Altnet rely on in terms of business independence and technical infrastructure. The control they exercise over the system is complete." Montgomery has also scanned in all the documents and made them available in PDF format, including the confidential Kazaa purchase contract and technical specifications for the Kazaa Media Desktop."
The question is, were they reputable to begin with? I never used Kazaa but I understand the standard version included spyware or adware.
I don't want to sound like some FOSS fanboy, but we need to step back and consider the state of Windows software today. You're putting your privacy at risk every time you install anything that's not open-source (or from a very upstanding developer) on that platform. It doesn't hurt to be a bit paranoid and assume the developer is guilty until proven innocent when it comes to closed Windows apps.
" "property is theft" -- Joseph Proudhon
"Joseph Proudhon is a cocksucker" -- DesScorp
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Everytime someone calls copyright infringement "stealing", all the 10-year-old Sea Lawyers come out of the woodwork. "But Mommy, I didn't really take anything, honest!"
Bah! Call it what you want, but you cannot justify immoral behavior by twisting words around your middle finger. If you're going to do this sort of thing, at least you can be honest about what it makes you, and don't complain when you get caught.
There is no privacy on the internet. Everything you do can and will be tracked by someone, somewhere. It makes Orwell look like a piker, doesn't it?
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
Ever heard of a Proxy genius?