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Kazaa
Image:H logo.gif
Developed by Sharman Networks
Latest release 3. A software developer is a person or organization concerned with facets of the software development process wider than design and coding a somewhat broader scope of Sharman Networks is a company headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu. A software release is the distribution whether public or private of an initial or new and upgraded version of a Computer software product 2. 5 / 2006
OS Windows
Genre Peer-to-peer
License Adware/spyware-supported
Website www.kazaa.com

Kazaa Media Desktop (once capitalized as "KaZaA", but now usually written "Kazaa") is a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol and is owned by Sharman Networks. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function type or field of use For other uses of the term see Peer-to-peer (disambiguation For peer-to-peer networks used for file sharing see File sharing A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage is a Legal instrument governing the usage or redistribution of copyright protected software Malware, a Portmanteau word from the words '''mal'''icious and soft'''ware''', is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages For other uses of the term see Peer-to-peer (disambiguation For peer-to-peer networks used for file sharing see File sharing See Shared resource for the conventional meaning of file sharing File sharing refers to the providing and receiving of digital files over a FastTrack is a Peer-to-peer (P2P protocol, used by the Kazaa (and variants Grokster and IMesh) File sharing programs In computing, a protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection Communication, and Data transfer between two computing Sharman Networks is a company headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu.

Kazaa is commonly used to exchange MP3 music files over the Internet. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression However it can also be used to exchange other file types, such as videos, applications, and documents. The official Kazaa client can be downloaded free of charge, bundled with adware and spyware, although there are "No spyware" claims found on Kazaa's website. Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays displays or downloads advertisements Such content will be deleted Specific software is to be mentioned in this article only Such content will be deleted Specific software is to be mentioned in this article only Throughout the past few years, Kazaa's developing company has been the target of many copyright-related lawsuits. In law a lawsuit is a civil action brought before a Court in which the party commencing the action the Plaintiff, seeks a legal or equitable remedy

Contents

History

Kazaa and FastTrack were created by Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis, and Priit Kasesalu (all of whom were later to create Skype and later on still Joost). Niklas Zennström (born 1966) is a Swedish entrepreneur He first gained fame as the co-founder of the KaZaA Peer-to-peer File sharing Janus Friis (born 1976 is a Danish entrepreneur best known for co-founding the File-sharing application KaZaA, and the Peer-to-peer telephony Skype (skaɪp is Software that allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet. Joost ( like "juiced" is a system for distributing recorded TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer TV technology, created by Niklas It was introduced by their Dutch company Consumer Empowerment in March 2000, near the end of the first generation of P2P networks typified by the shut down of Napster on July 2002. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Napster was an online music file sharing service created by Shawn Fanning while he was attending Northeastern University in Boston and operating

Initially, most users of Kazaa were users of the Morpheus program, formerly a client of MusicCity. Morpheus was a File sharing and searching peer to peer client for Microsoft Windows, developed and distributed by the company StreamCast, that MusicCity is the creator of Morpheus, a computer program for sharing MP3 files But once the official Kazaa client became more widespread, its developers used their ability to automatically update it, changing the protocol in February 2002, to shut out Morpheus clients when its developers failed to pay license fees. Morpheus later became a client of the Gnutella network. Gnutella (nʊˈtɛlə with a silent g, or alternatively /gnʊˈtɛlə/ is a File sharing network

Like the creators of similar products, Kazaa's owners have been taken to court by music publishing bodies to restrict its use in the sharing of copyrighted material. Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for Consumer Empowerment was sued in the Netherlands in 2001 by the Dutch music publishing body, Buma/Stemra. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands BUMA/STEMRA is the Dutch Collecting society for Composers and music publishers In November 2001, the court ordered Kazaa's owners to take steps to prevent its users from violating copyrights, or else pay a heavy fine. Consumer Empowerment responded by selling the Kazaa application to a complicated mesh of offshore companies, primarily Sharman Networks, headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu. Sharman Networks is a company headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu ( French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu) is an Island In late March 2002, a Dutch court of appeal reversed an earlier judgment, and stated that Kazaa was not responsible for the actions of its users. Buma/Stemra lost its appeal before the Dutch Supreme Court in December 2003.

However, the legal problems for Kazaa were only just beginning. Kazaa's new owner, Sharman, was sued in Los Angeles by the major record labels and motion pictures studios and a class of music publishers. The other defendants in that case—Grokster and MusicCity (makers of the Morpheus file-sharing software)—initially prevailed against the plaintiffs on summary judgment (Sharman joined the case too late to take advantage of that ruling). The summary judgment ruling was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but unanimously reversed by the US Supreme Court in a decision titled MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. MGM Studios Inc v Grokster Ltd 545 US 913 ( 2005) is a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court unanimously held that [1][2]

Following that ruling in favor of the plaintiff labels and studios, Grokster almost immediately settled the case. Shortly thereafter, on 27 July 2006, it was announced that Sharman had also settled with the record industry and motion picture studios. Events 1214 - Battle of Bouvines: In France, Philip II of France defeats John of England. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. As part of that settlement, the company agreed to pay $100 million in damages to the four major music companies—Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music—and an undisclosed amount to the studios. Sharman also agreed to convert Kazaa into a legal music download service. [3]

While the U. S. action was still pending, the record industry commenced proceedings against Sharman on its home turf. In February 2004, the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) announced its own legal action against Kazaa, alleging massive copyright breaches. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA is a Trade group representing the Australian recording industry The trial began on 29 November 2004. Events 1777 - San Jose California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " On 6 February 2005, the homes of two Sharman Networks executives and the offices of Sharman Networks in Australia were raided under a court order by ARIA to gather evidence for the trial. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats the combined army of Pompeian followers and Numidians under Metellus Scipio Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

On 5 September 2005, the Federal Court of Australia issued a landmark ruling that Sharman, though not itself guilty of copyright infringement, had "authorized" Kazaa users illegally to swap copyrighted songs. Events 1590 - Alexander Farnese 's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The court ruled six defendants—including Kazaa's owners Sharman Networks, Sharman's Sydney-based boss Nikki Hemming and associate Kevin Bermeister—had knowingly allowed Kazaa users illegally to swap copyrighted songs. Sharman Networks is a company headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu. Nikki Hemming (born 1967 is the CEO and part owner of Sharman Networks and President of LEF Interactive an agency based in Sydney, Australia, responsible Kevin Bermeister has developed substantial businesses in the computers video games and multimedia industries SWAP is the EUV imager onboard Proba-2. SWAP is an acronym for "Sun Watcher Using APS and image processing" A song is a Musical composition. Songs contain vocal parts that are performed 'sung' and generally feature Words ( Lyrics) commonly followed The company was ordered to modify the software within two months (a ruling enforceable only in Australia). Sharman and the other five parties faced paying millions of dollars in damages to the record labels that instigated the legal action. [4]

On 5 December 2005, the Federal Court of Australia ceased downloads of Kazaa in Australia after Sharman Networks failed to modify their software by the December 5th deadline. Events 63 BC - Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Users with an Australian IP address were greeted with the message "Important Notice: The download of the Kazaa Media Desktop by users in Australia is not permitted" when visiting Kazaa website. Sharman planned to appeal the Australian decision, but ultimately settled the case as part of its global settlement with the record labels and studios in the United States. [5]

In yet another set of related cases, in September 2003, the RIAA (trade association of the music industry) filed suit in civil court against several private individuals who had shared large numbers of files with Kazaa; most of these suits were settled with monetary payments averaging $3,000. Sharman Networks responded with a lawsuit against the RIAA, alleging that the terms of use of the network were violated and that unauthorized client software (such as Kazaa Lite, see below) was used in the investigation to track down the individual file sharers. An effort to throw out this suit was denied in January 2004. However, that suit was also settled in 2006 (see above). Most recently, in Duluth, Minnesota, the recording industry sued Jammie Thomas, a 30 year old single mother. Capitol v Thomas (previously named Virgin v Thomas) was the first File-sharing Copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the Recording On October 5, 2007, Thomas was ordered to pay the six record companies (Sony BMG, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings Inc. Sony BMG Music Entertainment is a diverse music and entertainment group Interscope Records is an American Record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label , Capitol Records Inc. and Warner Bros. Records Inc. Warner Bros Records Inc is an American Record label that operates as a wholly owned Subsidiary of Warner Music Group. )$9,250 for each of the 24 songs they had focused on in this case. She was accused of sharing a total of 1,702 songs through her Kazaa account. Along with attorney fees, Thomas may responsible for owing as much as a half a million dollars. Thomas testified that she does not have a Kazaa account, but her testimony was complicated by the fact that she had replaced her computer's hard drive after the alleged downloading took place, and later than she originally said in a deposition before the trial. A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device [1]

Nikki Hemming sues p2pnet

In an unrelated case, Sharman Networks and Nikki Hemming, the Kazaa CEO, is suing Canadian digital media news site p2pnet, claiming it defamed Hemming in an article quoting an Associated Press story and a reader's comment. p2pnetnet is an online news website which mainly covers stories which are relevant to Peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P

The case was widely reported in the mainstream media, including an article in the BBC [2]written by Canadian internet law expert Dr Michael Geist.

"The suit, launched by Sharman Networks' Nikki Hemming, has attracted considerable international attention because of the parties involved - Sharman Networks is the Australian-based owner of Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file sharing service that last week agreed to pay the entertainment industry $100m (£53m) to settle ongoing litigation," says Geist in the article.

"It also highlights the vulnerability of thousands of individuals to defamation lawsuits merely for providing access to other people's comments.

"Even individual bloggers who permit comments face the prospect of demands to remove content that is alleged to violate the law

"Both Sharman Networks and Hemming sued P2Pnet last spring, claiming that an article and accompanying comments posted by readers of the site were libelous.

"Jon Newton, the owner of the site, has vigorously disputed the suit, pointing to the need to protect free speech and to ensure that defamation laws cannot be used to stifle comment.

"Sharman Networks recently dropped its claim, however the Hemming suit continues. "

Newton has elected to go to trial and the case is expected to be heard in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, sometime in 2008. p2pnet is based on Vancouver Island off the BC mainland.

Bundled malware

Kazaa has, from early on, been suspected of putting installed malware onto users' computers. Malware, a Portmanteau word from the words '''mal'''icious and soft'''ware''', is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without Sharman, Kazaa's home company, claims that the products are not adware and do not collect personal user information. At one time, the part of the Kazaa code which was considered adware was an optional part of the Kazaa program, albeit one technically difficult to omit during installation. Since the allegations have surfaced, however, the code has been bundled into the main Kazaa software, and it is not possible to uninstall it. Also, spyware detection and removal software has frequently failed to delete the code without special actions taken by the PC user. Spyware components detected and deleted by removal programs will often render Kazaa unusable and require reinstallation of the program. This forces the user to allow these programs on their computer to keep Kazaa working. The malware cannot be ended with conventional methods, and the Windows Task Manager must be used.

The Kazaa EULA
The Kazaa EULA

Malware installed by Kazaa includes the following[6]:

As a result of these additional components, CNET's Download.com site stopped the distribution of KaZaA in April 2004. CNET Networks Inc is a media company based in San Francisco California, United States, and is part of CBS Interactive, owned Downloadcom is an Internet Download directory Website, launched in 1996 as a part of CNET.

Kazaa is also known not to uninstall completely, leaving behind several executables, files, and the Kazaa installer. It also leaves behind all the malware initially installed. In an effort to remove the files left behind, Merijn Bellekom (the creator of HijackThis) has created KazaaBeGone, attempting to remove any remnants left behind by Kazaa's uninstaller program. HijackThis, sometimes abbreviated HJT, is a Freeware Spyware -removal tool for Microsoft Windows originally created by Merijn Bellekom A uninstaller or deinstaller is a Computer program which is designed to remove all or parts of a specific other program or application.

Current state

Kazaa's legal issues have ended after a settlement of $100 million in reparations to the recording industry [3]. It still offers a download on its official website for Kazaa 3. 25. However, copyrighted music or movies can no longer be downloaded or shared. Copyrighted music cannot be purchased from the website (like Napster, etc). However, Peer to peer clients can still share their personal or non-copyrighted files. The traffic on Kazaa is very low, with a new interface that has not been popular and is not being widely used. The site no longer seems to be updated, judging by the unchanging number of total and weekly downloads. The contact links on the website also do not work (not even for advertisers) which may indicate Kazaa is no longer technically in business. Nothing has been updated or changed for one year as of July 2007.

Some users still use the old network on the unauthorized versions of Kazaa, either Kazaa Lite or Kazaa Resurrection, which is still a self-sustaining network where tens of thousands of users still share unrestricted content. This fact was previously stated by Kazaa when they claimed their fastrack network was decentralized (like the old Napster), but instead a link up between millions of computers around the world.

However, in the wake of the bad publicity and lawsuits, the numbers of users on Kazaa Lite has dropped dramatically. They have gone from several millions users at a given time to mere hundred thousands or now just tens of thousands. Before, all users were combined on the same fastrack network, with some using the ad-supported Kazaa, and others using Kazaa Lite and other non-authorized versions all sharing countless songs, movies, etc. The size of the lawsuits Kazaa settled is said to only have been insignificant compared to the amount of media that was illegally duplicated and delivered to millions of users on Kazaa previously to the suit.

Without further recourse, and until the lawsuit was settled, the RIAA actively sued thousands of people across the USA for sharing copyrighted music across the network. College campus networks were also a focus of the RIAA's many lawsuits. Many of these cases are still in the process of being settled or are headed for trial. Although the lawsuits were mainly in the United States, other countries also began to follow suit.

Variations

This section is limited to those programs which are based on the official Kazaa client. For other FastTrack-compatible clients, see FastTrack. FastTrack is a Peer-to-peer (P2P protocol, used by the Kazaa (and variants Grokster and IMesh) File sharing programs

Kazaa Lite is an unauthorized modification of the Kazaa Media Desktop application which excludes adware and spyware and provides slightly extended functionality. Kazaa Lite is a Peer-to-peer file-sharing Computer program. The service is an unauthorized modification of the Kazaa Media Desktop (KMD application It became available in April 2002. It can be downloaded free of charge, and as of mid-2005 was almost as widely used as the official Kazaa client itself. It connects to the same FastTrack network and thus allows to exchange files with all Kazaa users, and was created by third party programmers by modifying the binary of the original Kazaa application. Later versions of Kazaa Lite included K++, a memory patcher that removed search limit restrictions, multisource limits, and set one's "participation level" to the maximum of 1000. Sharman Networks considers Kazaa Lite to be a copyright violation. Copyright is a legal concept enacted by Governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship Exclusive rights to control its distribution usually for

After development of Kazaa Lite stopped, K-Lite v2. 6, Kazaa Lite Resurrection and Kazaa Lite Tools appeared. Although K-Lite is related to Kazaa Lite and the name sounds similar, they are actually different projects. K-Lite is not an update to Kazaa Lite, and was instead written as a separate loader with many fundamental changes. Unlike Kazaa Lite, which is a modification of an old version of Kazaa, K-Lite v2. 6 requires the original KMD 2. 6 executable to run. K-Lite doesn't include any code by Sharman: it requires the user to supply the original, unpatched Kazaa Media Desktop, which is executed in an environment which removes the malware, spyware and adware and adds features. Malware, a Portmanteau word from the words '''mal'''icious and soft'''ware''', is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without Such content will be deleted Specific software is to be mentioned in this article only Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays displays or downloads advertisements It is believed this version might therefore be legal because an original binary is required. Since this client uses a newer version of the actual Kazaa program, it may not affected by attempts to block Kazaa Lite from the FastTrack network.

In November 2004, the developers of K-Lite released K-Lite v2. 7, which similarly requires the KMD 2. 7 executable. Currently, other clean variants use an older core (2. 02) and thus, K-Lite has some features that others will never have. K-Lite includes multiple search tabs, a custom toolbar, and autostart. It also has auto search more, a download accelerator, an optional splash screen, preview with option (to view files you are currently downloading), an IP blocker, Magnet links support, and ad blocking, although the clients based on the 2. 02 core abstract these functions to third-party programs.

Kazaa Lite Tools on is an update of the original Kazaa Lite. It is a copy of Kazaa Lite, with modifications to the third-party programs included, it is newer and includes more tools.

Kazaa Lite Resurrection (KLR) appeared almost immediately after Kazaa Lite development was stopped in August 2003. Early reports on US national television claimed the original developers were behind KLR, however this is not the case. KLR is an updated version of the never released Kazaa Lite 2. 3. 4, with newer tools and extra functionality, and is maintained by FileSharingPlace. be - Home of Kazaa Lite Resurrection.

See also

References

  1. ^ P2PNet
  2. ^ "Supreme Court Rules Against P2P Companies!" Slyck News
  3. ^ Kazaa site becomes legal service
  4. ^ Federal Court of Australia
  5. ^ CNet News
  6. ^ list of malware present in Kazaa

External links

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