How does Kazaa not get shut down

[Mp3B0T]

I've been wondering why Kazaa has not been shut down. I mean Napster was shut down why not Kazaa. Kazaa is a very popular program so it kinda should. Is it because Sharman has alot of money? Whats the diffrence between them and Napster?

Thanks
Mp3B0T

[Power Penguin]

I don't think they actually CAN. They don't know where Sharman IS. (They are not in the US)

It would take some UN International World Crisis Shit Thing to stop them.

[phalkon30]

Napster was centralized, they hosted a list of files, they owned the servers.

Kazaa is decentralized, the servers are users just like you, so the RIAA would have to shut down every peer server to shut down the network. Basicly, kazaa has no control over the network, where napster had complete control.

At least, thats the theory, there is a chance kazaa can be shut down, but nobody has been able to prove it that I know of.

[isus]

Originally posted by Will Rae
I don't think they actually CAN. They don't know where Sharman IS. (They are not in the US)

It would take some UN International World Crisis Shit Thing to stop them.

actually, sharman is in australia. the supernode servers are in some south pacific ocean islands i think.

and it would be almost too easy to shut down kazaa... despite what their lawyers will have you believe, it is not totally decentralized.

just unplug the supernode server for about, hmm... 6 hours id guess, and the network would start to collapse.

kazaa would try to check in with this server to find a supernode, bc it dl's a list, but after a while, it has to do it again, bc hey, ip addresses change.

i think everytime you close kazaa, when you reopen it, it has to re'dl that list.

[Captinspliff]

i thought that when Kazaa booted Morpheus off Fasttrack, it showed that they did at least have some control over the network ??

[triniti]

Originally posted by isus
actually, sharman is in australia. the supernode servers are in some south pacific ocean islands i think.

and it would be almost too easy to shut down kazaa... despite what their lawyers will have you believe, it is not totally decentralized.

just unplug the supernode server for about, hmm... 6 hours id guess, and the network would start to collapse.

kazaa would try to check in with this server to find a supernode, bc it dl's a list, but after a while, it has to do it again, bc hey, ip addresses change.

i think everytime you close kazaa, when you reopen it, it has to re'dl that list.

Hey isus lets go unplug it and see what happens. ;)

[Mel_Smiley]

Originally posted by Captinspliff
i thought that when Kazaa booted Morpheus off Fasttrack, it showed that they did at least have some control over the network ??

You're completly right. That central server could shut all the nodes down. ET phone home

[Psilaxs]

Originally posted by Mel_Smiley
You're completly right. That central server could shut all the nodes down. ET phone home

Not entirely, Morph was always an update behind, everyone on kazaa gets the updates first, and those updates were hostile to the morpheus client. and there ya go.

Someone on the forum spoke not too long ago about using kazaa to run your own private network, if it is capable of that, then it can be decentralized.

I remember back when they updated to ver 2.xx something, they said they fixed the issue of it depending on gateway servers.

If memory serves me correctly.

[Mel_Smiley]

True, but you have to stop it from dialing home to make a new private network. That requires a new client. So I guess no, FT can't be shut down. lol
that make no sense

[isus]

Originally posted by triniti
Hey isus lets go unplug it and see what happens. ;)

is this sarcasm or flame?

you unplug that cluster of supernode servers, and yes, do see what happens as new users try to enter the network and find they can't.

[Digital Bliss]

It's intresting that kazaa is still alive but the two p2p programs that have stood the test of time are imesh and winmx. Imesh was around in the napster days/

[crackerjacker]

kazaa can not be shut down simple as that.
there is to many ways to keep it alive.
*cough*.
:)

[rctempire]

Well what i can assemble is that

Sharman is registared in Austrialia
The search server is in Europe(i think) & in a small country with little law on P2P due to it makes money.
The last heard of Sharman was in Canada
The actual patents of KaZaA is from Usa

Well thats what i read a while back about KaZaA

Hope this is anygood

[tackdaddy]

it never gets shut down,kazaa is still good for music.

[Undermind]

what me worry

[method]

Hi BFE!!!

Phalkon.. the bart simpson pic in your sig is soooooo damn right!!

As for KaZaA. If their are supernode server, KaZaA could also easily be hacked to use publicly run supernode servers instead.

It'd be like Napigator except for on FastTrack.

[Theinfamousone]

Originally posted by Digital Bliss
It's intresting that kazaa is still alive but the two p2p programs that have stood the test of time are imesh and winmx. Imesh was around in the napster days/

iMesh is on the FastTrack network now, so Kazaa's demise is their demise. Obviously you can change the code and put it on it's own network, but you could do that with the "Kazaa" name just as easily.

I thought the supernodes were just regular people that have fast connections and nice computers.

As for Winmx, wow, it's dying and dying still. It'll be the first to die of "natural causes".

[rctempire]

i agree with theinfamousone because WinMX is all now queued and you never get anything downloaded. I think it will be the First EVER P2P app to acctually die of natural causes. The network is so slow. you can never download anything. Over all it should be QMx cause u never get out of queues. I chucked WinMx after waiting 30 mins for a 1KB doc to download

I think winmx will die.

FT will say alive for quite a bit i think.
If kazaa gets shut down then say Grokster or Imesh could manage the network.

Just thoughts

[p2pmaster]

Even if kazaa is shut down by whoever people are always gonna share music via irc or ftp just stoping p2p clients down wont solve the problem.

[Induna]

>I thought the supernodes were just regular people that have fast connections and nice computers.


That is true, but "supposedly" there is a server that has all the supernode addresses or something. If this was turned off then maybe Fast Track would grind to a halt. But somebody argued that people who have the lastest version of Kazaa would survive this.

I tried to search for the news article here but it's not working.

And isn't Sharman registered as a business on the safe-haven island of Vanuatu? (which is west of Fiji if you don't know where it is). That's why they've had trouble bringing them to court, as U.S laws don't apply there.

[Induna]

This article explains the tangled web of copyright concerning Kazaa and Fast Track. This article is almost 18 months old, but still seems relevant today. I think Kazaa BV is now known as Joltid. Or the guys behind Kazaa BV created the new company Joltid.


http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,50788,00.html




Kazaa: A Copyright Conundrum By Brad King
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50788,00.html

02:00 AM Mar. 04, 2002 PT


A California multimedia company with ties to an Australian venture capitalist firm involved with the Kazaa file-trading network could be headed for legal troubles.

The complex relationships between companies involved in file-trading networks in four countries are unraveling, and entertainment companies that want to protect their intellectual property are taking notice.

This could lead to legal action in the United States against companies helping develop the networks.

"We do not intend to stand idly by while others build business illegally off of our music," said Matt Oppenheim, senior vice president with the Recording Industry Association of America.

The RIAA, along with the Motion Picture Association of America, is suing three companies for operating the Fast Track file-trading network. The problem for the FIAA and the MPAA is that the system is run by three independent companies in three countries: Streamcast Networks in the United States, Kazaa BV in the Netherlands and Grokster in the West Indies.

But a new business with ties to at least two of the companies involved emerged this week, after a spat between Streamcast and Kazaa BV left millions of file traders without access to free music and movies.

Brilliant Digital Entertainment, a Woodland Hills, California, multimedia company that licenses technology to Hollywood studios and produces interactive banner ads and online videos, provides technology for Kazaa BV. It also helped secure the sale of the company to an Australian venture firm.

Niklas Zennstrom and Janis Friis, Kazaa BV founders, developed the Fast Track file-trading software, which is licensed to the three companies. The pair used Brilliant Digital Entertainment technology in the Kazaa Media Desktop software to deliver advertising through Fast Track, now the largest file-sharing network in the world.

When the two ran into legal trouble at home and in the United States, Brilliant Digital CEO Kevin Bermeister, set up a meeting with Nikki Hemming, CEO of Australian's Sharman Networks venture firm.

Hemming recently set up a venture firm, purchased Kazaa.com and bought a license for the Fast Track software. Kazaa BV, which still owns the Fast Track software license, remained in Zennstrom's hands.

The sale came as a Dutch court ordered Kazaa BV to shutter the Fast Track file-trading network. Kazaa BV stopped distributing its desktop application from the Netherlands. Once the deal with Sharman Networks was completed, Hemming began distributing the software from Australia.

"We are thrilled at our opportunity to resume downloads of the Kazaa software and further develop the Kazaa brand," said Hemming in a written statement issued days after the sale. "We value the millions of users of Kazaa's software and will continue to enhance and grow our core offerings."

Since the sale, it has been unclear exactly what assets Sharman Networks purchased, which company controlled the Kazaa brand development, and the role that others using the Fast Track software played.

Until last week, Fast Track was made up of three separate companies that ran integrated networks: Streamcast Networks, Grokster and Kazaa. Technically, the companies are separate businesses and should be able to operate without giving the others a second thought.

However, each use the Fast Track software so that users experience the file-trading network as if it was one giant system. Now a rift has formed between Streamcast Networks and the other companies.

Streamcast's network, Morpheus, went down last Tuesday when it decided not to upgrade its software. Morpheus used version 1.3 of Fast Track, but Grokster and Kazaa members upgraded to version 1.5. The two protocols became no longer compatible. There is some debate between Streamcast and Kazaa BV as to what happened, but one thing is clear: Morpheus is no longer part of Fast Track.

The incident raises questions about whether the system is truly decentralized or not. Streamcast decided to release its Morpheus Preview Edition on Friday, discarding the Fast Track technology in favor of Gnutella, a completely decentralized file-trading system.

"Our network has been attacked, and it appears that a variety of federal crimes have been committed," said Streamcast CEO Steve Griffin, trying to distance his company from Fast Track. Griffin said that the Fast Track people told him the system was decentralized.

"Our new upgrade won't be part of the Fast Track network," Griffin continued. "Our goal was to unite the Fast Track and Gnutella networks together, but (this) appears to have been a problem. The new system is going to be based on the open protocol Gnutella."

Dropping Fast Track could be beneficial for Streamcast as the new system appears to ape a centralized file-trading system.

Operating a centralized system would be bad for Morpheus, because such networks haven't fared well in American courts. The Napster file-sharing network shuttered its service after a federal judge ruled the company violated copyright laws.

In a move that further distances itself from the Kazaa BV and Sharman Networks, Streamcast removed Brilliant Digital's interactive ad serving program. Meanwhile, Kazaa.com issued an open invitation to Morpheus users, asking them to join the Kazaa network instead of staying with Streamcast Networks.

"Our focus has always been on optimizing the user's experience," Hemming said. "We are providing a means for former Morpheus users to maintain their old user names and files, and be up and running in a few minutes with an interface that they are familiar with."

The battle between Kazaa BV and Streamcast Networks comes in the middle of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against all three Fast Track companies by the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America, trade organizations representing the music and film industries. A central issue is whether the companies were merely distributing computer applications that couldn't be controlled or running a centralized file-trading network. Both sides are back in federal court on Monday.

Kazaa BV also faces legal challenges in the Netherlands, after the Buma/Sterna sued the company for violating copyright laws.

[rctempire]

Interesting.
Even tho its 18 months out of date it still is valuable to the RIAA
Morpheus decided to blame the network change on Hackers. i used to use morpheus when this attack happend. really they did not pay up and were booted off the network. You had to download a patch. really another program to join the Gnutella network. Well kazaa will end up in court evently but for now there in the process of being threatened and the RIAA and FIAA are trying to find ways of Catching them in the act really

RCTEMPIRE

[.::BeatFactory::.]

Originally posted by method
Hi BFE!!!

Phalkon.. the bart simpson pic in your sig is soooooo damn right!!

As for KaZaA. If their are supernode server, KaZaA could also easily be hacked to use publicly run supernode servers instead.

It'd be like Napigator except for on FastTrack.
What's been up Meth? How's XSC been coming along? I haven't been able to use it lately b/c I've been using a Linux box.

[IsHaRe2000FilezSueMe]

Yeah, Sharman is like a tiny little island, and the Us's law cant regulate the jurisdiction in australia.

[villiageidiot]

I thought Napster was shut down because it only was for music. All the new programs like Kazaa, Winmx have added video,software,pics thus making it a true file sharing program. I could be wrong, just seems that it the riaa can't say that these programs are not specifically for sharing music.

[random]

they had some lawsuits that proved that kazaa isnt responsible for what ppl do on their network because they have no control