This excerpt was taken from an article on wired.com. It seems now they want to shoot their other foot.
Kazaa Lite has caught the attention of Sharman Networks, the Australian company that purchased Kazaa earlier this year, and in a statement released Wednesday said that the company, “will vigorously defend our rights and take action against parties engaged in misrepresenting our software. Consumers are being deceived with ripped off and highly suspect code, and we are determined that their rights, enjoyment and machines are not prejudiced.”
A spokesperson for Sharman Networks had no comment on whether the company might take legal action against the creator of Kazaa Lite, or any sites that host the software for download. The spokesperson also refused to speculate on what steps the company might take to lock out unauthorized clients from accessing the network.
The very openness of these file-sharing networks — which allow millions of users to log on simultaneously — makes it virtually impossible to stop unauthorized clients from interfacing with the network.
While Sharman is upset with the situation, it’s these open networks, like Kazaa Lite, that have allowed file-sharing to grow. Napster’s meteoric rise in popularity to 80 million users was in part due to programs like AudioGnome and Rapster -� programs that weren’t controlled by Napster but allowed users to access its network. WinMX has since gone on to use the Napster protocol to create its own file-sharing network that survived the subsequent shutdown of the Napster network.
This kind of spyware controversy has happened before. The latest version of AudioGalaxy required users to install spyware which irked some users, many of whom turned to unauthorized versions of the program that come without third-party software, like AGStreme, Sputnix, MacSatellite and DopeFlish.
The release of Kazaa Lite comes at a time when Sharman Networks was already in the midst of considering whether to take legal action to stop sites like MP3DownloadCentral.com, Kazaa-file-sharing-downloads.com, and PeerToPeerExchange.org, which dupe Internet users into paying money for the Kazaa Media Desktop and other file-sharing programs (the vast majority of such programs are widely available for free).
Sharman Networks did take the step of asking that Kazaa Lite be removed from CNet’s popular Download.com site. Kazaa had been removed from the site on April 4, after CNet determined that its failure to more clearly disclose the third-party software bundled with Kazaa constituted a violation of the site’s terms of service.
However, Kazaa Lite’s removal from Download.com has done little to stop interest in the software.
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