RSSKazaa Working to Filter Music Files
By Ed Oswald | Published November 28, 2005, 11:24 AM
Kazaa worked feverishly Monday to comply with a court order that mandated the use of filters to prevent sharing of copyrighted material across its network. The company has until December 5 to install a system that uses keywords, such as the name of an artist, to filter out copyrighted music files.
Federal Judge Murray Wilcox mandated the changes as part of his decision against Sharman in September. At that time, the company was found guilty of copyright infringement because it Sharman did little, if anything, to stop the trade of copyrighted material over its network.
In exchange for this action, Kazaa's owner Sharman Networks will have the chance to appeal the case in late February. Sharman executives are also facing heat from the Australian court, which believes company CEO Nikki Hemming may be hiding the profits she received from Kazaa.
Other than the keyword filter, which would block searches including those terms, Wilcox said Sharman would additionally need to encourage its users to download the updated version of the software through pop-up notices within Kazaa.
Australian music officials say if the company does not comply by the December 5 deadline, the service would be shut down. However, the software is used worldwide and users of older versions would be unaffected.
"Kazaa has received its final warning," IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said on Thursday. "It is time for services like Kazaa to move on - to filter, go legal or make way for others who are trying to build a digital music business the correct and legal way."
However, the head of a P2P interest group fired back at the IFPI, saying the industry was stonewalling attempts by operators to go legal.
"It is time finally to put to an end to the cynical cycle of refusal by your members to license P2P companies, followed by the prosecution of these same companies by your members for not having such licenses," CEO of the Distributed Computing Industry Association responded in a public letter to Kennedy.
"We look forward to being able to show you legal P2P business models that can take digital music sales to the next level," he continued. "The only thing currently missing is license agreements."
I think that FastTrack (which K-Lite and its derivatives) is an excellent network that actually does download files in reasonable amount of time. You can actually download files in minutes (as opposed to days) in a relatively short time. Unfortunately, because of its efficiency and easy of use, the network it is a target of entertainment organizations.
File name filters are a joke! Kazaa uses file hashes (and not necessarily just names) to find other sources.
A word of caution about the nsane install of K-Lite. I have found it to share undesignated files/folder or even when file sharing is completely disabled! This puts your files at risk, and may unintentially share media that is copyrighted and for your own personal use (e.g. fair use).
In sum this network is vulnerable in its current state because of the client (e.g. whether from Kazaa or 3rd party) and state of legal affairs (adverse ruling in Australia and U.S.). USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Score: 0
|ok, so what stops people from say compressing the file with winzip or something & still sharing it ?
or changing the file extention ?
Score: 0
|Zipping it wouldn't work because it will be a word filter so you would have to change the file name to something that isn't on the filter list changing the extentions is the same wouldn't work because the word filter would stop it.
Score: 0
|This is way too funny to comment on. :)
Score: 0
|Any of you ever used M$ Anti-Spyware Beta? it picks up KaZaA as potential Spyware (Under investigation) lol
Score: 0
|KaZaA is LOADED with spyware. It always has been. That's why KaZaA Lite was created -- it's kazaa without the spyware junk.
Score: 0
|Shocking. I'm stunned. No, really...someone call 911....
Aaaarrgghh.....
Score: 0
|Like duh, Kazaa *IS* spyware... Why are you so surprised? Limewire, bearshare.. they are ALL spyware programs, that's why you don't use them..
Score: 0
|ares, ares, ares, ares, ares, ares, ares !!!!!
it looks like kazaa without a spyware, its fast and simple
Score: 0
|Shareaza, Shareaza, Shareaza, Shareaza, Shareaza, Shareaza, Shareaza
I find the ares network to be slow ^_^
Score: 0
|Shareaza is not bad but too many times i've seen files with hundreds of sources and it's still sitting on pending even with bandwidth set to full and windows firewall turned off.
Cabos is a bit better same with KLR.
Score: 0
|yea if all P2P apps go down there will always be the IRC network to go to. it is what I call the true underground to the internet.
Score: 0
|Kazaa has been dead for years, no one uses it now anyway.
Score: 0
|I just logged on and looked. There were 17 million users logged in. I guess *someone* is using it.
Score: 0
|Yeah, Kazaa is has so much congestion due to all the people using it, nobody uses it.. Its dead, that they still get about 20,000 downloads a day from people trying to get it..
Yeah its dead, and no one uses it.. that's why the RIAA is concerned about filters on Kazaa because NO ONE is using it! Yeah, get a clue!
Score: 0
|You can sue and try to shut down services like Kazaa all you want, but you will never stop illegal file sharing. Never!
Score: 0
|Correct. Just like law enforcement will never stop theives, and capital punishment will not stop murderers--they only wish to lower the numbers.
Score: 0
|As I said before Kazaa is Not P2p is just Spyware and adware on a computer
Score: 0
|I find that putting a block on something, putting a stop to it, usually encourages people to try and find ways around that block.
Eg, Kazaa blocks "warez" use "wares". etc...
The only way to effectly stop it is to shut down the internet, something the RIAA can't do :P
Score: 0
|hehe... kazaa.. the true spyware/adware heaven.
if ya want some spyware, between kazaa, use Warez P2P. much better on that department and less spyware.
i for one, prefer Shareaza. Nothing better than open source. WinMX was usefull while it lasted.
when one is shut down, 2 arise...
using filter for legal distribution wont stop the file sharing...
ah.. wish AudioGalaxy still exist.............. sight.
Score: 0
|Again...
not to stop it...but to simply try to limit the number of people doing so.
*that* is something RIAA still believes they can do....
Score: 0
|And they *have* done... However, suing the dead will not reap the profits they had hoped ;-)
Score: 0
|Well to a certain extent, it would come to a screeching halt if this were Ancient Egypt. Eye for an Eye, and justice was IMMEDIATE. If you were sentenced, for murder, and the judge pulled out his nine right after sentencing was completed, and executed the murderer, I guarantee you would see a stop in crime. It takes so long to be brought to justice, that's the problem. And with all the loopholes, you pay enough you can get your sentence reduced anyway.. so you do some crime you make some money you hide your assets, you get convicted 5 years from now, and you get early for good behavior and you got your money waiting for you..
For a criminal mind, there isn't a whole lot of downside, not to mention, you have your own personal group in prison. If they made prisoners work 16 hours a day doing hard time, made them pay immediately after sentencing, and made the penalties stiffer, and actually made the penalty stick, crime would stop.
The problem is all those damn bleeding heart liberals that want to "find the good" in those people.. those are the ones that needs to be stopped.
Score: 0
|