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Kazaa

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Kazaa
Developer(s)Sharman Networks
Stable release
3.2 / 2006
Operating systemWindows
TypePeer-to-peer
LicenseMalware-supported
Websitewww.kazaa.com

Kazaa Media Desktop (once capitalized as "KaZaA", but now usually left as "Kazaa") is a controversial peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol. Kazaa is owned by Australian company Sharman Networks.

Kazaa is commonly used to exchange MP3 music files over the Internet, however it can also be used to exchange other files types such as videos, applications, and documents. The official Kazaa client can be downloaded free of charge and is financed by bundled adware and Spyware (despite the "No Spyware" claims found on Kazaa's website). Throughout the past few years, Kazaa's developing company was the target of many copyright-related lawsuits.

History

Kazaa and FastTrack were created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (also known as the inventors of Skype) and introduced by their Dutch company Consumer Empowerment in March 2001, near the end of the first generation of P2P networks. Napster had shut down that July.

Initially, most users of Kazaa were users of the Morpheus program, formerly a client of MusicCity. 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.

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. Consumer Empowerment was sued in the Netherlands in 2001 by the Dutch music publishing body, Buma/Stemra. 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. 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.

The legal problems for Kazaa were however 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 or 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 the case. [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. 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 trial began on 29 November 2004. 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.

On 5 September 2005, the Federal Court of Australia issued a landmark ruling that Sharman, though not itself guilty of copyright infringement, had "authorised" Kazaa users to illegally swap copyrighted songs. 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 to illegally swap copyrighted songs. 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 didn't modify their software by the December 5 deadline. Users with an Australian or New Zealand (because of IP address similarity) 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 (see above). CNet News</ref>

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).

Bundled malware

File:Badwarelogo.png
Identified as "badware" by Stopbadware

Kazaa has, from early on, installed malware onto users' computers. 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 is unclosable and must be closed in the Windows Task Manager.

File:Kazaa EULA.png

Malware installed by Kazaa includes the following:

  • Cydoor (spyware) - Collects information on the PCs surfing habits and passes it on to the company which created Cydoor.
  • B3D (adware) - An add-on which causes advertising popups if the PC accesses a website which triggers the B3D code.
  • Altnet (adware) - A distribution network for paid "gold" files.
  • GAIN (spyware) - Identifies your interests based on some of your computer usage and some of your web surfing behavior, including the URLs of Web pages viewed by you and other criteria. Versions of Kazaa released after 16 August 2005 do not have this.
  • The Best Offers (adware) - Tracks your browsing habits and internet usage to display advertisements similar to your interests.
  • InstaFinder (hijacker) - Redirects your URL typing errors to InstaFinder's web page instead of the standard search page.
  • TopSearch (adware) - Displays paid songs and media related to your search in Kazaa.
  • RX Toolbar (spyware) - The toolbar monitors all the sites you visit with Microsoft Internet Explorer and provides links to competitors' websites.
  • New.Net (hijacker) - A browser plugin that lets you access several of its own unofficial Top Level Domain names, e.g., .chat and .shop. The main purpose of which is to sell domain names such as www.record.shop which is actually www.record.shop.new.net.

As a result of these additional components, CNET's Download.com site stopped the distribution of KaZaA in April 2004.

Kazaa is also known to not completely uninstall. It leaves behind several executables, files, and the Kazaa installer. It also leaves behind all the malware it installed. In an effort to remove the files left behind, Merijn Bellekom (the creator of HijackThis) has created KazaaBeGone. This program executes script to remove any remnants left behind by Kazaa's uninstaller program.

Variations

See also: Kazaa Lite

This section is limited to those programs which are based on the official Kazaa client. For other FastTrack-compatible clients, see FastTrack.

Kazaa Lite is an unauthorized modification of the Kazaa Media Desktop application which excludes adware and spyware and provides slightly extended functionality. It became available in April 2002. It can be downloaded free of charge, and as of mid-2005 is 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. It 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.

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, and they execute it in an environment which removes the malware and adds some features. The authors believe that this version might therefore be legal. They also hope that since this client uses a newer version of the actual Kazaa program, they won't be affected by attempts to block Kazaa Lite from the 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 the other hand is in fact an update of the original Kazaa Lite. It's a copy of Kazaa Lite, with modifications to the third-party programs included. It has newer and more tools included.

Kazaa Lite Resurrection (also known as "Kazaa Lite Revolution") which had appeared right after Kazaa Lite development was stopped in August 2003 is an update of the original Kazaa Lite.

References

  1. ^ P2PNet
  2. ^ Slyck
  3. ^ Kazaa site becomes legal service
  4. ^ Federal Court of Australia
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