We're still waiting for a response from Altnet, Sharman Networks' Kazaa partner, so we can follow up on important, perhaps even vital, privacy issues we raised in Kazaa Plus -v- Kazaa NonPlus.

And while we wait, Sharman is a great place packed with cool people who really like p2p and who'd never dream of doing anything nasty, says cto Phil Morle.

Or words to that effect.

Because Sharman is now trying to repair some of the damage caused the RIAA-inspired DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) violation notices it fired off the same week it sent out puff pieces on its so-called ad-free version of Kazaa (see Kazaa Plus -v- Kazaa NonPlus).

A 'Gosh golly' PR shot from Morle crafted specifically to give the impression that Sharman (and by default, Kazaa) is full of groovy kids just trying to have fun is now doing the rounds online. It's addressed to Slyck, one of the longest-lived p2p sites and the place a lot of people visit to find out what's happening with the various apps and networks.

Naturally, Kazaa Lite featured on Slyck and it, together with Google and a number of other sites, was, in consequence, the recipient of a DMCA notice.

"[...] we were served with this notice ordering the removal of links to 2 Kazaa Lite related websites namely http://home.hccnet.nl/h.edskes/ mirror.htm#klitekpp210b2e and http://doa2.host.sk/," says Slyck on its web site, going on that Slyck complied.

Said Ray Hoffman, Website owner and administrator: "Slyck has recently been issued a DMCA complaint by Sharman Networks, the company that makes the Kazaa Media Desktop software. The complaint states that we are to remove the links to certain pages that are infringing on their copyrights. We were supplied no proof that these pages actually have been found by legal means to be guilty of infringement. We have decided to remove these links while we seek legal council as to this matter.

"We are saddened that a company that used to be friendly to the P2P world has grown too large and greedy and now seeks to manipulate any avenue to gain it's monetary goals. Slyck.com feels that actions taken on behalf of Sharman Networks are directly opposed to the benefit of the P2P community and we can no longer support the Kazaa Media Desktop."

Saddened but not surprised, we'd bet, since Kazaa went Korporate quite a while back.

Having threatened Slyck, through Morle's letter, Sharman is now trying to make the file sharing community, large numbers of whom now think Kazaa is something you scrape off the bottom of your shoe, believe the people over at the K-shop are all good sticks, really.

"I regret that I have not been able to have a more open dialogue with the Slyck community whilst I've been working on Kazaa, and I hope that you understand that this is because of the complexities of the current legal challenges we face and not from a lack of respect for the p2p community," says Morle.

"There are 22 people who work for Sharman here in Sydney. Each day these people come into work with a single mission - to make sure that peer to peer is here forever. To achieve this goal we have an enormous commitment to two main groups of people: KMD users and content owners."

He also says Sharman will:

Continue to deliver the most powerful peer to peer technology on the market. This kind of development takes time and at the moment we're closer to delivering the next generation of p2p than ever before.

Make the application as safe as possible, protecting users from viruses, accidental sharing and minors from inappropriate files.

He doesn't mention the gaping privacy holes in Altet's product, on which the new, 'free' Kazaa depends.

Anyway, he goes on, "For content owners, we need to prove our business model and strong belief that peer to peer is not a problem but a solution that can create whole new markets [for Sharman] in the same way other new technologies (such as piano rolls, radio, cinema, TV, video and cable) have done in the past. P2P is not just about massive cost savings in digital distribution, but is also a powerful technology for cultural ideas to spread quickly, introducing new music, movies, games to large and niche markets alike very quickly and effectively. This is, of course, a huge discussion and people may well disagree until we establish the substantial viability of this technology. We have an opportunity to demonstrate that it is the case - and we will.

"We do all this while defending ourselves against an extremely distracting and expensive legal case."

But what of K-Lite, "and other mods to our software"?

Says Morle, "These applications are:

Anti-p2p. The ones that concern me most are the various 'Participation Level Hacks'. Participation Level was created to strengthen the very concept of P2P. Some users responded by hacking the software so that they did not need to give in order to take. This, in my view, is the most anti-p2p manoeuvre I have seen. Each PL Hack out there just diminishes the P2P experience for others. There are similar issues with 'Download Accelerators' that lets users with hacked versions use more than their fair share of network resources. Again, each one of these that is out there diminishes the experience for others. P2P is a two way street.

Unstable. These applications hack the software, not at the source code level, but by performing dangerous modifications, often while various values are in memory. This software crashes frequently and creates instabilities on a user's computer. Often users then try to re-install the certified Kazaa Media Desktop to find they can't because registry settings and host files have been mangled without respect for the user's PC.

Short-sighted. As long as these applications remove the capacity for Kazaa to display licensed content to its users, it is helping to prolong the legal ambiguities of p2p. Is this what you really want? Have you listened to some of the bands that release their stuff through Altnet? The more you guys interact with this stuff, the faster we will prove the model.

Often sold by Scam Artists. Do a search for Kazaa and go to one of the many sponsored links. Imagine you are a p2p novice and navigate these sites. On many of these sites, people are being misled into paying for free applications and in many cases believe that they are buying these applications from Sharman or that the applications are real Kazaa Media Desktops. We know this because we get their email complaints. This damages the users' view of p2p generally. We are sensitive to the issue of adware and understand that not all users want adware on their system. First let me say this: Adware is not spyware. KMD does not include spyware. We believe adware is a reasonable component of our relationship with users ensuring we have a business to support the next generation of p2p, and to make sure that and can pay for the innovations you will see to come and making sure legally, commercially and technically, p2p is here to stay.

In the meanwhile, "Sharman Networks is a fantastic place to work with a team so committed to users and content owners that I think you would be quite surprised if you came by our office in Sydney," he says. "It saddens us that our motivations are disparaged and questioned by those who do not understand our story, but it is part of the landscape right now and we accept this, remaining firmly on our course as a legitimate p2p company with the goal of promoting and defending p2p for everyone's benefit.

"Much of what we've been working on since starting our work with Kazaa is only just coming to fruition after a year and half. I hope that you will not abandon us, but learn to trust that we are moving mountains across difficult terrain to make sure that p2p is here forever."

Great stuff, albeit a trifle odourous.

Kazaa sucks anyway you dont know what kind of crap is coming with it when you install it ,as far as kazaa + who cares im not gonna pay for a p2p program . If the software is that good it should be able to stand on its own and not have to play the hardass corperate games that the very people we are fighting pull

Hmmm

Maybe its just me..but I had the best experience with K++.

Kazaa was too fuckin annoying to deal with with its "save now" utility stashed in your system sending some marketing packet over somewhere (privacy issues hmmm) and those pop up ads.

Fuck Kazaa...Ill use anything but it.

I Like Kazaa Lite (K++) because it was just that -- Lite.

Kazaa is so bulky and weighted that it would crash my older computer all the time, because of all the resources needed, not to mention all the Save Now and Altnet stuff bundled with it. And so many pop-ups... I would visit a site with normally no pop-ups and after dl-ing kazaa i got like 4 pop-ups.

I finally ran Ad-Aware and uninstalled kazaa, and got Kazaa Lite. I like it a lot better and so does my compter.

Now i use EarthStation 5 when i need stuff.

is it just me or does 'Sharman' look and sound similar to 'Sherman'

hey maybe Sharman Networks should rename themselves Sherman networks. thats the way there headed with their greedy ass, DMCA raping propaganda

-_-

Kazaa lite k++ is more stable than kazaa.
And uses less system resources.
If the public turns to something else instead of your software that means ther's something wrong with it.
That's why many people is switching to linux instead of windows.
I think that an open source p2p software must be developed.
Kazaa or any one else has the right to make anymoney out of p2p since the content in there does not belong to them
and their users don't make money out of it either.
Adware is unacceptable
The perfection of p2p will be acheived when it no longer relies on any corporation or comercial interests, only on the users.

Let me see here. I've used both Kazaa and kazaalite.

1. I don't see how the participation level hacks have effected my paticipation level.
2. I've never had my kazaalite crash or freeze my computer. My kazaa HAS frozen my computer though. So which is unstable, the one that works or the one that doesn't? Sounds like the RIAA spinning. It works, but it doesn't. Kazaalite works.
3. Firing off those DMCA notices is the very definition of short sighted. Adding the adware in the first place was not exactly a high point for long term vision.
4. In my searches I've never seen a website that required payment for downloading kazaalite. I have seen donation buttons though. Even with the donation buttons there was no problem downloading. So I would have to say that anybody who was scammed into paying for it wasn't smart enough to have it in the first place.

Sharman is now trying to do the same thing that the RIAA is trying now. Saving face after major screwups. Too late, you've already lost the confidence of your demographics.

goofycaca, your right. sharman and riaa have a lot in common as of late. Remember this little item from Altnet's 'Privacy' statement?
"We may retain your IP address and/or other machine-identifying information in order to help us diagnose problems with our servers, to administer the Software and the Service, to track downloading and uploading of files from your computer, to gather broad anonymous demographic information (such as the number of visitors from a geographic area), to enforce compliance with our End User’s License Agreement or otherwise in order to protect our services, sites, customers, or others."

While kazaa light is clearly a threat to Kazaas attempts to profit from p2p, the DMCA actions against linking sites and google were just extreme. Perhaps if sherman had sent a polite c&d order (followed by a not-so-olite threat that would be reasonable, but setting the DMCA on every site that mention klite is going to put sharmans reputation straight down the drain. Fasttracks getting a bit old anyway, cant even accept links without a third-party addon.

A decline in kazaa might not be a bad thing. Its networks no longer the best, the spywares just intolerable and its being used by every enforcerbot and spammer on the net. Its only usful aspects are its ease of use and its impressive lawyer-evasion, both of which can be found in other clients.

My site has a copy of the spyware-free version of imesh, also uses the fasttrack network. It frequently shows in the top ten on google for DRM-related searches, so I might get my first legal threat When people want to shut the site down, it must be doing things right.

I have a way to take the adware out of kazaa and imesh. very simple to do. requires a good firewall and ad-aware. removes 99% of the spyware/adware and disables the other 1% (cydoor).
i had to use these methods on Kazaa and IMesh, but I didn't on K++. Screw Kazaa, nothing but a bunch of bad files in recent day (either viruses or false files). I know it isn't the softwares fault, but the people on the other end. Since it is a popular app, it is time to switch to something that falls well below the RIAA and MPAA rader blip.

BTW, here is how to disable the spyware/adware in Kazaa and IMesh.

http://bush51501.home.mchsi.com

just for those that aren't as computer savvy as others.

Ha KaZaA is falling to their Korperate greed, everyone is starting to stop supporting them. I've been FastTrack free for over a year and a half, and I'm feeling great! Now when ever i need stuff i use Shareaza or Gnucleus, no spyware to f around with, no adds, just great p2p, when G^2 comes out KaZaA's empire will fall to the rath of Gramps!

As a software engineer, I feel like a complete idiot that I did not make the connection that my system stopped locking up routinely AFTER I uninstalled KaZaa (then ran AdAware and Spybot) and installed Lite.
I installed KaZaa Lite several months ago and my system has been
as stable as you could want (for a Windows box). Duuuuhhh! Thanks for this
post. It explains a lot.

On a related topic...

Anyone know what's happened to Soulseek? It's been down for days. This is disturbing...

"Sharman,at long last, KaZaA, have you no sense of decency? Have you no shame?"
~code

'Participation Level Hacks' - can't participate when you get sued for doing it. Never hacked mine for anything and it never affected me in a way I could see.

"Unstable. These applications hack the software" - Kazaa lite has never crashed for me. Hacked? Yeah it's been hacked. Had all the extra un-wanted crap hacked out of it.

"There are similar issues with 'Download Accelerators'" - that accelerator he is referring to would be the little Speed Up app that comes with K Lite. It merely cycles through current downloads to search for more resources. Who want's to leave their computer on for days and days doing nothing but downloading? As for eating bandwidth on the network? I thought that there wasn't a centralized network. The bandwidth is supposed to be provided by the individuals with the files. Or has that changed?

"Short-sighted. As long as these applications remove the capacity for Kazaa to display licensed content to its users" - the users will be much happier. Who can honestly say that they want to see pop-up adds constantly cluttering their desktop?

"Often sold by Scam Artists. Do a search for Kazaa" - I didn't find any sites that you had to pay to download, but I did find lots of sites that talked about the spyware in it.

"We believe adware is a reasonable component" - If they beleive that than there should be an option to turn it off.

"Is this what you really want?" - If you mean privacy, no ads, no spyware, and no interferrence from some money sucking, bastard, jack-ass CEO that wants a new porsche breathing down our necks then........YES!!!!

Uhhhh. Good God Sharman. Your becoming as bad as your nemesis RIAA. FUCK you both. RIAA you can kiss my 50 fifty pounds of crack(fat joke) between my huge cheeks and see my big brown eye, In lamens KISS MY FAT-ASS. I've been sharing 2000+plus files On Kazaalite for the past year and many of those I recorded off of CD's, Divx burned and the like. My parents shut me down days ago. Damn those cowards, they think it infringes property rights. it's me property, pops and I'll do whatever the Fuck I want with it.

oh when shall they learn, kazaalite, k-lite, and k++ are all more stable and rescource friendly then their bulked up nasty version, i have been a fasttrack user since the early days of morpheus, when they died i moved over to kazaa cause i heard it was the same thing *and at the time it was* then i started blocking and removing stuff out of kazaa and started having fewer problems with it.....but now i let others do that work for me and just use k++ with the speedup app running, not what i like, but works better then the app i do like with my damn slow dialup, so no winMX for me lol, but anyway, just don't listen to him, share what you can, just dump the RIAA stuff!

p.s. sharing pr0n, wether you like it or not, will help your PL more then music, just FYI

______________________________________

Draken...

I too started in the early days of the fast track network (soon after the fall of Napster), first with Kazaa, then with Morpheus, then back to Kazaa, and things with Kazaa got so frick'n anoying, not only with thier pop ups, but they also started in with "speaking" advertisements. It got completely rediculous. If the people who made K++ wouldn't have come out, I would have made the application myself. Getting K++ was a relief. I think Kazaa is getting greedy. Screw the ads, I've got K++ in my download folder and continue to spread the word about it's existence with other FastTrack networkers. As far as the "pay" version goes, unfortunately I know a person who recently paid for it. Too bad they didn't seek my advice first, since the person is my own little brother. Oh well, live and learn, show your ads, you're bound to burn...

~goingnova

_____________________________________

goingnova

cool deal, keep the sharing up and the corp greed down!

This is probably of the subject but I just want 2 warn ppl I dunno if this is true or not but I just want to inform the ppl who use the Shareaza Program this review I seen on CNET:
"Please read this before you install!"
Here is why you should stay as far away as possible from Shareaza. It serves up your IP address to anyone in the world (This is what all other P2P programs are trying to avoid so that their users identity is harder to identify by RIAA etc.). After using Shareaza for 2 or more weeks you will notice your bandwidth disappear. This is from every port/tcp probe out there trying to enter your PC and saturating your bandwidth. THERE IS NO REPAIRING THIS!!. You will need to call your ISP and have them change your IP address and hope you don't get another IP from another previous Shareaza victim. If this is not enough it is dog slow even on a fast PC, it crashes a lot and underlying design is politically incorrect with other P2P networks. Stay away from Shareaza...for your PC's health.
Plz exuse me if this isn't true but I just want to post this 2 make sure because I do know it does expose your IP address and even though its below the RIAA's radar blip just in case the RIAA does probe this P2P network it will be able to view all those IP addresses, so I'll just stick with Kazaa Lite K+++ edition for the duration. (or until the fasttrack server goes corrupt because of its greed LOL) I also like the KliteK+++ because of the IP blocker, supertrick, etc.

Keep P2P alive!!!!

========(R3VOLT)========

yeah i remember i use to use kazaa on a 56k modem and it would always crash my comp and i would have to restart i always thought it was the interent connection and comp couldnt handle it but now hah i use kazaa lite wit a dsl connecttion kazaa lite rules and its simple to use

sherman=sharman=charmin?
shermanharman as sharman:charmin?
If i could figure out a way to print on toilet paper, i would out lil images of the rogues on the stuff...but then, id never leave the bathroom...

brb, i gotta poop...


~time flies~

For the question about Soulseek, They're having troubles with their domain or dns servers or something. You can keep up to date on the Soulseek news blog, there's also a link to temporary client with a dns fix to get back on the network. http://slsk.blogspot.com

Kazaa is garbage. I'd get 5 popups every 5 minutes using it. Their company is about to join the RIAA.