KaZaA Suspends Downloads

Yahoo

[copyfight]

Wednesday January 16, 7:26 pm Eastern Time

KaZaA Suspends Downloads AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 16, 2002--KaZaA BV is voluntarily and temporarily suspending downloads of the KaZaA Media Desktop software from its Web site pending the decision of the Dutch court on January 31, 2002. For more information visit www.kazaa.com. About KaZaA KaZaA (www.kazaa.com) offers a portfolio of software and products enabling the digital media revolution of instant access to files anytime, anywhere, all based on its leading peer-to-peer media platform from FastTrack.

[BostonGuy]

For those that are looking for direct info (as opposed to the Slashdot discussion), the link to the story on Kazaa ignoring the court order is here. And here's the original article about the court order. (They were allegedly to be fined $40,000/day if they didn't shut down.)

[copyfight]

They license the same technology with similar programs, but they are different companies. They license the P2P Fasttrack architecture.

[copyfight]

Thank you - that is excellent info - I read the same /. thread and that legally makes a lot of sense. It is brilliant on their part. But then they will have to stop taking fees from the ads, I would think. Thanks, this is exactly what we were looking for!

[spycatcher]

Another good current Lessig article here... Who's Holding Back Broadband?

[copyfight]

But those stories are from 2001, aren't they? I think what happened today is fairly significant if they are just not allowing the infringing devices from being downloaded because they claim they can't control the network.

[copyfight]

i read that article and I liked what he had to say about innovation and this "When a new technology radically changes the opportunity for creation and distribution of content, Congress has legislated to ensure that old technologies don't veto the new." Go Larry!

[Don Joe]

"The muzak and movie folks will never be able to stop file sharing, no matter how hard they try, or whatever the penalties they have the money to get into law. $15 for a CD is ridiculous...I'll never pay that. I probably would go for $10, but that is still pretty steep."

Let me see if I have this straight -- if you didn't like the price of some other commodity, let's say "food", would you nonchalantly express your intention to steal that? Or would you just do without? (Presuming that "I'll never pay that" is the underlying principle.)

[Naked Lunch]

While we're compiling a reader on the subject, dont forget the philosophical and economic underpinnings of open source software vs. buggy proprietary releases. Intellectual property rights gone amok is not only a possible abridgement of consumer rights, it's just darn inefficient.

Here is the link to the definitive paper on the subject by Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar

It's been translated into:

* Bulgarian. * Chinese (Big-5). * Danish. * Dutch. * French. * German. * Greek. * Italian. * Japanese. * Portuguese * Korean. * Romanian. * Spanish. * Swedish. * Thai.

So everybody can read in comfort.

[BostonGuy]

Yeah, those stories are old (only three weeks though - "From 2001" sounds vintage already!). I haven't located any newer info, except that the software download links are off their site, but the client still works (i.e. I'm being authenticated against their servers). My guess is they will go down as Napster did, and yet another app will become the latest and greatest. P2P is clearly what consumers want, and if the RIAA has to learn the hard way, they will!

[Beep]

I'm not sure I understand what the crux of the flap is about, regarding the music industry. I don't really see how having a relative few computer geek-types burning a song here or there is going to make that big of an impact on songwriters. The money is in performance royalties, not CD sales! I've had one of my songs recorded (by a yucky country music artist who shall remain nameless), and received very little money because it was merely an album cut that didn't rate airplay. ASCAP takes their sweet time in doling out the money as it is; I don't know about BMI or SESAC.

Basically, I'm just wondering what THE big problem is?? I have never understood it. Somebody please enlighten me?!!

[ambrose]

Morpheus is the same thing as KaZaA, is the same thing as Grok (I think...I know there's another one!). The muzak and movie folks will never be able to stop file sharing, no matter how hard they try, or whatever the penalties they have the money to get into law. $15 for a CD is ridiculous...I'll never pay that. I probably would go for $10, but that is still pretty steep.

It is okay to steal it because it is overpriced? I expect that kind of thinking from liberals...

[cynwoody]

The way I read that news clip, they are removing the ability to download their software, which would theoretically mean no new users (although there are mirrors everywhere).

Theoretically. There are indeed mirrors. It appears the name of the installer is kmd.exe. A search on that name yields a lot of hits on 1.7mb program files.

But I wouldn't install it. It's rumored to contain spyware/adware. And there are alternatives that do not.

[Justa]

"...if you didn't like the price of some other commodity, let's say "food", would you nonchalantly express your intention to steal that? Or would you just do without? (Presuming that "I'll never pay that" is the underlying principle.)"

That's a broken paradigm. Software is not a commodity. It can be replicated at no cost, food can't. Furthermore, copying does not deprive a vendor of his property, only the potential to earn income off the rights of the artist he's purchased. Should personal printers be banned too as they deprive publishers of potential profit? Go ahead, live in the past. The technology has moved on. Whether technological development goes forward in America or in other nations is what's at stake. Some people always try and lock-down technology to maintain control. It always ruins the economy. Case in point, the Soviet Union. Perhaps you'd be more at home in say, Bulgaria, than the United States.

[Wil H]

Bear Share is still around.

As is WINMX....

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I have KaZaA installed, and just tried a search for Beatles, as a test, and got tons of stuff in reply.

[BillCompton]

I am always amazed by people who see this subject in such stark terms. It confuses me greatly.

In your example, regarding the stealing of food, the facts would need to change. If Spock gave you a really cool tricorder that allowed you to a) make duplicates of the food items used in your example and b) then you took the duplicates without paying for it, that would be a good analogy.

This is not much of a moral issue. It is mostly a legal issue. When you let liberals create laws that no one pays attention to, such as 20 year-olds drinking or a 55mph maximimum speed limit, we begin to think that we can pick and choose which laws we abide by. This is not a healthy situation.

My point is that if we have laws that no one pays attention to, do we really want to make all those people criminals? Perhaps all this is a massive rationalization to help me with the knowledge that I don't feel a lick of guilt when I download and listen to music.

[nevergore]

Bump!