[copyfight]

We're writing a law review article with a dealine of tomorrow on Napster, KaZaA and FastTrack. Tonight, Yahoo reported that KaZaA was taking down their system until January 31 court date. However, News Wire made Yahoo pull the story and there is no news on the KaZaA site. Any Freepers know what is going on? Thanks!

[copyfight]

any help on this issue would be very helpful. It is really strange how conservative, such as myself, are led by the low hanging fruit to discuss. But if Freepers really had any concept about what the RIAA and others are doing to limit your online freedoms, I would guess half of the posts would concern the future liberties of our children. But these concepts just aren't as sexy as Condit, the pardons, and pretzels. One thing is for sure, I think there is an inverse relation to the quantity of posts and the long term historical importance of the issue.

[Peace4EarthNow]

Aw, don't tell me KaZaA is going to bite the dust too!

Well, I'm downloading songs from Morpheus right now, so hopefully that one will stick around.

[Cinnamon Girl]

No! No! No!

[BostonGuy]

The last I heard, Kazaa was ignoring a court order to shut down their network. There was an informative discussion about it last month here on Slashdot. 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). In fact, I just checked and they have indeed removed the download links from Kazaa.com. I'm using the client right now though, so it looks like the network is up for the time being...

[nevergore]

Bump!

[StayoutdaBushesWay]

No problems here, I'm D/L'ing a few things. Of course it is all Flash and Powerpoint 9-11 presentations. Some great stuff that people have made.

[Mixer]

KaZaA BV is voluntarily and temporarily suspending downloads of the KaZaA Media Desktop software from its Web site

They are only stopping people from downloading the Kazza software itself. This has nothing to do with people who already have the software. Kazaa and Morpheus are Peer to Peer programs. For those that dont know this means that I share with you and you share with me and everyone share DIRECTLY with eachother. this isnt a central server. Kazaa may be preventing new peopel from getting into the sharing game but they aren't hurting the ones that are already in it.

[Mixer]

Indexing

[AppyPappy]

Sony and the rest have contacted almost every college campus and told them to shut down the sharing or risk a lawsuit. You can get booted off the campus internet for running file-sharing.

[Grig]

My understanding is there the only thing they can do in a worse case situation is shut down their web page where you can download the software. People who have the software can keep using it long after the site is down because there is no central server needed for the data transfer, and shutting down the site won't stop the distribution of the software either. They could shut down Napster because it did require a central server, and when it was taken down, the client software was useless.

Pandora's box is wide open, and if the RIAA wants to survive and profit from it, then they need to put their whole library online in 128+bit MP3 format and provide reliable, fast downloads at a reasonable cost. I'm willing to pay something for a bigger selction and sure quality and I'm sure many others are too.

[John Jorsett]

Why does a Dutch court affect Kazaa? Is it based in the Netherlands?

These sorts of actions will prove ineffective.The program is out there and alternative download sites will spring up to offer it if Kazaa doesn't. The protocol is also well-known and decentralized, so other clients will still be able to trade content. Trying to put a stop to decentralized file sharing is like trying to put toothpaste back into the tube.