kazaa
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Kazaa
A subscription-based online music service from Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Inc., Sherman Oaks, CA, www.kazaa.com. For a monthly fee, Kazaa provides unlimited downloads of music for playing...
Dictionary
Definition: Kazaa
A subscription-based online music service from Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Inc., Sherman Oaks, CA, www.kazaa.com. For a monthly fee, Kazaa provides unlimited downloads of music for playing on up to three PCs, not mobile devices. An unlimited number of ringtones are also available for one cellphone.
An Infamous Beginning
The original "KaZaA" was a file sharing service founded in 2001 in Amsterdam by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who created the underlying FastTrack peer-to-peer technology that was also used to power other services such as Morpheus and Grokster. Within two years, Kazaa claimed a record 230 million downloads.
Supported by advertisers, the Kazaa Media Desktop software enabled users to view paid content from Altnet as well as content from other users, the latter seriously vexing the music publishing companies. Although users were encouraged to not share copyrighted material, most downloads violated copyrights. The music industry sought to close down the company, and a Dutch court ordered the cessation of the Kazaa software. However, because the Kazaa system was totally distributed, existing users could still swap files, and people still continue to swap music using programs such as Kazaa Lite and Kazaa Resurrection, although to a significantly lesser degree.
In 2002, the Kazaa Web site and logo were sold to Australian Sharman Networks Ltd. Four years later, Sharman paid $100 million to settle music industry lawsuits and agreed to turn Kazaa into a legitimate service. Brilliant Digital Entertainment (BDE), an Altnet owner, partnered with Sharman to create legal downloads that include digital rights management (DRM). See peer-to-peer network, Napster and BitTorrent.
The Kazaa Supernode Architecture
Unlike Napster, which provided a central directory of shared files, the original Kazaa distributed its directories to "supernodes," which were the users' own computers. Supernodes communicated with other supernodes to complete a search. Users with fast computers and connections were automatically made supernodes unless they disallowed it. As a supernode, no more than 10% of the CPU power was used.
File swapping systems have been architected in different ways as outlined in the following illustrations:
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Duload virus targets unsuspecting KaZaa users
Fortunately, this virus causes more irritation than damage
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Benjamin wreaks havoc on the Kazaa network
Clever worm disguises itself as popular download titles.
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Kazaa finds friends in file-swapping fight
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Additional Results
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Rdio takes streaming music to the next level
Remember Kazaa? The guys who worked on that have been building something really cool: Rdio, pronounced "R-dee-o". It's got a lot of hype, but I am starting to validate it. It's a social music...
-
Kazaa founders give music another try
Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are behind new music subscription service, Rdio, which is scheduled to debut on Thursday.
-
With Kazaa, TPB going legit, are illegal downloads over?
Is it the end of illegal downloading? Hard on the heels of the acquisition of The Pirate Bay by Swedish company Global Gaming Factory, Kazaa has announced it's going legit, too. Read-Write Web...
-
Politicians just don't get it
If we want to keep Washington lobbyists out of Education IT, we need to enforce our own codes of conduct with regards to copyright infringement. It is THEFT, plain and simple and if we don't...
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Kazaa's creators do latest venture by the book
Joost, the new Web video venture of Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, has struck the mother lode of television programming through its deal with Viacom. The New York Times
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With settlement, Kazaa casts off its pirate garb
The notorious P2P service tries to go straight, but even a multimillion-dollar deal with record labels might not be enough.
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StreamCast names Skype, Kazaa in lawsuit
The owner of P2P application Morpheus is suing over the technology underlying Skype's Net phone software.
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Kazaa owners may face time in jail
Australian record industry initiates contempt proceedings against the masterminds behind the file-sharing software.
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Sharman cuts off Kazaa downloads in Australia
Shutdown affects only the download site; people who already have the software can keep sharing files on network.
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Kazaa keywords to be blocked, Australian judge rules
Justice Murray Wilcox says record companies can send a list of banned search terms to the peer-to-peer network.
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Australian court rules against Kazaa
Judge says managers of the peer-to-peer software had authorized users to infringe on music copyrights.
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Kazaa's a drag at its own company
Exec reveals why employees "hate" installing the P2P software and how rivals are well-positioned to "out-innovate us."
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