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It looks like kazaa could soon be going out of business? Does anyone here use a different peer-to-peer program?



LOS ANGELES - A federal judge has given record companies and movie studios the go-ahead to sue the parent company of Kazaa, a popular online file-swapping service.

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson refused to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit against Sharman Networks Ltd., which had argued that it could not be sued in the United States because it is based in Australia and incorporated in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.


In a 46-page ruling issued Friday, the judge said Sharman is subject to U.S. copyright laws because it has substantial business dealings in California and its actions are alleged to contribute to commercial piracy within the United States.


Kelly Larabee, a Sharman spokeswoman, said that while the company was "disappointed" with the ruling on the case, "we fully expect to prevail on the merits."


Larabee said Sharman would be filing a counterclaim that will "set forth the full story for the first time."


The Sharman case is one of the largest in the recent online copyright wars testing the international reach of U.S. courts. The plaintiffs maintain that Kazaa provides free access to copyrighted music and films to about 21 million U.S. users.

Bastards.

I say we go Fight Club on their headquarters. I know how to make nitroglycerin....

darn right they suck...where am i going to get my songs now? well I could buy it...but that defeats the point doesn't it...

Kazaa Lite is third-party, if I remember correctly. Also, Kazaa doesn't connect to a central database of any kind so even if the company goes down people can still use kazaa and share files with each other.

What are the record companies gonna do, sue 3+ million people?

Thus, I use Kazaa Lite, which is Kazaa without the junk and spyware. And there's a lot of other p2p programs out there anyway.

knowing record companies and how crazy they are...three million people to them is nothing. They'll give it a shot

brothersinarm wrote:knowing record companies and how crazy they are...three million people to them is nothing. They'll give it a shot

They'll have to find those people first

Besides, it'll be a legal nightmare. How are you going to have 3 million people show up at one or a few cases?

what i don't get is why the record companies are sueing? Tonnes of research have proven that people who download songs also spend more on cd's than anyone else. Personally I download songs because i don't want to have to pay 15 bucks to buy a single song and a cd full of junk. But when a good album comes around I'll buy it. Record companies are turning away good customers. Who would buy a cd if they can't sample some of the songs??? The record companies should stop their mad conquest for full control of the industry. Where's the freedom? Free speech? What happened to "share with your neighbours???!?!"

Following your post, my sister has over 100 mp3s but also has like 12 CDs from various artists.

This is all legalistic BS, Kazaa's parent company resides outside of the US and the courts reach. There is NO international consensus on copyright and what defines copyright infringement. Unlike Napster no central server exists to order shutdown, which is why Napster was so much more efficient than Kazaa. In order to stop p2p networks you have to bring suit aginst EVERYONE who uses the software. All of this is very reminiscent of RIAA's attmpts to ban the sale of home stereo tape recorders in the US in the late 70's and early 80's , since if people could record from one tape or off 'vinyl' to tape , the recording industry would be ruined......

RIAA, asshats one and all. They are worried because of a p2p network that has about 3mil users on any given day. Lets see, unless my math is faulty (and it often is, damn dyslexia) that make up the staggering figure of .01% of the US population....... .01% my we have our priorities in the right place hmmmm, lets see adult illeteracy, science education, homlessness, OH yeah, thoes people who are 'stealing' copies of "Heart of Glass" by Blondie, shit we can't let Debbie Harry starve , we'll make it our number one priority to fuck with them to no end........fucking asshats.

Asshat......my new favorite word....it just rolls off the tounge....say it with me....ASSSSSHAAAAAT.......wasn't that nice I thought so, oh hello Mr Trolley..............

This is all legalistic BS, Kazaa's parent company resides outside of the US and the courts reach. There is NO international consensus on copyright and what defines copyright infringement. Unlike Napster no central server exists to order shutdown, which is why Napster was so much more efficient than Kazaa. In order to stop p2p networks you have to bring suit aginst EVERYONE who uses the software. All of this is very reminiscent of RIAA's attmpts to ban the sale of home stereo tape recorders in the US in the late 70's and early 80's , since if people could record from one tape or off 'vinyl' to tape , the recording industry would be ruined......

RIAA, asshats one and all. They are worried because of a p2p network that has about 3mil users on any given day. Lets see, unless my math is faulty (and it often is, damn dyslexia) that make up the staggering figure of .01% of the US population....... .01% my we have our priorities in the right place hmmmm, lets see adult illeteracy, science education, homlessness, OH yeah, thoes people who are 'stealing' copies of "Heart of Glass" by Blondie, shit we can't let Debbie Harry starve , we'll make it our number one priority to fuck with them to no end........fucking asshats.

Asshat......my new favorite word....it just rolls off the tounge....say it with me....ASSSSSHAAAAAT.......wasn't that nice I thought so, oh hello Mr Trolley..............

brothersinarm wrote:darn right they suck...where am i going to get my songs now? well I could buy it...but that defeats the point doesn't it...

Well, there's always the Gnutella network. Sure, it has its problems, but it's far more decentralized than any other network, and doesn't rely on any single company to support it...

Most of my school's populace has never heard of the word Kazaa and they buy CDs like crazy.

It's only known to us "elites"

So what are the record companies going off the wall over?

they're going off the walls because they claim that kazaa has caused a loss in sales. This is absolutely bull but they don't care. All the record companies want to do is solidify their control over this medium.

Even though this does suck, I never really had much use for Kazaa in the first place. Puts advertising software on your comp and takes to long to download stuff from. I prefer to use WinMX for music. I always find whatever I wan't quickly and effeciently through that, and for other stuff, just use Direct Connect, gotta share certain ammounts of stuff to get on some of the good hubs but it works quite well. Plus theres always Morpheus.

Icehawk wrote:Plus theres always Morpheus.

Which recently switched to Gnutella; the "new" Morpheus client is based on Gnucleus.

They're going after p2p to cover up the fact that despite what the marketing department told them, you can't sell shit in a golden bag (is that an original metaphor? I think I just made it up, but I don't know). They've spent years trying to convince us that prepackaged crap like the Backstreet Boys, Limp Bizkit, and Creed is good music, and nobody's buying it anymore. Today's Wall Street Journal had an article about it. CD sales have been plummeting for several years now, and file sharing is a miniscule part of the problem. But telling the boss, "Those damn pirates are stealing our money" is easier than saying, "Well, see, we spent millions of dollars signing and promoting shitty talent that nobody wants to listen to, and now people aren't buying records anymore".

They're going after p2p to cover up the fact that despite what the marketing department told them, you can't sell shit in a golden bag (is that an original metaphor? I think I just made it up, but I don't know). They've spent years trying to convince us that prepackaged crap like the Backstreet Boys, Limp Bizkit, and Creed is good music, and nobody's buying it anymore. Today's Wall Street Journal had an article about it. CD sales have been plummeting for several years now, and file sharing is a miniscule part of the problem. But telling the boss, "Those damn pirates are stealing our money" is easier than saying, "Well, see, we spent millions of dollars signing and promoting shitty talent that nobody wants to listen to, and now people aren't buying records anymore".

That is so true

brothersinarm wrote:knowing record companies and how crazy they are...three million people to them is nothing. They'll give it a shot

I'd love to see them try that. Bring it on RIAA.

RedImperator wrote: you can't sell shit in a golden bag (is that an original metaphor? I think I just made it up, but I don't know).

Why , yes I do believe you have an original there, and a doosie

However, it 100% true. Shitty music combined with outrageous prices(20.00 bucka a disc, give me a fucking break) and you have a decade of declining music sales, which was coverd up for a long time by the steady price increases. Hell I remember when new releases were only 12 to 13 bucks, I distinctly remember buying the "Black" CD by of all people Metallica for 12.99 in 1991.... The whole industry is just turning to smoke and mirrors to avoid the problem of a dearth of good music out there. Anymore you have to scour the city for an independent store in order to find something that isn't preprocessed shit, and thanks to Borders, Music Wherehouse(what a fucking stupid name) Wal-Mart and Best Buy the little village record shop has all but disappeared. I'm lucky , I live in a major college town and have three to choose from , but in my home town , they all folded only to be replaced with top-40 only Megalo-Marts..........

I use iMesh, but I'm angered by Kazaa's misfortunes on principle.

I'm just pissed that SongSpy went down; that was the only one that worked behind our campus firewall. KaZaA works sometimes with a tunnel my roommate set up, but it's very iffy.

I'm just pissed that SongSpy went down; that was the only one that worked behind our campus firewall. KaZaA works sometimes with a tunnel my roommate set up, but it's very iffy.

Try WinMX if you havent already. It worked when I tried it at my college at least. Then again our college comps were pretty easy to do stuff with in general.

Icehawk wrote:

I'm just pissed that SongSpy went down; that was the only one that worked behind our campus firewall. KaZaA works sometimes with a tunnel my roommate set up, but it's very iffy.

Try WinMX if you havent already. It worked when I tried it at my college at least. Then again our college comps were pretty easy to do stuff with in general.

Tried it. And Morpheus. And Gnutella. And a half dozen other I don't remember the names of. Our techs aren't good at repairing stuff, but they sure know how to seal a firewall.

I also use WinMX.

But only for fansubs and individual MP3s - never for shows/films that have been released, entire albums, or programmes.

Kazaa was a piece of shit that didn't work. So was Morpheus.

Damn RIAA to the 7 circles of hell!!! *raises Jolly Roger flag over house* I wouldn't buy CDs even if they were $7, why? because there's usually ONE good track and the other 14 are pure shit on a stick.

Hell, at least 2/3 of my 31GB of mp3s are stuff horked from mp3.com, so it's not like the record companies (read: money grubbing leeches) are loosing any money.

Same goes for the software piracy... $50 for a game is outrageous, I was recently at a big LANparty (27 people for 2 days) and I asked just how many of them would buy legit software at the current prices, the immidiate responces fell along the lines of "no way in hell" and "if we all put some money to it we may be able to afford it, then we'd burn a copy for each of us". When I asked if htey'd buy software if the prices were chopped in half, the general responces fell like this: "yeah, half of what it is now would be ok" and "they're still putting out shit, when they start getting rid of the bugs I'll buy again", with the majority falling under the first category both times.

Someone want to explain the companies' reasoning behind putting pricetags of $50-70 on a game?