Kazaa Lite

Kazaa Lite is a spyware free file-sharing program based on the code of Kazaa, a P2P application that runs on the FastTrack network. The name refers to the fact that adware/spyware in Kazaa had been removed, while many other features, such as a "preview with" submenu, more efficient traffic controls, and searching options, were added.

• K-Lite - This version will be sufficient for most of the people.
• K-Lite Gold - Includes anti-virus, multiple networks and library organizer.

Kazaa - Original version with spyware

The original Kazaa contains spyware, adware and other forms of malware (please scroll down the page to get more information on this). As a result of these additional components, CNET's Download.com site stopped the distribution of KaZaA in April 2004.

If you use internet, there is over 90% chance your computer is infected with spyware (Source CNN) (link: Free scan for spyware).

Kazaa Media Desktop (once capitalized as "KaZaA", but usually left as "Kazaa") is a controversial peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol. The program is based on the same concept of Napster. Kazaa is commonly used to exchange MP3 music files over the Internet. It is also increasingly used to exchange movie files. The official Kazaa client is financed by attached adware, spyware and malware (although an apocryphal "No Spyware" message is displayed on their website).

History

Kazaa and the FastTrack protocol are the brainchild of the Scandinavians Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis and were introduced in March 2001 by their Dutch company Consumer Empowerment. It appeared during the end of the first generation of P2P networks – Napster shut down in July of that year.

Its initial userbase was made up of users of the Morpheus program, formerly a client of MusicCity. However, once the official Kazaa client became more widespread, its developers used their ability to automatically update it, changing the protocol in February 2002 to shut out Morpheus clients when its developers failed to pay license fees. (Morpheus subsequently became a client of Gnutella.)

Like the creators of similar products, Kazaa's owners have been taken to court by music publishing bodies to restrict its use in the sharing of copyrighted material. Consumer Empowerment was taken to court in the Netherlands in 2001 by the Dutch music publishing body, Buma/Stemra. In November 2001, the court ordered Kazaa's owners to take steps to prevent its users from violating copyrights or else pay a heavy fine. Consumer Empowerment responded by selling the Kazaa application to a complicated mesh of offshore companies, primarily Sharman Networks, headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu.

A court of appeal in late March 2002 reversed the earlier judgment, stating that Kazaa was not responsible for the actions of its users. However, in 2002, Sharman was sued in Los Angeles by the RIAA and the MPAA. That lawsuit is still pending, although a recent judgement by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a related lawsuit against a similar FastTrack client Grokster appears to take away the basis for the US Kazaa suit. That decision was appealed to the US Supreme Court, and a decision reached in the case, uninanimously in MGM Studios' favor.

In September 2003, the RIAA filed suit in civil court against several private individuals who had shared large numbers of files with Kazaa; most of these suits were settled with monetary payments averaging $3,000. Sharman Networks responded with a lawsuit against the RIAA, alleging that the terms of use of the network were violated and that unauthorized client software (such as Kazaa Lite, see below) was used in the investigation to track down the individual file sharers. An effort to throw out this suit was denied in January 2004.

In February 2004, the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) announced its own legal action against Kazaa, alleging massive copyright breaches. The trial began on November 29, 2004. On February 6, 2005 the homes of two Sharman Networks executives and the offices of Sharman Networks in Australia were raided under a court order by ARIA to gather evidence for the trial.

On September 5, 2005, the Federal Court of Australia issued a landmark ruling that Sharman, though not itself guilty of copyright infringement, had "authorised" Kazaa users to illegally swap copyrighted songs. The court ruled six defendants - including Kazaa's owners Sharman Networks, Sharman's Sydney-based boss Nikki Hemming and associate Kevin Bermeister - had knowingly allowed Kazaa users to illegally swap copyrighted songs. The company was ordered to modify the software within two months (a ruling enforceable only in Australia). Sharman and the other five parties also face paying millions of dollars in damages to the record labels that instigated the legal action.

Program

Currently, Kazaa has been released only for the Windows operating system. It can be run on Linux, Mac OS X and other operating systems with emulation software like WINE and Virtual PC.

Many consider Kazaa to be superior to other file sharing programs because of its wide file selection and fast transfer speeds. While it is the P2P network with the second-largest installed userbase, it is worth noting that the Kazaa client installs spyware, adware and malware onto the user's machine, with potential security and privacy implications. Others are able to install Kazaa without the fears of privacy invasion by installing them on a virtual machine e.g. the virtual machine of Virtual PC.

Kazaa uses a "participation level" system intended to reward participants the more material they have uploaded to other users. This is subverted by most of the unofficial clients and leaves legitimate third-party clients suffering.

The number of users connected to the Kazaa network at any given time fluctuates between 1 million and 5 million users, with the average usually being around 3 million. There are over 1.5 billion files on the network totalling 26 petabytes, with about 1,000 downloads every minute.

Allegations of malware

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Kazaa has, from early on, been accused of installing spyware or adware onto users' computers. Sharman, Kazaa's home company, claims that the products are adware and do not collect personal user information. At one time, the part of the Kazaa code which was considered adware was an optional, though technically difficult not to install, part of the Kazaa installation. Since the allegations have surfaced, however, the code has been bundled into the main Kazaa software, and it is not possible to uninstall it. Also, spyware detection and removal software has frequently failed to delete the code without special actions taken by the PC user.

Malware installed by Kazaa includes: