Ironic

Kazaa lite’s development has been halted by Sharman Networks due to copyright infringement. Doesn’t the adware-infested Kazaa Media Desktop help to infringe other people’s copyright too…? So didn’t Sharman just slapped itself in the face by suing the creators of K-lite? Oh well, I suppose those Sharman people have thick skins, just like that time they actually sued RIAA, instead of the other way around… Zeropaid article here.

Speaking with RatFaced, one of the Kazaa Lite forum moderators today and our contact at K-Lite, I have uncovered news that the Kazaa Lite K++ project has been shut down by Sharman Networks on grounds of copyright infringement.

The project, which had been set up to block spy and ad ware within the Kazaa Media Desktop Program has achieved notoriety within the P2p world through its simplistic approach and success in reverse engineering the Kazaa application.

However, the program infringed on the copyright of Sharman Networks, the company that now own and program the Kazaa Media Desktop application, after the purchase of the code and copyright in 2002. The FastTrack (Kazaa) network is financed through advertising systems, which Kazaa Lite K++ does not include, and so was seen as a threat by the owners.

Sharman have threatened legal action, and ordered that the offending content be removed from the official Kazaa Lite sites, including http://www.kazaalite.tk/ which now contains no reference to the existance of the application.

RatFaced said that the decision was “Ironic, that Kazaa is complaining about copyright issues, especially as K-Lite ++ stands for everything that Kazaa CLAIMS to stand for… but fails to deliver.”

We will perhaps never see Kazaa Lite again, but we can hope that users will remain aware of the spyware that is hidden inside the Kazaa application, which is used to finance the creation of the software.

eMule and WinMX offer spyware-free alternatives to Kazaa.

Note this does NOT mean that existing Kazaa-lite clients will be unable to connect to the Fasttrack network. It just means that the developers of K-lite are not allowed to make and distribute new versions of K-lite anymore… However, K-Lite will die off soon…

“Recent upgrades to Kazaa clients (2.5 and higher) make them less tolerant with outdated or non official clients such as Kazaa Lite K++. Kazaa Lite is based on a version prior to 2.5, therefore a current supernode will not accept its shares. Although this will cause network headaches in terms of traffic, the client will not be able to participate or download off the main FastTrack network. This will effectively cluster and isolate all modified Kazaa clients from FastTrack.

“Well, won’t Kazaa Lite clients simply form their own sub-FastTrack network?

“Sounds nice, but no. Unfortunately, the developers of Kazaa Lite helped Sharman out tremendously by disabling the supernode function. Very few users who run this client are acting as supernodes. A decentralized P2P network with all clients and no supernodes cannot exist. The effects of this extermination is already taking place, as search times and connection times are deteriorating compared to K+ (the legitimate spyware/adware free version of Kazaa.)

“As time progresses, the Kazaa Lite K++ client will become so unusable that its populace will be driven off the network. This latest act from Sharman punctuates a long history of hypocrisy that involves the protection of their own intellectual property rights, yet blatantly ignoring the copyrights of others.”

Looks like the only option left is to use Kazaa and then remove the adwares with DietK…

UPDATE: That’s it! Once I finish with my current download, (mainly, the Kiddy Grade series) I’m fricking moving to Shareaza. DietK + KMD 2.6 works, BUT KMD for some strange unexplained reason, DOES NOT SUPPORT CHANGING DOWNLOAD FOLDER! WTF? I’m not going to wait for my files to finish then painstakingly move them from C:Program FilesKazaaShared Folder into my E:. And KMD sure as hell gotten a LOT more spy/ad-ware bloated since the last time I installed it. If not for DietK, even Adaware + Spybot coundn’t find all the gajillion stuff Kazaa installs…

However, Shareaza uses the Gnutella network, which in based on my past experiences, is slower than Fasttrack… (as if that is ever possible) Sigh… maybe I should start shelling out money for those box sets… But even a short series like Kanon cost me 40 dollars, how the hell do I find all that money. -.-‘