January 18, 2002

1:32 PM

Kazaa halts downloadingat least until a court decision. Does this really matter, as you're only blocking distribution of the client from the kazaa site. The "servers" still run, and people can still download the client from any other site.
posted by milnak (18 comments total)

This is ironic......

I went to re-download Kazaa last night, because after running ad-aware on it and removing it's spyware componates, it wouldn't work. Oh well, there's always Direct Connect or something.
posted by SweetJesus at 1:49 PM on January 18, 2002

I'm sure this is still relatively easy to get through eDonkey. Just run a serach for kmd.exe.
posted by ttrendel at 2:07 PM on January 18, 2002

Morpheus runs on the same network as Kazaa and accesses the same files.

Plus, Morpheus is promising access to the Gnutella network with it's next release.
posted by kickerofelves at 2:40 PM on January 18, 2002

how come Morpheus is allowed to continue when Kazaa isn't?
posted by wibbler at 2:53 PM on January 18, 2002

this is a bell that cannot be unrung.

last year we called this Napster.

this year it's KaZaA.

i call it the number one killer app since since Word and i will buy a drink for whatever teen genius creates the next one.
posted by tsarfan at 3:07 PM on January 18, 2002

Kazaa's a Dutch company I believe and Morpheus is a US company.

Whether Kazaa can shut either the FastTrack network or themselves doesn't really matter now, the distributed cat is out of the bag and nobody is ever going to have to pay for music ever again. IMO (never humble) it will say something abnout society whether we can sort out a means to pay our artists fairly or whetehr we'll jut drive them all out of business.
posted by nedrichards at 3:27 PM on January 18, 2002

The OpenFT project is aiming to make an open source, ad-free implementation of the FastTrack protocol. Not sure how much progress they're making, but they did do a very impressive job of reverse engineering the encrypted search protocol a while back.

The fun thing about FastTrack/Kazaa/Morpheus/Grokster is that although the search protocol is encrypted, the transfer protocol is just plain old HTTP. If you know someone's running a copy of Kazaa on say, host www.metafilter.com, then you can pull up their file list in a web browser by loading http://www.metafilter.com:1214/

Of course, it's finding the computer with the file you're looking for in the first place that is the hard part.
posted by dlewis at 3:34 PM on January 18, 2002

Is Morpheus considered as chock full o' spyware as Kazaa?
posted by Zurishaddai at 4:09 PM on January 18, 2002

Of course, it's finding the computer with the file you're looking for in the first place that is the hard part.

Google to the rescue? Seriously, for all that Google should focus on their core competencies stuff that surfaces whenever they come out with a new search feature, if they could bring their genius to locating music on line (and not get sued out of existence which is why this is more fantasy than probability), then that would pretty much rule. And as long as I'm dreaming, what if they cached the files too so that even if the host machine went off line you could still access the songs?
posted by willnot at 5:03 PM on January 18, 2002

"Is Morpheus considered as chock full o' spyware as Kazaa?"

Morpheus has no spyware. Ads, but no spyware.
posted by CrayDrygu at 5:30 PM on January 18, 2002

Ah, but Google can already be used to find MP3s. Here's how. Props to machaus...
posted by kindall at 5:52 PM on January 18, 2002

Morpheus has popup ads. It opens a browser window on occassion in addition to the ads in the program window.
posted by srboisvert at 6:22 PM on January 18, 2002

Morpheus has popup ads. It opens a browser window on occassion in addition to the ads in the program window.

No it doesn't. At least, not as of version 1.3.3. You've probably got some spyware left over from Kazaa or some other such program: try ad-aware.

And, on Morpheus, if you want to get rid of the ads on the bottom of the screen, I highly recommend Skallas' host file.
posted by gd779 at 6:55 PM on January 18, 2002

(Kazaa can open a browser window even when it's not running.)
posted by gd779 at 6:56 PM on January 18, 2002

Minor point, perhaps, as Morpheus is an excellent tool, but this

No it doesn't. At least, not as of version 1.3.3. You've probably got some spyware left over from Kazaa or some other such program: try ad-aware.

is not strictly true, for me, at least. Morpheus still pops up the rare ad window (blocked by the hosts file, which I use), and I am, at least according to ad-aware, spyware free.

Regardless, I recommend it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:07 PM on January 18, 2002

I know I'm getting to sound like a broken record, but whenever someone mentions pop-up ads, I'm more or less obligated to point out The Proxomitron again and again. It'll easily filter out the JavaScript that's executed to pop 'em up.

I never see ads in Morpheus or anything else, thanks to this thing and -- once again -- the Waldherr version of the venerable but still quite servicable Internet Junkbuster. With these two tools in place, you get to kaibosh far more ads than the hugest hosts file is going to catch.
posted by majick at 8:38 PM on January 18, 2002

AllTheWeb has a really good mp3 search. They're from FAST a very nice norwegian search engine. The Opera of search engines.
posted by nedrichards at 6:03 AM on January 19, 2002

This guy's actually selling his mp3s. Obscure ones only, or so he says. He claims the cost is to cover the money out of his pocket, but at a minimum order of $4 for one song, sounds like a scam to me. He also claims to "assume no responsibility is involved with violating copyrights, royalties, etc.." but isn't it correct to say the very act of selling copyrighted works is infringing on copyright law? Even the work of garage bands can be copyrighted. Heck, if there was a legal way to do this, I would have been selling mp3s years ago.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:18 AM on January 20, 2002