Kazaa and Morpheus being shut down...

[kris]

Whats gonna be the next ticket out there for file sharing?.....

-----------------------------------------

Judge orders shut-down of popular Napster-like site

By Joris Evers

(IDG) -- The makers of popular file-sharing software KaZaA have to make it impossible for users to continue to share copyright-protected material using the software, or pay a fine for each day the product remains unchanged, a Dutch judge ordered Thursday.

In a case brought to the Amsterdam district court by Buma/Stemra, an organization that represents composers, songwriters and music publishers in the Netherlands, Judge R. Orobio de Castro found that because KaZaA BV does not have a license from Buma/Stemra it is acting unlawfully by making software available that allows users to download music files.

KaZaA has 14 days to comply with the order. If it doesn't, the company will have to pay 100,000 guilders (US$40,000) a day, with a maximum of 2 million guilders, the judge ruled.

KaZaA is puzzled by the verdict and it doesn't understand exactly what to do, said KaZaA's attorney Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm.

"Our software can't disappear, it is already out there," he said. "And the minute we take down our Web site, mirrors will appear."

KaZaA is so-called peer-to-peer (P-to-P) software that allows users to search each other's hard drives for files they want and to download those. KaZaA doesn't require a central server to work, unlike Napster, which was shut down when it installed filters on its servers after a legal battle in the U.S.

"At trial, we asked the judge to be clear in his verdict if he was going to side with Buma/Stemra. Now we don't know what to do. Should we go door-to-door and ask people to stop using the software? Should we put a notice on our Web site? Whatever we do, it will always lead to a new conflict with Buma/Stemra," Alberdingk Thijm said.

KaZaA is weighing its options and might appeal, Alberdingk Thijm said.

A spokesman for Buma/Stemra declined to comment, saying the company had not yet studied the verdict.

Users won't be affected by the verdict, said Lee Black, research director at analyst firm Webnoize Inc., who called the ruling the fruit of "a judicial system that doesn't understand the technology it is trying to regulate."

"You could take down the KaZaA Web site and prevent anybody from downloading the application from there, but you can't prevent users from launching the client and accessing the network," he said.

KaZaA is based on P-to-P technology developed by Amsterdam-based FastTrack BV, which is closely related to KaZaA. Two other P-to-P applications, MusicCity Networks Inc.'s Morpheus and Grokster Ltd.'s Grokster, also use FastTrack's technology. Thursday's verdict does not affect those products, according to Alberdingk Thijm.

Applications based on FastTrack's technology are rapidly gaining popularity, according to Webnoize. Consumers transferred 1.81 billion digital media files using any of the three applications during October, a rise of 20 percent from the 1.51 billion files downloaded during September, according to Webnoize, which estimates that about 500,000 people use KaZaA at any given moment.

There is a way to kill KaZaA, Morpheus and Grokster all at once, according to Webnoize's Black. Copyright holders have to go after FastTrack.

"KaZaA is just the consumer-facing side, FastTrack is the P-to-P stack and has demonstrated in the past that it can change the configuration of its network to lock out an old version of an application," he said. "The next judge's order will be for FastTrack to change the network."

In the U.S., the Recording Industry Association of America Inc. (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have filed suit against KaZaA, Morpheus and Grokster. [See "RIAA, MPAA sue popular Napster progeny," Oct. 3.]

KaZaA in Amsterdam can be reached on the Web at http://www.kazaa.com/. Buma/Stemra in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands can be reached on the Web at http://www.bumastemra.nl/.

[Jay!]

Originally posted by kbslacker
...MusicCity Networks Inc.'s Morpheus and Grokster Ltd.'s Grokster, also use FastTrack's technology. Thursday's verdict does not affect those products, according to Alberdingk Thijm.

[Polygon]

PLus there is still Lime Wire!

[speediva]

And who's gonna stop the files already out there from being swapped via ZipDisk or even AIM???


Won't the law ever learn???

[Heep]

...or even IRC. That's the only thing there was really, back in like '96 when I got into using mp3's. It's still there, and more bountiful than ever. Also, I find it odd that AudioGalaxy Satellite has been around longer than most of these players, yet I don't think I've ever even heard mention of AG in the media/courts/etc. It works great too.

[2001 AE]

Say it ain't so..............Say it ain't so

[jinushaun]

Yeah, I agree with Heep: IRC. It came before these proggies, and will probably last long after. Napster is like AOL; whereas AOL brought the internet to the masses, Napster brought file sharing to the masses.

[RazorGTR]

I can see this being a never ending battle. It is sick how the recording industry can manipulate the legal system to try and gain a few more dollars in their pockets. What they fail to realize is we as the consumer do not have to purchase their music. What would they say if we decided to start to record from the radio and then put it on our hd's?

Next they will go after radio station probably. Dirty rat bastards!

[AEstud]

Morpheus and Kaaza are the same thing and its peer to peer sharing so it will be very hard to shut down, and when is this supposed to come into affect?

[DVSNCYNIKL]

If they shut down Morpheus, which I doubt, another one will just take it's place. They might as well learn to live with it and just let it be.

[RazorGTR]

I say we give the goofy bastards who are stirring all this shit cement shoes for christmas :aug2: :greenchai :monkeypis justice !

[gang$tarr]

lol i dunno why but guilders sounds like fake money to me
i know it's real, it just sounds funny

but anyway, yeah mIRC has always been around but it's a pain in the ass since you have to look for stuff intead of just typing the name of the song you want in a search