Kazaa to fold

[BaBa-BooeY]

05-22) 16:34 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --

Kazaa, the company behind a popular file-swapping Web site, said it will fold because it cannot afford to defend itself against copyright infringement charges brought by the major studios and labels.

The Dutch company maintains it has not violated any copyright laws by enabling customers to copy and share music and movie files by computer. But Kazaa lawyers said Friday that the firm cannot afford to defend the charges.

"Plaintiffs have engaged in Rambo-style litigation," Kazaa said in a court filing Friday, complaining that the studios and labels are using hardball legal tactics to squash it.

The collapse of Kazaa, however, is not expected to slow trading activity on the company's network, one of the most popular file-sharing sites in the world. Kazaa said it has sold the network to another firm that the music and film industry has not sued yet.

The Web site and the software behind it are now owned by a privately held firm called Sharman Networks, based in Vanuatu, an island in the Pacific.

Lawyers for the seven major Hollywood studios and five major record companies and music publishers said Kazaa is playing a corporate "shell game" to dodge responsibility.

They contend that Kazaa's two founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, continue to be involved in the operation of the Web site and made substantial money from the sale.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/05/22/financial1929EDT0213.DTL

 

[BaBa-BooeY]

Grokster is a great alternative.

www.grokster.com

 

[Warik]

Grokster is a great alternative.

www.grokster.com

Uh.

Grokster = KaZaA = Morpheus.

I don't know... maybe I'm seeing things, but the fact that all 3 interfaces look *exactly* the same, in addition to the fact that you cannot run Grokster and KaZaA at the same time, kind of gives away the fact that they are both ripoffs of Morpheus.

Same number of people online sharing the same files... there is absolutely no significant difference between the two programs - I STILL cannot find a real version of Smallville episode 20 regardless of which I use.

-Warik

 

[manny78]

Uh.

Grokster = KaZaA = Morpheus.

I don't know... maybe I'm seeing things, but the fact that all 3 interfaces look *exactly* the same, in addition to the fact that you cannot run Grokster and KaZaA at the same time, kind of gives away the fact that they are both ripoffs of Morpheus.

Same number of people online sharing the same files... there is absolutely no significant difference between the two programs - I STILL cannot find a real version of Smallville episode 20 regardless of which I use.

-Warik

exactly they're all connected to the same network. Kazaa uses the same "Download" file has Morpheus. If you desinstall one then the other one will use the previous folder.

 

[The Whole F/N Show]

They all used/use the fast track network which is separate of all 3 companies. I guess Kazaa owned it but say in the article they sold it.

"Kazaa said it has sold the network to another firm that the music and film industry has not sued yet. "

It sounds like it's gonna be a game of hot potato with the fast track network. First Morpheus was king, then Kazaa and grokster split the title. Now it's gonna be all grokster. No matter, I like having grokster but Winmx it still my P2P of choice.