Kazaa Media Desktop (or capitalised as KaZaA) is a second-generation peer-to-peer file sharing application that uses Fast Track protocol and it is currently owned by Australian company Sharman Network ((TechEncyclopedia, 2004). Kazaa enables users to exchange not only MP3 music files, but also movies, television shows and other types of digital information (Watson, 2005). The official Kazaa software can be downloaded free of charge from its website www.kazaa.com, although several hacked versions of the program are also available on the Internet.
Kazaa was developed in March 2001 by Scandinavians programmers, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis of the Dutch company, Consumer Empowerment (TechnEncyclopedia, 2004). It rose to popularity soon after Napster was ordered to shut down in July of that year. Kazaa was estimated to be downloaded into 140 million machines across the world (BCC News, 2005). Unlike Napster which relied on a centralised index of shared files, Kazaa distributes its directories to Supernodes, which are the users' own computers. Supernodes communicate with other Supernodes to complete a search. Users with fast computers and connections are automatically made Supernodes unless they disallow it (Watson, 2005).
Kazaa has been accused of installing spyware or adware onto users’ computers. Spyware is alledgely used to connect users to a secondary, private network called Alnet, which is operated by Sharman Networks’ partner, Brilliant Digital (Rojas, 2002). Sharman claims that “the products are adware and do not collect personal user information.�? (Wikipedia, 2005) Since the allegations surfaced, many users have switched to Kazaa Lite and its variant, Kazaa Lite Resurrection- a hacked version of the original Kazaa application- which are free from third party softwares or banner ads (Rojas, 2002). Sharman Networks considers Kazaa Lite as copyright violations and the company have sent letters to Google requesting that all links to the Kazaa Lite application be removed from their database (Chillingeffects, 2005).
Like the creators of many similar products, Kazaa's creators have been taken to court by music publishing bodies to restrict its use in the sharing of copyrighted material (Bells, 2002) Consumer Empowerment was taken to court in the Netherlands in 2001 by the Dutch music publishing bobdy, Buma/Stemra (CDRinfo, 2005). In November 200,1 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 complicated mesh of offshore companies, primarily Sharman Networks Ltd, headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu (Woody, 2003). Although, a court appeal later found Kazaa not responsible for the actions of its users, the peer-to-peer network continued to be attacked with infringement lawsuits in the US courts, instigated by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
In February 2004, the Austrlian Record Industry Association (ARIA) announced its own legal action against Kazaa. On September 5, 2005, the Fedral Court of Australia issued ruling that Sharman, though not itself guilty of copyright infringement, had facilitated Kazaa users to illegally swap copyrighted songs ((Deare, 2005). The court ordered Sharman to modify the software within two months (a ruling only enforceable in Australia) and the company was to pay millions of dollars in damge to the record label companies that were invloved in this court case.
Currently, with pending copyright lawsuits from RIAA, Kazaa is still available across the Internet. Kazaa users can still exchange copyrighted material without paying royalties to the owners but only done at their own risks (Watson, 2005). RIAA has recently in June 2005, filed a new round of lawsuits against 784 individuals who were using unauthorised peer-to-peer networks, such as Kazaa (RIAA,2005). While Kazaa claims to be “completely legal�? and vigiorously defends its position (Kazaa, 2005), the future does look challenging for the network. Firstly, the recent judgement by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a related lawsuit against a similar FastTrack client Grokster appears to have taken away the basis for the US Kazaa suit (Crawford, 2005). This means that Sharman could potentially be found liable for copyright infringements in the US courts and pay millions of dollars in damages. Secondly, Kazaa is facing some tough competitions against free peer-to-peer filesharing networks. Newcomers such as eDonkey and BitTorrent have been described to be “coming on strong amid reports that millions of people are logging off Kazaa network�? (Borland, 2004). In the midst of legal lawsuits and industry competition, there have been talks between Kazaa and its partner Alnet to “turn the network into a distribution platform for authorised, paid versions of music and movies, crowding out copyright-infringing trades�? (Borland, 2004).
Kazaa’s success as a legal service would depend largely on legal factors, and the structure of its business model. If the US courts in the near future, are able to sucessfully pass laws to clamp down on illegal file trading online and prevent other such peer-to-peer networks from surfacing, Kazaa would be able to compete fairly with other paid services. But this would prove to be a difficult task because ligitation would only encourage better systems to be developed ( Laycock, 2004). However, if Kazaa is able to develop a new business model that would radically change the way how consumers buy their music, how much music they buy, how they listen to music and how artists get paid, Kazaa will be at the head of a new music-consuming trend.
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Victoria Cole 22:16, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
Ruth kan 04:51, 28 Oct 2005 (EST)
