Comments on: Does Kazaa matter?

The top file-swapping network is facing lawsuits, junk downloads and strong rivals. Some say it's past its prime.

[ssalava]

Laziness=Convenience?

Chris Hedgecock is quoted as saying, "At heart, most of these peer-to-peer users are lazy."

I guess I'm lazy if I choose the convenience of online banking, commerce,etc. and order products online rather than drive around town and fighting the crowds at the local bricks & mortar retailers?

Even driving to the mall could be viewed as laziness! I hope Mr. Hedgecock walks to the mall to do his shopping this Christmas.

[katamari]

No, lazy is right.

Most people involved with shady subjects (i.e. p2p, piracy, etc.) do it solely because of the laziness aspect. I mean, why would they want to go to all that trouble of grooming themselves, leaving the house, getting in the car and going to a store -- when they can get it for free without even getting out of their chair?

[Prndll]

HA!

The use and proliferation of the internet has created a certain set of circumstances.

The fact is.....there is quite alot that you can get online that you would spend possibly years and maybe hundreds or thousands of dollars just in the search otherwise. Many mp3 downloaders are out there looking for "out of print" music. Music that someone somewhere has copied to there pc and made available. It is not just lazy college kids looking for what's hot at the moment.

[davebarnes]

Why steal when you can pay?

Why steal (i.e., use Kazaa or something similar) when you can pay (3-5 cents per song) www.allofmp3.com.

AllofMP3.com offers:
1. bit rate of your choice
2. encoding format of your choice
3. typical cost of $0.04 USD per song
4. legal (in Russia)

My daughter just purchased 250 songs for $10 USD for her iPod.

Competition is right!

[KDoggMDF]

Correct.

Damn straight. Why steal the music anymore when you can pay a VERY LOW price and get music that is LEGAL and cheap? I mean, I know that the RIAA doesnt deserve our money because of their horrid business practices and how expensive a cd costs now, but http://www.allofmp3.com is a great service that offers a HUGE collection of music for a CHEAP price and they have ONLINE ENCODING. At least check them out because I love the site.

True

True, although I don't use it, if I did download music from the internet, I'd do it this way. If word of this gets around it's going to give iTunes some pretty stiff competition. Heck, it'll probably shut it down with how low these guys prices are. Honestly, people, check them out!

[Prndll]

Steal what? Noone is stealing anything

MP3 downloaders do not own the copy rights to the music (that much I will agree). They also do not own "ANY" of the software on their pc (or IPOD), including the software that they use to transfer, copy, or burn to cd any music they listen to. You may own the hardware, but ALL the software is owned by someone else, even the mp3 itself (which is in itself "software").

[applian]

Why hassle with Kazaa when you can Record?

As more users are getting sued, and it becomes more of a hassle to find vaild downloads, less people will be using Kazaa and he like.

Recording products like Replay Music are the future -- users can record the songs they like from online radio or subscription services like Rhapsody, decide if they like them, and then purchase legitimately. Replay Music also splits MP3 streams into individual songs and adds artist and song title info to each file, so you know what you're listening to.

Recording for personal use is 100% legal, and there is a lot of legal precedent in that area, starting with the BetaMax case several years ago.

There's more information on the legal issues and the Replay Music product here:

www.replay-music.com

[PCCRomeo]

Kazaa SUCKS...

When Kazaa was updated, and they integrated that stupid "PeerPoints" thing in with KMD, I dumped Kazaa, and went to Kazaa Lite (www.kazaaliteinfo.com) and Ares (http://www.aresgalaxy.org/index.html). I think Kazaa is now getting what they deserve. They are trying to integrate useless crap in with their software to make them seem like a better company. Face it Kazaa, Your downloads are SLOW, and your software needs updated, BADLY!!...

[swifty5033]

There are alternatives.

There are spyware free alternatives. Winmx for music, emule, and a bitorrent client for everything else. Even the latest Limewire, a java based gnutella client is spyware free. There is no good "all in one client" anymore.

Daniel K

Yes, Kazaa is truly the most horrific P2P software out there. I used to use it, but very quickly realized what an evil and just plain BAD quality of its fasttrack network. Besides having your computer loaded to its rim with spyware, trojans, and so on, it is just way too difficult to get an actual file that isnt completely corrupted. Anyway, i reccomend to anyone using kazaa and fasttrack network to ABANDON IT COMLETELY. The best program for downloading music files is LimeWire of the gnutella network, without a doubt. Although there are less users, that doesnt seem to matter. It is EXCELLENT, and as a bonus it has NO EVIL COMPUTER INVADERS. For big files, the BitTorrent network is definitely the best of all choices. All you need to do is first download a bittorrent client (Azureus is the best) and to find a good torrent hosting website, which there are (but of course i cant say it here). DOWN WITH KAZAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[roydaniel1149]

Kazaa Sucks

After paying about $30 bucks for Kazaa Plus I am told that after one year there is no support for their product. I bought it and yet I can't reload it if I need to without paying again. I ignorantly believed that when you bought something that you could reload it as many times as you need to. What happens when a hard drive crashes??? If I buy a product on CD it is mine to use as many times as I wish, not so with Kazaa.

[neptolac]

Kazaa should be shot and buried.

As a technician for an ISP, I must say that Kazaa (and most other file-sharing utilities) are the bane of our existence. In order to be provided "free of charge" and to increase "useability and compatibility with other file-sharing networks," they load these programs with nothing but crapware that can do anything from bombarding your computer with pop-ups, pop-unders, and other assorted nuisances to totally trashing your Winsock. Either way, we get calls from people complaining that our service is causing all this havoc on their systems when it's them or their snot-nosed brats loading this crap on their computers that's causing it. My solution to the problem? I tell them that it's that software that's causing it and that they're opening themselves up to viruses, hackers, and lawsuits. That usually gets them to quit their whining about what they've done to their own systems and beat their kids into submission so that they don't put it back on there again. I then tell them that they have two options: subscribe to a legal service and pay less than what they'd pay for the actual item they're trying to steal anyway, or keep doing what they're doing and risk paying $3,000 for a $12.99 CD or $25,000+ for a $40 game... not including court costs, jail time, and unwantingly becoming the girlfriend of a big guy named "Bubba." They're usually quick to remove the crapware after that.

[Johnny Mnemonic]

Fighting the wave of change?

It is like fighting the change of seasons. You may
not enjoy winter, but it will be here. The best that
you can do is prepare for it. P2P is the future my
friend. Whether it is being used for legal or illegal
gain is irrelevant. It is how the internet will
evolve. There will always be questionable uses of
technology. Our funtion is to prepare for it and
teach others about it or simply get out of the way.

[Prndll]

This whole thing is crazy......

I have yet to come across a single P2P program that is clean and free of some kind of problem. Not only is the use of "ANY" P2P software dangerous for you pc, most of them are really not that good anyway.

I am however very affended by this idea of my morality being put into question. The recording industry is using a very outdated (technologically) loophole to state their case. The problem however is the fact that this really is a war between several very large corporations and the average pc user is caught in the middle. The same companies that produce, promote, and distribute the hardware and the software for playing, burning to cd, and recording music are the very ones doing all the complaining. P2P networks are nothing more than the "middleman" in the whole equation. I think THAT is what the RIAA has such a problem with: they can't really make money on P2P networks. Music was here long before the recording industry and will be long after it. The ONLY way the RIAA can win is to make computers incapable of recording and playing sounds.

Tell me----Why is the creater of the MP3 compression format not treated as a criminal? Why is he infact proped up by the entertainment industry and allowed to make MP3 even more powerfull?

Tell me----Why does Time Warner "give" away Winamp (and they do own it), which is the most popular player, when they also sue little girls for aquiring mp3's to play on winamp....mp3's that are often copied over their own networks?

Tell me----Who really are the one's profiting from the sale of mp3 players (the hardware and the software), the cd burners, and all those blank cd's (which have become so cheap)?

The point.......
NO, in the grand scheme of things, KAZAA really does not matter. The fact is, if not them, then someone else. Pandoras box has been opened and the people have spoken. With technology being what it is (and is going to be), The recording industry has no chance of really winning this thing. But, the fight will have a profound impact on the internet and what people can do with it.