View source for Kazaa

{{Short description|Peer-to-peer file sharing application}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox software
| name = Kazaa Media Desktop
| title = Kazaa Media Desktop
| logo = Kazaa (logo).png
| logo caption = 
| logo_size = x64px
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| author = 
| developer = Sharman Networks
| released = {{Start date and age|2001|3|1}}
| discontinued = yes
| latest release version = 3.2.7
| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2006|11|26|df=yes}}
| latest preview version = 
| latest preview date = <!-- {{Start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|df=yes/no}} -->
| programming language = 
| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows]]
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| language count = <!-- DO NOT include this parameter unless you know what it does -->
| language footnote = 
| genre = [[Peer-to-peer]]
| license = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]
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}}
{{fsb}}
'''Kazaa Media Desktop''' ({{IPAc-en|k|ə|ˈ|z|ɑː}} {{respell|ka|ZAH}};<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1fuzwt/im_jaan_tallinn_cofounder_of_skype_kazaa_cser_and/cae3v92|title=I'm Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype, Kazaa, CSER and MetaMed. AMA. • r/IAmA|website=reddit|date=7 June 2013}}</ref> (once stylized as "'''KaZaA'''", but later usually written "'''Kazaa'''") was a [[peer-to-peer file sharing]] application using the [[FastTrack|FastTrack protocol]] licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks. Kazaa was subsequently under license as a legal music subscription service by Atrinsic, Inc.,<ref name="BBC"/> which lasted until August 2012.

Kazaa Media Desktop was commonly used to exchange [[MP3]] music files and other file types, such as videos, applications, and documents over the Internet. The Kazaa Media Desktop client could be downloaded free of charge; however, it was bundled with [[adware]] and for a period there were "No spyware" warnings found on Kazaa's website. During the years of Kazaa's operation, Sharman Networks and its business partners and associates were the target of copyright-related lawsuits, related to the content distributed via Kazaa Media Desktop on the FastTrack protocol.

By August 2012, the Kazaa website was no longer active.

== History ==
Kazaa and FastTrack were originally created and developed by Estonian programmers from BlueMoon Interactive<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bluemoon.ee/bluemoon/index.html |title=Bluemoon Interactive |publisher=Bluemoon.ee |access-date=2010-01-21}}</ref> including [[Jaan Tallinn]] and sold to Swedish entrepreneur  [[Niklas Zennström]] and Danish programmer  [[Janus Friis]] (who were later to create [[Skype]] and later still [[Joost]] and [[Rdio]]). Kazaa was introduced by the Dutch company Consumer Empowerment in March 2001, near the end of the first generation of P2P networks typified by the shutdown of [[Napster]] in July 2001. Skype itself was based on Kazaa's P2P backend, which allowed users to make a call by directly connecting them with each other.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thenextweb.com/tech/2019/05/15/skype-p2p-promise-internet-estonia/|title=Skype didn't deliver on P2P's promise, but Estonia has|last=Booth|first=Callum|date=2019-05-15|website=The Next Web|language=en-us|access-date=2019-05-21}}</ref>

Initially, some users of the Kazaa network were users of the [[Morpheus (file-sharing software)|Morpheus]] client program, formerly made available by [[MusicCity]]. Eventually, the official Kazaa client became more widespread. In February 2002, when Morpheus developers failed to pay license fees, Kazaa developers used an automatic update ability to shut out Morpheus clients by changing the protocol. Morpheus later became a client of the [[gnutella]] network.<ref>{{Cite news |last=King |first=Brad |title=Gnutella: File-Sharing Haven |url=https://www.wired.com/2002/03/gnutella-file-sharing-haven/ |access-date=2024-02-27 |work=Wired |language=en-US |issn=1059-1028}}</ref>

== Lawsuits ==
Consumer Empowerment was sued in the [[Netherlands]] in 2001 by the Dutch music publishing body, [[Buma/Stemra]]. The court ordered Kazaa's owners to take steps to prevent its users from violating copyrights or else pay a heavy fine. In October 2001 a lawsuit was filed against Consumer Empowerment by members of the music and motion picture industry in the US. In response Consumer Empowerment sold the Kazaa application to Sharman Networks, headquartered in [[Australia]] and incorporated in [[Vanuatu]]. In late March 2002, a Dutch court of appeal reversed an earlier judgment and stated that Kazaa was not responsible for the actions of its users. Buma/Stemra lost its appeal before the Dutch Supreme Court in December 2003.

In 2003, Kazaa signed a deal with Altnet and [[Streamwaves]] to try to convert users to paying, legal customers. Searchers on Kazaa were offered a free 30-second sample of songs for which they were searching and directed to sign up for the full-featured Streamwaves service.<ref>{{cite news| last = Healey| first = Jon| title = Streamwaves Aims to Get Kazaa Users to Pay| newspaper = [[Los Angeles Times]]| date = 2003-06-24| url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jun-24-fi-stream24-story.html| access-date = 2009-06-02 }}</ref>

However, Kazaa's new owner, Sharman, was sued in [[Los Angeles]] by the major record labels and motion pictures studios and a class of music publishers. The other defendants in that case ([[Grokster]] and MusicCity, makers of the Morpheus file-sharing software) initially prevailed against the plaintiffs on summary judgment (Sharman joined the case too late to take advantage of that ruling). The summary judgment ruling was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but was unanimously reversed by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|US Supreme Court]] in a decision titled ''[[MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.]]''<ref>[[:s:MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.|MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.]] at [[Wikisource]]</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=838|title=Slyck News - Supreme Court Rules Against P2P Companies!|website=www.slyck.com|access-date=30 June 2005|archive-date=21 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821225911/http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=838|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Following that ruling in favor of the plaintiff labels and studios, Grokster almost immediately settled the case. Shortly thereafter, on 27 July 2006, it was announced that Sharman had also settled with the record industry and motion picture studios. As part of that settlement, the company agreed to pay $100 million in damages to the four major music companies—Universal Music, [[Sony BMG]], EMI and Warner Music—and an undisclosed amount to the studios.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dailytech.com/Kazaa+to+Pay+100+Million+to+Record+Labels/article3535.htm |title=Kazaa to Pay $100 Million to Record Labels |publisher=Daily Tech |date=27 July 2006 |access-date=2010-05-05 |archive-date=8 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308084506/http://www.dailytech.com/Kazaa+to+Pay+100+Million+to+Record+Labels/article3535.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Sharman also agreed to convert Kazaa into a legal music download service.<ref name="BBC">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5220406.stm |title=Kazaa site becomes legal service |work=BBC News |date=2006-07-27 |access-date=2010-01-21}}</ref> Like the creators of similar products, Kazaa's owners have been taken to court by music publishing bodies to restrict its use in the sharing of [[copyright]]ed material.

While the US action was still pending, the record industry commenced proceedings against Sharman on its home turf. In February 2004, the [[Australian Record Industry Association]] (ARIA) announced its own legal action against Kazaa, alleging massive copyright breaches.<ref>
Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd v Sharman License Holdings Ltd [2005] FCA 1242 [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2005/1242.html AustLII]</ref> The trial began on 29 November 2004. On 6 February 2005, the homes of two Sharman Networks executives and the offices of Sharman Networks in Australia were raided under a court order by ARIA to gather evidence for the trial.

On 5 September 2005, the Federal Court of Australia issued a landmark ruling that Sharman, though not itself guilty of copyright infringement, had "authorized" Kazaa users illegally to swap copyrighted songs. The court ruled six defendants—including Kazaa's owners Sharman Networks, Sharman's Sydney-based boss [[Nikki Hemming]] and associate [[Kevin Bermeister]]—had knowingly allowed Kazaa users illegally to swap copyrighted [[songs]]. The company was ordered to modify the software within two months (a ruling enforceable only in Australia). Sharman and the other five parties faced paying millions of dollars in damages to the record labels that instigated the legal action.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2005/1242.html |title=Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd v Sharman License Holdings Ltd [2005] FCA 1242 |publisher=Federal Court of Australia |date=5 September 2005 |access-date=2010-01-21}}</ref>

On 5 December 2005, the Federal Court of Australia ceased downloads of Kazaa in Australia after Sharman Networks failed to modify their software by the 5 December deadline. Users with an Australian IP address were greeted with the message "Important Notice: The download of the Kazaa Media Desktop by users in Australia is not permitted" when visiting the Kazaa website. Sharman planned to appeal against the Australian decision, but ultimately settled the case as part of its global settlement with the record labels and studios in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ferguson |first=Iain |url=http://news.cnet.com/Sharman+cuts+off+Kazaa+downloads+in+Australia/2100-1027_3-5983455.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714141741/http://news.cnet.com/Sharman%2Bcuts%2Boff%2BKazaa%2Bdownloads%2Bin%2BAustralia/2100-1027_3-5983455.html |archive-date=14 July 2014 |date=5 December 2005 |title=Sharman cuts off Kazaa downloads in Australia |publisher=CNET News |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In yet another set of related cases, in September 2003, the [[Recording Industry Association of America]] (RIAA) filed suit in civil court against several private individuals who had shared large numbers of files with Kazaa;<ref>{{cite news | last=Dean | first=Katie | title=RIAA Legal Landslide Begins | date=8 September 2003 | work=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] | url=https://www.wired.com/2003/09/riaa-legal-landslide-begins/}}</ref> most of these suits were settled with monetary payments averaging $3,000. Sharman Networks responded with a lawsuit against the RIAA, alleging that the terms of use of the network were violated and that unauthorized client software (such as [[Kazaa#Bundled malware|Kazaa Lite]]) was used in the investigation to track down the individual file sharers. An effort to throw out this suit was denied in January 2004. However, that suit was also settled in 2006 (see above).

Separately, in Duluth, Minnesota, the recording industry sued [[Jammie Thomas]]-Rasset, a 30-year-old single mother. On 5 October 2007, Thomas was ordered to pay the six record companies ([[Sony BMG]], Arista Records LLC, [[Interscope Records]], UMG Recordings Inc., [[Capitol Records Inc.]] and [[Warner Bros. Records Inc]].) $9,250 for each of the 24 songs they had focused on in this case. She was accused of sharing a total of 1,702 songs through her Kazaa account. Along with attorney fees, this would have cost Thomas half a million dollars. Thomas testified that she does not have a Kazaa account, but her testimony was complicated by the fact that she had replaced her computer's [[hard drive]] after the alleged downloading took place, and later than she originally said in a pre-trial [[deposition (law)|deposition]].<ref>{{citation  |url=https://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2007-10-05-download-verdict_N.htm |title=Woman to pay downloading award herself|last=Freed|first=Joshua|date=5 October 2007 |work=USA Today |access-date=21 January 2010}}</ref> Thomas-Rasset appealed the verdict and was given a new trial. In June 2009 that jury awarded the recording industry plaintiffs a judgment of $80,000 per song, or $1.92 million.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2009-06-18-music-downloading_N.htm|title=Facing the music: $1.9M file-share verdict stuns Minn. mom|last=Karnowski|first=Steve|date=19 June 2009 |work=USA Today |access-date=25 February 2011}}</ref> This is less than half of the $150,000 amount authorized by statute.<ref>[http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#504 Title 17 USC § 504] Statutory Damages</ref> The federal court found the award "monstrous and shocking" and reduced it to $54,000. The recording industry offered to accept a settlement of $25,000, with the money going to charities that support musicians. Apparently undaunted, Thomas-Rasset was able to obtain a third trial on the issue of damages. In November 2010 she was again ordered to pay for her violation, this time $62,500 per song, for a total of $1.5 million. Her attorneys raised a challenge to the constitutional validity of massive statutory damages, where actual damages would have been $24.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2010/11/04/atty_mn_woman_cant_pay_for_sharing_songs|title=Atty: MN woman can't pay for sharing songs |last=Forliti |first=Amy|date=4 November 2010 |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |access-date=25 February 2011}}</ref> But this challenge was rejected by the supreme court in 2013. The final judgement against Thomas-Rasset was $222,000.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.theverge.com/policy/2013/3/18/4119550/supreme-court-denies-appeal-of-woman-who-owes-riaa-222000| title=Supreme court denies appeal of woman who owes RIAA $222,000 |last=SANDOVAL |first=GREG |date= 2013-03-18 |work=[[The Verge]] from [[Associated Press|AP]] |access-date=2023-03-05 |quote =  Copyright case finally concludes with woman owing music labels a bundle }}</ref>

== Bundled malware ==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Kazaa EULA.png|thumbnail|right|300 px|The Kazaa [[EULA]]]] -->
In 2006 [[StopBadware.org]] identified Kazaa as a spyware application.<ref>{{cite news|last=Naraine |first=Ryan |url=http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Spyware-Trail-Leads-to-Kazaa-Big-Advertisers/ |title=Spyware Trail Leads to Kazaa, Big Advertisers |date=21 March 2006 |work=eWeek.com}}</ref> They identified the following components:
* '''Cydoor''' (spyware): Collects information on the PC's surfing habits and passes it on to  Cydoor Desktop Media.
* '''B3D''' (adware): An add-on which causes advertising popups if the PC accesses a website which triggers the B3D code.
* '''Altnet''' (adware): A distribution network for paid "gold" files.
* '''[[The Best Offers]]''' (adware): Tracks user's browsing habits and internet usage to display advertisements similar to their interests.
* '''InstaFinder''' (hijacker): Redirects URL typing errors to InstaFinder's web page instead of the standard search page.
* '''TopSearch''' (adware): Displays paid songs and media related to a Kazaa search.
* '''RX Toolbar''' (spyware): The toolbar monitors all sites visited with Microsoft Internet Explorer and provides links to competitors' websites.
* '''[[New.net]]''' (hijacker): A browser plugin that allowed users to access several of its own unofficial [[Top-level domain|Top Level Domain names]], e.g., .chat and .shop. The main purpose of this was to sell domain names such as www.record.shop which is actually www.record.shop.new.net ([[ICANN]] did not allow third-party registration of generic top level domains until 2012).

In response, "clean" third-party clients such as Kazaa Lite (which also provided slightly extended functionality) gained popularity with Kazaa users. First released in April 2002, by mid-2005 Kazaa Lite was almost as widely used as the official Kazaa client itself. As it connected to the same FastTrack network, it could exchange files with all Kazaa users.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/2002/04/kazaa-lite-no-spyware-aftertaste/|title=Kazaa Lite: No Spyware Aftertaste|last=Rojas|first=Peter|date=2002-04-18|magazine=Wired|access-date=2019-05-21|issn=1059-1028}}</ref>

== Transitional period ==

Kazaa's legal issues ended after a settlement of $100 million in reparations to the recording industry.<ref name="BBC"/> Without further recourse, and until the lawsuit was settled, the RIAA actively sued thousands of people across the US for sharing copyrighted music over the network.<ref>{{cite web|title=RIAA v. The People: Five Years Later|url=https://www.eff.org/wp/riaa-v-people-five-years-later#7|website=Electronic Frontier Foundation|date=30 September 2008|access-date=1 November 2016}}</ref> Particularly, students were targeted and most were threatened with a penalty of $750 per song.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2018/03/21/xxx-what-happened-to-the-piracy-sites-that-nearly-destroyed-the-music-industry-part-3-kazaa/|title=The Piracy Sites That Nearly Destroyed The Music Industry: What Happened To Kazaa|last=McIntyre|first=Hugh|date=21 May 2018|website=Forbes|language=en|access-date=2019-05-21}}</ref> Although the lawsuits were mainly in the US, other countries also began to follow suit.<ref>{{cite web|title=Piracy and illegal file-sharing: UK and US legal and commercial responses|url=http://us.practicallaw.com/1-502-7956#a768346|website=Practical Law|access-date=1 November 2016|archive-date=4 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104025817/http://us.practicallaw.com/1-502-7956#a768346|url-status=dead}}</ref> Beginning in 2008, however, RIAA announced an end to individual lawsuits.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Anderson|first1=Nate|title=No more lawsuits: ISPs to work with RIAA, cut off P2P users|url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2008/12/no-more-lawsuits-isps-to-work-with-riaa-cut-off-p2p-users/|website=Ars Technica|date=19 December 2008|access-date=1 November 2016}}</ref>

While Napster lasted just three years, Kazaa survived much longer. However, the lawsuits (and a failed venture into a legal, monthly music subscription service similar to Napster)<ref name="BBC"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Sandoval |first1=Greg |title=Kazaa to return as subscription service |url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/kazaa-to-return-as-subscription-service/ |website=CNET |access-date=2022-09-21 |date=2009-07-17}}</ref> eventually ended the company.<ref name=":0" />

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Bearshare}}
* {{annotated link|eMule}}
* {{annotated link|iMesh}}
* {{annotated link|LimeWire}}
* {{annotated link|Napster}}
* {{annotated link|The Pirate Bay}}
* {{annotated link|WinMX}}
* {{annotated link|μTorrent}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}


{{Music digital distribution platforms}}
{{Video digital distribution platforms}}
{{Software digital distribution platforms}}
{{File sharing}}

[[Category:2001 software]]
[[Category:Adware]]
[[Category:Discontinued software]]
[[Category:Estonian inventions]]
[[Category:File sharing software]]
[[Category:Internet services shut down by a legal challenge]]
[[Category:Music retailers of the United States]]
[[Category:Online music database clients]]
[[Category:Online music stores of Australia]]
[[Category:United States Internet case law]]
[[Category:Windows file sharing software]]
[[Category:Peer-to-peer software]]