Conspiracy Theory: you better listen to this one

[butterfly_kisses]

From the Zeropaid message boards

something many of you may already 'know' and be aware of:

a)letters are now being distributed by certain agencies regarding the abuse of intellectual property rights of artists in regards to movie files, mp3's etcetera being shared over the KaZaA network

Buildup
Are any of you aware that Brilliant Digital maintains af 51 percent interest in KaZaA stock? Are you aware that BEFORE brilliant became involved in this P2P partnership with KaZaA they were working with both AOL/TImewarner and several other entertainment industry giants an did develop away to track copyright infringements?

Are you aware that AOL/TimeWarner tried their own hand at distributing digital content "legally" on the web through 'PressPlay" and I want to say "MusicMatch"(may have the wrong name here)

Now let's get to the Deal that KaZaA and and an almost Monopolistic Nationwide IsP (Verizon has struck)

It would seem that our friendly little neighborhood p2p program 'kazaa' is now sleeping with the enemy

NOw for the Kicker

HOw many of you have noticed the NEW REcommendations Feature in "My KaZaA"

lol

Anyone know what this is/does or how to 'use' it?

NOpe..i didn't think so ....so I will tell you.

The REcommendations feature in KaZaA is a type of 'statistic gathering' where records are kept of file requests made by you through the "KaZaA network'

Say you download a Roy Orbison tune...well shortly thereafter you might get some recommendations for other songs you might enjoy listening too such as maybe 'elvis'

Now KaZaA has always maintained that they 'have no knowledge' of what is being 'shared' or distributed over 'their network'

If THEY have no knowledge of what is being Distributed over THEIR network then just how does this MY RECOMMENDATIONS feature work.. It in its self would suggest some 'trackking is being done' otherwise how would they rate your preferences

NOw we all know that soon a PAID for version of KaZaA MEdia Desktop will be out that will allow for downloading of copyrighted matericals similiar to the way Pressplay and MusicMatch were trying to go.

The Question:

Who stands to benefit the most from provided/proking fear into the hearts of filesharer's everywhere based upon the current 'illegality' (a perception problem...i know) than a network who want's to LEGiTAMiZE it's business and PROTECT its interest (attempting to go the POST-Napter sell-out route and PRessPlay, Inc) than Kazaa Media Desktop it's self?

lol it almost looks like they are setting themselves up to be a Saviour in the world of P2P when the currently FREE client gets its new protocol/encrypiton keys changed that will soon render all older (read nonpay versions of KaZaa useless)

However here comes KaZaa with the answer! Hey a legal P2P network with the Riaa(disguised as being wrongly called 'the support of the aritists in the Entertainment Industry)


as the saying goes:

"being forewarned is being forearmed. or something of that nature

consider this a warning and be aware...be very aware.

your forum friend and file sharing aficionodo,

-butterfly_kisses

[AYB]

o my

[napho]

I've always felt there's something strange about all these "companies". This theory is as good as any and besides, you look sooooooo good in that purple dress.

[JackSpratts]

could be harb. another mystery of ft. i've always felt that distributed peer-to-peers like ft would have their pants beat off by server based ones like napster. so if anyone comes out with a killer paid p2p app it'd be them. the fact that they haven't says to me the business relationships are a lot more complicated than we can imagine.

i figure the record companies are putting together a consortium that does it all, (and keep$ it all inhouse) including internet retailing (why share with the stores?) file sharing and streaming etc. they want to own it all and they won't stop unless they're forced to stop. right now there's only one guy in congress who even cares about too much record label power and that's rick boucher (help the guy out! ). to me the real the question is - is he enough?

- js.

[theknife]

Originally posted by JackSpratts
right now there's only one guy in congress who even cares about too much record label power and that's rick boucher (help the guy out! ). to me the real the question is - is he enough?

- js.

I gave him my kudos and would urge all to do the same...don't underestimate the power of a groundswell of pubic support.

[pod]

To say your theory is far-fetched (what conspiracy isn't? would be an understatement.

If anyone gains anything by driving away users from Kazaa, rest assured, it isn't Kazaa. Not now, and definitely not for the future. What good is a paid 'media desktop' when you don't have any users? What good is an 'advertising partner' when there are no people on the network to watch the ads? Paid features will be slipped in quietly into the existing product. Sure, I bet a sleek all-paid version is in the works, would be pretty short-sighted otherwise.

MPAA do what RIAA did before them; send spiders on the network to search for copyrighted material, track down the IP address and the ISP that owns it, and send a form letter. They hardly need Kazaa's cooperation for this.

As to knowing what's on their own network... well, they can find out the same way anyone else can, by quering every node for its file list. When you ask for recommendations, the engine looks at your list of files, or your list of recent downloads. It only makes sense, how else do you expect this to work? By magic? Whenever you have a third party 'recommend' something to you, you have to give up some information. No conspiracy there. Otherwise you'll get a list of random selections. (OTOH, that would probably work better Whether the engine runs locally (downloads the logic to your machine) or by sending a list somewhere for processing is the only sticking point.

BTW, your ISP knows what you're downloading as well, because all Gnutella traffic is unencrypted. Just hide under a rock, it's probably as good a solution as any.

[jaan]

Originally posted by butterfly_kisses
Are any of you aware that Brilliant Digital maintains af 51 percent interest in KaZaA stock?

not true. i guess you are referring to altnet, which BDE owns 51% indeed. ownership-wise altnet has nothing to do with kazaa/sharman -- it's just a company that has partnered with kazaa/sharman to provide paid keyword search results on kazaa.

Anyone know what this is/does or how to 'use' it?

yes. basically, what this feature does is that whenever you connect to a supernode, it asks the supernode for files from users whose media collections are similar to yours. nothing centralized nor mysterious there.

- jaan

[butterfly_kisses]

Originally posted by jaan
not true. i guess you are referring to altnet, which BDE owns 51% indeed. ownership-wise altnet has nothing to do with kazaa/sharman -- it's just a company that has partnered with kazaa/sharman to provide paid keyword search results on kazaa.

yes. basically, what this feature does is that whenever you connect to a supernode, it asks the supernode for files from users whose media collections are similar to yours. nothing centralized nor mysterious there.

- jaan

darn, jaan you just ruined a "perfectly good conspiracy theory" but then that's what having all the facts...and the truth does for them...ain't it.

lol,

thanks for the clarification.

-butterfly

[Spikologia]

Originally posted by jaan
not true. i guess you are referring to altnet, which BDE owns 51% indeed. ownership-wise altnet has nothing to do with kazaa/sharman -- it's just a company that has partnered with kazaa/sharman to provide paid keyword search results on kazaa.

yes. basically, what this feature does is that whenever you connect to a supernode, it asks the supernode for files from users whose media collections are similar to yours. nothing centralized nor mysterious there.

- jaan

Yep, jaan is right - I did many tests in the past to try and find out if KaZaA is doing anything which might break one's privacy, but found nothing except for the already known Cydoor and BDE issues.
The recommendations engine has nothing to do with what you download - it's what you SHARE. So it also works with files that you downloaded from somewhere else and files that were on your computer before you installed KaZaA. So even if this information of your SHARED files was sent to KaZaA's server (and it probably isn't - the supernode you're connected to can find recommendations on its own) no one could use it sue you or anything like that, because probably you would never be blamed for SHARING your files (as long as you're not being payed for that), just for DOWNLOADING somebody else's files.

But regarding Brilliant Digital... Well, they sure do have very deep relationship with Sharman Networks, as previously revealed at sources like CNET's News.com. For the very least, Brilliant was involved in the talks of Sharman and KaZaA BV (previous owners of KaZaA) when the KaZaA software was sold to Sharman. Brilliant and Sharman are also the owners of Altnet (Brilliant owns 51% and Sharman holds the remaining 49).
Indeed, Brilliant was in contact with Large record companies and developed anti-piracy products (this information is probably still at Brilliant's website, unless they removed it since my last visit).

And, well, Sharman does have its reasons to get rid of its users. KaZaA Lite is taking over, and there's no revenue from those clients, and who knows if their revenue now is enough. Also the RIAA might already be pushing them. So basically I think it's very logical for Sharman to try and move its users to a paid version, and we already know that they can sometimes do ugly things to get to their goals...

[Spikologia]

Originally posted by Spikologia


Brilliant and Sharman are also the owners of Altnet (Brilliant owns 51% and Sharman holds the remaining 49).

Whoops... I was wrong - Brilliant really holds 51% of Altnet... but the remaining 49% are Blastoise's, not Sharman's. Blastoise is the company founded by the same two guys who fuonded KaZaA BV, and it's the company which lisences the FastTrack now (it lisenced it to Brilliant for Altnet).