p2pnet - rss feed: Kazaa, MPAA alliance
p2pnet.net News:- Sharman Networks, maker of the seriously discredited p2p file-sharing application Kazaa, appears to have achieved something it’s been seeking for many years – an accord with the entertainment cartels, or elements of them, at the least.
“Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc, et al., v. Grokster, Ltd, et al. today announced a landmark settlement with Sharman Networks Limited roughly one year after the Supreme Court’s decision in Grokster,” trumpets Hollywood’s MPAA in a statement, in effect adding another p2p scalp to a belt already adorned by BitTorrent, the former Bad Boy of peer-to-peer file programs.
The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is owned by the Big Six studios, Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney.
“Sharman will continue operations while employing new technologies to prevent unauthorized distribution of copyrighted works on its system,” says the MPAA.
Not at all incidentally, earlier this month, in a hearing on a motion for summary judgment against Morpheus owner StreamCast Networks in the 2001 Grokster lawsuit, which had pitted it against the entertainment cartels, “In the court’s view, the evidence is overwhelming in favor of the moving parties,” said US district judge Stephen V. Wilson, according to the Associated Press.
The deal will set off loud alarm bells around the Net.
What will now happen to the millions of Kazaa users whose names and other personal details are registered with Kazaa and which can, presumably, also be accessed by companies such as DRM-promoter Altnet and Brilliant Digital Entertainment, both so closely associated with Sharman that they’re almost joined at the hip?
Most victims of Big Four Organized Music’s sue ‘em all victims were using Kazaa and among those applauding the anouncement is IFPI boss John Kennedy who’s quoted by the BBC as saying, “We move forward with a spring in our step. We have won another battle in an ongoing war.”
IFPI is short for International Federation of the Phonographic Industries, another of the many so-called ‘trade’ organizations owned by the Big Four labels, Warner Music, Vivendi Universal, EMI and Sony BMG.
“Kazaa follows other sites like Napster which now offers legal downloads,” says the BBC and, “Kazaa’s owner Sharman Networks will pay the world’s four major music companies - Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music - more than $100 million (53.7 million pounds) and commit to immediately going legit, the music industry trade group International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said,” states Reuters.
‘Legitimize file sharing for films’
In 2004 the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), an organization claiming to represent the p2p sector and originally bank-rolled by Sharman, which boasts it’s a charter member, was calling for the MPAA, “to encourage its members, major motion movie studios, to begin working with the DCIA members, which include P2P software providers to legitimize file sharing for films”.
Sharman Networks, “would like nothing more than to lead the software sector to enter into licensing agreements with labels and studios,” said the DCIA in a comment post to a p2pnet story.
Sharman has been in the wings of the Grokster case and under which the US Supreme Court ruled p2p application companies such as StreamCast and Sharman could be held responsible for what users did with company software.
“DCIA CEO Marty Lafferty tried to cozy up to the MPAA … by encouraging the MPAA to work with FastTrack to distribute their content,” said Slyck in 2004. ‘Mr. [Jack] Valenti [then MPAA chief], end the major studio boycott of peer-to-peer. Urge your members to work with us to counter copyright infringement and commercially develop file sharing to its full potential,’ said Lafferty. Lafferty then went on to say, ‘We do not agree with those who claim that ’swapping movies and music ‘without compensating rights holders ‘doesn’t really hurt anybody’.
“It seems that the DCIA is now parroting the same propaganda the RIAA has been spewing concerning file sharing hurting rights holders. It’s clear that they are against the free exchange of information and want to capitalize on their large, but shrinking user base before its too late.”
Meanwhile, “I applaud the work Sharman has done to develop and deploy new filtering technology, which represents a breakthrough for online distribution opportunities,” says MPAA boss Dan Glickman of the accord.
For “filtering technology” read DRM (Digital Restrictions Management). Glickman doesn’t go into detail, but Sharman associate Altnet has been trying, and failing, to promote its TrueNames DRM, described by Freenet creator Ian Clarke as a lame duck, to the entertainment cartels.
“There’s little doubt the entertainment industry has reined in a P2P network that at one time was the largest file-sharing community with over 4.5 million users,” says Slyck.
“Yet since that time, Kazaa and the FastTrack network has degraded. The lack of meaningful updates to the protocol and the application has allowed other more sophisticated technologies to surpass this network. FastTrack’s population has been cut in half in reaction to the RIAA’s lawsuit campaign and because of the application’s inherent inadequacies. What’s left is a shell of a P2P network, and a remaining population that will likely not react well to filtered content. While the entertainment industry champion’s this ruling, at best this may be a Pyrrhic victory as the P2P world have long left Kazaa and FastTrack behind.”
The Associated Press has Kazaa boss Nikki Hemming, who’s suing p2pnet for alleged libel, saying said the deal, “marks the dawn of a new age of cooperation” which, “ensures that we will be working together with the content providers to the benefit of consumers, businesses and artists”.
In other words, Sharman will now re-design Kazaa and associated applications to specifications dictated by corporate copyright owners, with all that implies.
In the background, the Big Four have apparently been cynically using Kazaa as a product promotion tool for some considerable time.
Definitely stay tuned.
Also See:
former Bad Boy - BitTorrent, Hollywood team up, November 22, 2005
Associated Press - Judge: Evidence favors entertainment firms in file-sharing case, July 17, 2006
BBC - Kazaa site becomes legal service, July 27, 2006
Reuters - Kazaa to pay music industry $100 mln, July 27, 2006
p2pnet story - Bye Bye Kazaa, June 9, 2004
Slyck - The DCIA Tries to Cozy up to the MPAA, June 18, 2004
TrueNames - Altnet tries TrueNames on p2p ops, January 10, 2005
lame duck - Altnet ‘extortion’ attempt, January 12, 2006
Associated Press - Makers of ‘Kazaa’ settle piracy suits, July 27, 2006
suing p2pnet - Sharman drops p2pnet libel case, July 12, 2006
Slyck - Kazaa Settles With Entertainment Industry, July 27, 2006
product promotion - New RIAA promo tool: Kazaa, July 26, 2006
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July 27th, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Between the MPAA and Kazaa, perhaps, but will the legions of downloaders follow?
The downloaders; that ONE thing which the **AA’s have _never_ (?) been able to convince that crap is actually cream. Does anybody remember Napster?
July 27th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Your generation is a write off … You don’t seem to get that you are soooo 1999 … Wonder off to where ever you like and desperately cling to your illegal P2P torch as long as you live. Nobody cares. Be another Jon Newton … continue your fight for the right to rip people off. Wear your baseball cap backwards until you are 70, ’cause you’ll still think you’re cool… Settlements like this and decisions like Grokster have encouraged massive investment in legal uses of digital means of delivery - including P2P. Innovation is thriving … and the people that are innovating, both technologically and creatively, are getting paid. You are so over … but it is unlikely that you will ever grow up - so, you’ll never know. Keep smokin’ that EFF, you’ll need to keep ingesting that immoral hallucinogen to get you through what is likely to be a very pathetic rest of your life.
July 27th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
wow I bet this guys in love with George Bush…
July 27th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
“You are so over”
you are so what
July 28th, 2006 at 2:39 am
Seriously this is just about being ALLOWED to rip artists off - note that in none of the coverage from any of the parties on any website is there any mention of how much of the money is going to go to artists - not an f***ing penny !!!
July 28th, 2006 at 3:36 am
“Your generation is a write off … ”
Umm, what generation would THAT be ??
Seems to me that this site holds the interests of many different
generations, from the hippies of the 60’s ( maybe even older )
all the way to the ” Me First’s “.
“desperately cling to your illegal P2P torch as long as you live.”
P2P is not illegal, just like the VCR is not legal.
Simply repeating the same lies over and over again still doesn’t
make it true. I realize that it is VERY important to you, gachnar,
and your bosses to make people believe that P2P in itself is
illegal, but it’s not. Get over it.
Heck, it even appears that the RIAA may be using it themselves
as a cheap distribution method. Cool eh ?
Sooooo many legitimate legal uses for P2P, it boggles the mind.
Lot’s of REAL artists are using P2P as a way of distributing ( for
free ) their own works ( made outside of the Cartel influence )
so that literally thousands will actually get to HEAR them.
“Nobody cares.”
Lots of us do.
Apparently you care enough to troll this site so faithfully.
If you don’t care, leave.
You’ll stay though, gotsta git paid .. right ?
“Be another Jon Newton ”
I wish, but there can be only one
I wonder how many of us would have the guts to stand up to
a corporate juggernaught, with only a pocket full of lint ?
Hell, Gachnar, your too cowardly to do anything but troll
anonymously. If I find myself in Jon’s shoes, I hope I have the
courage to make the same choice as he did.
“continue your fight for the right to rip people off ”
You obviously ignore the horror stories Mr. Rafael Venegas has
told us about the REAL rip-off artists.
Have you been reading about all of the lawsuits against the
various labels as they have been caught not paying royalties
( ripping off the various “artists” they claim to support ).
How much money from the CD levies have gone to Artists ?
How much Lawsuit money has gone to Artists ?
We will continue in the fight to stop artists from getting ripped off
by the labels.
It’s obviously having an effect.
It bothers you enough to keep trolling
“Settlements like this and decisions like Grokster have encouraged massive investment in legal uses of digital means of delivery - including P2P. Innovation is thriving … and the people that are innovating, both technologically and creatively, are getting paid. You are so over … but it is unlikely that you will ever grow up - so, you’ll never know. Keep smokin’ that EFF, you’ll need to keep ingesting that immoral hallucinogen to get you through what is likely to be a very pathetic rest of your life. ”
Huh ??
LOL Gachnar is starting to BABBLE lolololol.
You are running out of ideas.
You lost.
Move on.
July 28th, 2006 at 4:04 am
the spin doctors are at it again - Kazaa has been asking for a license since it was located in the Netherlands but yet ARIA and the rest seem so keen to call it a victory - how do you win when you just give something they were always asking for….???
July 28th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
The possibility of opening up the logs of users to the cartels is one that should worry users of the p2p app. I don’t know that they will or even if such logs exist and if they do, how long. Logs are notorious for eating up space for storage.
No matter how this works out, you will never find me on Kazaa. Ain’t gonna happen, not today, not yesterday, not next year. I don’t trust a company that willingly loads on spyware or doesn’t provide notice it is there and a removal tool if you don’t want it. Nor do I trust the media cartels that seem more than ready to sue their own customers. Putting them together does nothing to increase that trust; quite the opposite.
There are simply far too many p2p apps out there to chose from. I would suspect that we will see more apps with security being a higher priority being released in the future. Kazaa isn’t a choice as far as a p2p app goes in my opinion.