Kazaa is commonly used to exchange MP3 music files over the Internet; however it can also be used to exchange other files types such as videos, applications, and documents. The official Kazaa client can be downloaded free of charge and is financed by bundled adware and spyware even though Kazaa’s website claims “no spyware.” Throughout the past few years, Kazaa has been the target of many copyright lawsuits.
Initially, most users of Kazaa were users of Morpheus, formerly a client of MusicCity. But once Kazaa became more widespread, its developers used their ability to shut out Morpheus clients when its developers failed to pay license fees.
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 copyrighted material. Courts in the Netherlands ordered Kazaa's owners to take steps to prevent its users from violating copyrights, or else pay fines. Kazaa’s owners sold the application to a complicated mesh of offshore companies. In March 2002, a Dutch court of appeal reversed an earlier judgment, and stated that Kazaa was not responsible for the actions of its users.
Kazaa was named in the Supreme Court case MGM vs. Grokster; was forced to pay $100 million dollars, and was forced to convert itself to a legit music service. Kazaa also faced legal challenges in its home of Australia.
Kazaa is a controversial peer-to-peer file sharing application, owned by an Australian company and is famous for free music and among other things, the high number of computer viruses, trojans and worms that go along with it’s service.
If you’re interested in getting a download from Kazaa today, it’s not like it used to be! Kazaa still offers downloads though copyrighted music or movies are off limits. You can’t purchase from Kazaa (like others including Napster) Kazaa’s website looks no longer to even be updated as the “total downloads” and “last weeks downloads” no longer changes.
You’re more than welcome to install free Kazaa; particularly if you’ve got friends who you share unrestricted or personal things with. Downloading and installing Kazaa is a snap
Kazaa was another casualty of the industry’s millennial challenges of the internet and all the P2P networks which were spawned as a result of it. But is it really surprising that when you make it easier for people to do so, and you offer them the avenues to do so, that people actually take the dare and begin to use the fabulous technology? I think the record companies and motion picture association should have had to deal with this themselves rather than crying to the courts as they did.