FastTrack: Myths and Facts Regarding December 5th

[SlyckTom]

What will happen on December 5th? Will FastTrack shut down? Is my Kazaa Media Desktop still going to work? With scant information available, its difficult to get a straight answer to what Kazaa's future will be. The following should clear some of the inconsistencies up.

<i>September 5th, November 5th, December 5th, and Feburary 20, 2006. What do all these dates mean?</i>

September 5th, 2005 is the date Judge Murray Wilcox gave his ruling. Judge Wilcox ordered (order number 4) Sharman Networks "restrained, by themselves, their servants or agents, from authorising Kazaa users to do in Australia any of the infringing acts, in relation to any sound recording of which any of the applicants is the copyright owner, without the licence of the relevant copyright owner."

While this seemed like an outright recording industry win, it was really a two sided victory as Judge Wilcox granted a two month stay (November 5th) to this order. This stay was designed to allow Sharman Networks to develop an effective filter which would allow the company to become a legitimate enterprise.

An effective filter, such as Audible Magic, may also require changes to the FastTrack protocol. Judge Wilcox ordered both parties to discuss a protocol and filtration system everyone could agree on.

The two month stay was not etched in stone, and either side could ask for an extension. On October 10th, Sharman Networks was granted an extension of one month and was also granted an appeal to the Full Court, scheduled for February 26, 2006. In theory by December 5th Sharman Networks would release a client in compliance with order number 4.

However a second meeting between Sharman Networks and recording industry personnel did not occur on November 21st as scheduled. This left Sharman unable to comply with the deadline. Judge Wilcox then granted an additional stay until hearings in the Full Court begin. Instead of incorporating an effective filter and modifying the protocol, the only thing Sharman needs to do by December 5th is add 3,000 additional words to its existing key word filter.

<i>Sharman has until December 5th to filter out copyrighted works from the FastTrack network.</i>

This is an overblown statement. On December 5th, Sharman Networks will likely release a new Kazaa client that will update their already existing key word filter. Their existing key word filter currently blocks adult related theme words, which many know can be turned on or off.

<i>If Sharman Networks doesn't filter copyrighted works by December 5th, they must cease "their operation."</i>

Even if Sharman Networks some how does not filter copyrighted works by December 5th, the FastTrack network will continue to exist. Locking the doors to Sharman's corporate offices will have no effect on FastTrack, its population or the transmission of copyrighted files.

<i>Sharman Networks will be installing a filter on their Kazaa client.</i>

No filter will be incorporated into the Kazaa client. Kazaa already has a key word filter, which will simply be expanded.

<i>The new Kazaa "filter" will be effective in blocking copyrighted work.</i>

Remember when Napster tried blocking copyrighted material on their network? Napster was embarrassingly unsuccessful, even on a centralized network. This attempt by Sharman, which can be easily circumvented by the end user, only contains 3,000 words. Compared to the millions of copyrighted works available, Sharman's filter will be virtually unnoticeable and invisible to the end user.

<i>Sharman Networks prefers to use the 3,000 word filter over Audible Magic.</i>

The bottom line is this: the 3,000 word filter will do nothing to prevent copyright infringement while Audible Magic is largely effective in blocking unlicensed work. Sharman Networks is actually pushing for the Audible Magic solution because it wants to portray itself as a legitimate business. Audible Magic will go a long way in establishing this.

However, because the ARIA technical crew did not participate in the second court ordered meeting, no immediate solution was found. Sharman Networks contends the ARIA lawyers intentionally sabotaged the second meeting when it was learned the technical crews were leaning towards an Audible Magic solution. A successful second meeting could have led to a more immediate Audible Magic solution and Sharman could have been on its way to legitimacy.

Judge Murray Wilcox was infuriated at the music industry's transparent attempt, and extended his September 5th stay until late February. This extension is designed to allow Sharman Networks to develop an effective filtration system and establish itself as a legitimate business.

[egofree]

Even if Sharman Networks some how does not filter copyrighted works by December 5th, the FastTrack network will continue to exist. Locking the doors to Sharman's corporate offices will have no effect on FastTrack, its population or the transmission of copyrighted files.

I really wonder. When we connect to the fasttrack network, don't we need to connect to some Sharman Networks servers in order to know the other peers?
Also i remember that once the morpheus client was thrown out very easily. So it doesn't seems to be a very decentralized network.

[jaleal]

Fastrack is a decentralized network meaning it doesn't require you to connect to any one or 2 servers to connect to it.
Morpheus and Kazaa are just 2 of many clients that connect to that network

[SlyckTom]

Well....we'll never really find out since FastTrack will comply.

My understanding was the Kazaa client only contacted a centralized gateway machine if the list of IP supernodes was completely exhausted. As long as everyone doesn't disconnect at the same time, I dont see this happening.

[altpdend]

I remeber back in 2002 when kazaaBV was ordered to filter content in the netherlands first they said they could not comply. Then they said a later we have saytem ready to start filtering content kazaa 1.4 was realsed a few days later it was sold to sharman networks a few days later kazaa 1.5 was realeased and 1.4 disapeared. I would not be surprised if sharman says the record compaines did not want work woth us so we just sold the company.

[Fez]

Nice work as always ST...
It is interesting to watch how this all plays out...the continuing stupidity of corporate lawyers never gets stale.

[volt]

A suggestion to Kazza:
If the judge only ordered them to make sure copyright material would not be violated in Australia then they should make the content filter only with respect to Australians.
The content filter should be activated only when Kazza realizes that the IP of the user is from Australia. If the IP is from another country - no content filter at all.

That would deal a big blow to the ARIA

Itai Leshem
ileshem@gmail.com

[sonnentier]

My understanding was the Kazaa client only contacted a centralized gateway machine if the list of IP supernodes was completely exhausted. As long as everyone doesn't disconnect at the same time, I dont see this happening.

I think there are always some people with a static IP (or similar) which will let FastTrack run. So you can connect. These needn't be the ones from Sharman.

Also, KaZaA has decentralized everything. So it should survive without a living company. It's facing a probe when no company has servers for it, and should succeed if it's really decentralized.

Does somebody know if KaZaA uses gateways/centralized caches? Or are there only Supernodes kept online.

[AussieMatt]

Kazza has limited control over the network and has a few special builds of the client that can control the network if needed.They use these to control the Altnet content and monitor network activity .In the Kazaa court case it came out that Sharman called this client "Judas:

"The program was named Judas by Sharman programmers because it tracked user activity on Kazaa and generated statistics, which would logically be passed on to marketers and advertisers"

http://www.apcmag.com/apc/v3.nsf/0/A1E6 ... D500142298

They also have a few servers thet are located in the Netherlands I belive to supply a list of bootstrap IP's if the supernodes cannot provide them .

Ashton a Slyck member used to work for them and has verifed that Kazaa is not entirely centralised .

[drakend]

This is indeed a real good news... Kazaa has always been famous to be full of spyware shit and the files in it are often infected with virus and/or fakes!
Not to mention the behaviour of Sharman Networks with the alternative clients... they threatened them with the DMCA to impose their closure... I only hope they can become history as fast as possible.
There are plenty of other networks such as Kademlia and Ares... All the Kazaa people will go on one of these two networks so it's all good.

[IceCube]

I'm kind of interested in the interest to kill Kazaa as fast as possible. Certaintly, the RIAA has made some financial death threats to a couple of WinMX users, but the numbers are probably not even close to two digits. Just the same, the same sort of thing has been happening on the G1 network. I'm willing to bet that 90% of the RIAA lawsuits have been happening on Kazaa, serving a nice effective attention barrier so that people on these better networks including WinMX and the G1 networks (please don't think I'm insulting these two networks, I beg of it) can enjoy a reletively easy going atmosphere in terms of filesharing.

I'd hate to play devils advocate, but the numbers (though I don't have specifics on me right now) clearly indicate that the RIAA is mostly destracted on the Fast Track network. Clearly, though I can't help but pity the poor saps who only know Kazaa, Fast Track still serves a useful purpose to filesharers on any network including the highly praised Usenet system.

Will the RIAA finally effectively kill the Fast Track network and say, "Well, that's a job well done! Lets call this issue to rest." I highly doubt it and they'll move onto other networks seeking more money from people who cannot even afford a lawyer half the time and pressure them into getting effectively pick-pocketted.

Perhapse it is also a good idea to not focus on what is on the inside and what is going on outside surrounding the network. Will I ask anyone who is on Fast Track to seriously consider other clients? You bet I would! I don't want to see people having to wade through fakes and dummy files, risking a lawsuit every day on it. I don't think hardly anyone here would. However, there are users who will ignore the warning signs or simply refuse to look up information. For that, I can say, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink."

[ashton]

Fastrack is a decentralized network meaning it doesn't require you to connect to any one or 2 servers to connect to it.
Morpheus and Kazaa are just 2 of many clients that connect to that network

That is not entirely correct. There are several "index" servers(kaasupernode(s)) that the network relies on when local host cache and UDP discovery fail. These servers help gather statistics, help the network maintain it's geographical organization as well as seed supernode IP addresses to clients in need. These servers have been well documented in the past and nothing changes that today.

[ashton]

Ashton a Slyck member used to work for them and has verifed that Kazaa is not entirely centralised .

Correct, refer to my above statement. It is my belief that "Judas" is directly connected to the "index" servers(kaasupernode(s)) and that the "Judas" system controls them explicitly.

[webe3]

Ashton a Slyck member used to work for them and has verifed that Kazaa is not entirely centralised .

Correct, refer to my above statement. It is my belief that "Judas" is directly connected to the "index" servers and that the "Judas" system controls them explicitly.

Well can this "judas" system be bypassed if they try to take the network offline?

[ashton]

Ashton a Slyck member used to work for them and has verifed that Kazaa is not entirely centralised .

Correct, refer to my above statement. It is my belief that "Judas" is directly connected to the "index" servers and that the "Judas" system controls them explicitly.

Well can this "judas" system be bypassed if they try to take the network offline?

Not sure I understand you. In order to take the network offline then they must take down all of their dedicated "index" servers(kaasupernode(s)). Also, "Judas" depends on the "index" servers, not the other way around.

[Michael Jackson]

In order to take the network offline then they must take down all of their dedicated "index" servers.

What do you think are the chances of this happening?

[ashton]

In order to take the network offline then they must take down all of their dedicated "index" servers.

What do you think are the chances of this happening?

Right now I would say slim to none.