Swappers log off Kazaa as alternatives emerge
Published: 01 Jul 2004 11:15 BST
"We see eDonkey as being the file traders' network of choice now for large files," said Mark Ishikawa, chief executive officer of BayTSP, a company that monitors copyright infringement on file-trading networks.
Slow change
The file-swapping universe has already seen two generational changes in its short history. The first came when Napster was forced by courts in mid-2001 to begin filtering out trades of copyrighted songs, leading it to shut down.
The second was in early 2002, when Sharman disconnected competitor Streamcast Networks from the FastTrack network. The incident, attributed to a licensing dispute, affected millions of file swappers then using Streamcast's Morpheus client, pushing many to Kazaa.
Change this time around has been more gradual.
Lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America have helped spread concern about liability among casual file swappers, many of whom previously were unaware of legal risks to trading files. Most of the RIAA's early subpoenas and lawsuits targeted Kazaa users, although it no longer breaks out this information in its filings.
In recent months, the practice of seeding networks with fake files that appear to be popular songs or movies has spiked, as copyright holders have tried to divert file swappers. Overpeer, one of the leading companies that provides this service to copyright holders, said it sends more than 25 billion files, or pieces of files, to file swappers every month.
"Kazaa has been the centre of a lot of this activity, because it is a leading network," said Marc Morgenstern, Overpeer's chief executive officer.
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