Kazaa Lite

Kazaa Lite is a peer-to-peer file-sharing computer program. The service is an unauthorized modification of the Kazaa Media Desktop (KMD) application which excludes malware and provides extended functionality. It became available in April 2002 and can be downloaded free of charge. It is almost as widely used as the official Kazaa client itself. It connects to the same FastTrack network as the KMD and thus allows the exchange of files with all Kazaa users. It was created by third party programmers by modifying the binary of the original Kazaa application.

There have been several other forms of universal file sharing other than Kazaa created since Kazaa Lite, including LimeWire, Ares Galaxy and BearShare. These do not, however, connect to the Kazaa sharing network like Kazaa Lite does.

Background

K++

Later versions of Kazaa Lite included K++, a memory patcher that removed search limit restrictions, multisource limits, and set one's "participation level" to the maximum of 1000. Some examples of the extra functionality available are:
*An unlimited number of times the command to "Search more" is possible.
*Better multi-source downloading.
*Highest possible participation level
*No 3rd party .dll files loaded
*Unreachable sources are no longer stored in the .dat files
*Debugging options
*Network name can be changed, e.g. "@K-lite.tk" to any other name a user wants
*Versions of Kazaa Lite that include K++ can be recognized by their name and will include "K+".

Version History

*2.4.1
*2.4.2
*2.4.3 - Credits: random nut, Rocko, Paul

Reaction from Sharman Networks

Sharman Networks considers Kazaa Lite to be a copyright violation. On August 11, 2003, they sent a letter to Google requesting that all links to the Kazaa Lite application be removed from their database. During December 2003 Sharman emailed the owners of all sites hosting a copy of Kazaa Lite, threatening legal action if it was not removed. Because of this, the program was for a while difficult to find on the web, and development of it stopped. As of early 2007, the program is again widely available. It also remains available on the FastTrack network itself, where it can be downloaded with Kazaa or any other FastTrack client. There are rumours that new versions of KMD will prevent Kazaa Lite from connecting to the FastTrack networkwho. In March 2005 Sharman Networks again sent a letter to Google requesting that all links to the Kazaa Lite application be removed from their database.

As owner of the Kazaa Intellectual property and copyright, Sharman eventually sued Kazaa Lite's developers and forced the shutdown of any mirror website containing the file.

Despite this, Kazaa Lite still remains widely available online, but there have been several reports of it failing to connect.

Confusion

The confusion over the status of Kazaa Lite was exploited by some to sell subscriptions to a music download service unrelated to the Kazaa Lite application. Many other websites have also attempted to scam people into paying for something that sounds like Kazaa Lite but is actually some other service which is already free. Others have used the confusion in phishing attempts.

External links

oftware

* [http://www.klitetools.com/MM/other.htm#download Kool Lite Tools] - home of Kazaa Lite Tools K++

Media

* [http://www.klitetools.com/MM/klite.htm/ Old Versions]
* [http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,51916,00.html?tw=wn_story_related "Wired" review]
* [http://www.netzwelt.de/news/32196-neue-fasttrack-faq.html German Kazaa Lite FAQ]