Heads-up on Kazaa Trojan Horse network:
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Stealth P2P network hides inside Kazaa
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 1, 2002, 5:35 PM PT
A California company has quietly attached its software to millions of downloads of the popular Kazaa file-trading program and plans to remotely "turn on" people's PCs, welding them into a new network of its own.
Brilliant Digital Entertainment, a California-based digital advertising technology company, has been distributing its 3D ad technology along with the Kazaa software since late last fall. But in a federal securities filing Monday, the company revealed it also has been installing more ambitious technology that could turn every computer running Kazaa into a node in a new network controlled by Brilliant Digital.
The company plans to wake up the millions of computers that have installed its software in as soon as four weeks. It plans to use the machines--with their owners' permission--to host and distribute other companies' content, such as advertising or music. Alternatively, it might borrow people's unused processing power to help with other companies' complicated computing tasks.
Brilliant Digital CEO Kevin Bermeister says computers or Internet connections won't be used without their owners' permission. But the company will nevertheless have access to millions of computers at once, almost as easily as turning on a light switch.
"Everybody will get turned on in more or less a simultaneous fashion," Bermeister said. "This will be an opt-in program...We're trying to create a secure network based on end-user relationships."
The Brilliant Digital plan is the most ambitious yet from a string of companies that have tried to make money off the millions of people who are downloading and using free file-swapping programs such as Kazaa, MusicCity's Morpheus or LimeWire.
Nearly all of the file-swapping programs now routinely come bundled with so-called adware or spyware--programs that automatically pop up advertisements while people surf the Web or that keep track of where someone surfs, information that can then be sold to marketing companies. Despite growing concerns about this bundled software, usage and downloads of the file-swapping programs are at an all-time high...
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...However, people who accept "terms of service" already distributed with Brilliant's and Kazaa's software are already agreeing to let their computers be used without any payment at all.
"You hereby grant (Brilliant) the right to access and use the unused computing power and storage space on your computer/s and/or Internet access or bandwidth for the aggregation of content and use in distributed computing," the terms of service read. "The user acknowledges and authorizes this use without the right of compensation."
Anybody who declines this provision is not able to install the Kazaa file-swapping software.
A representative for Sharman, which distributes the Kazaa software, could not be reached for comment.
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