Kazaa Media Desktop ( once stylized as " KaZaA ", but now usually written " Kazaa ") started as a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks.

During the past few years, Sharman Networks and its business partners and associates were the target of copyright-related lawsuits, related to the copyright of content distributed via Kazaa Media Desktop on the FastTrack protocol.

This fact was previously stated by Kazaa when they claimed their FastTrack network was not centralized ( like the old Napster ), but instead a link between millions of computers around the world.

It connected to the same FastTrack network and thus allowed to exchange files with all Kazaa users, and was created by third party programmers by modifying the binary of the original Kazaa application.

FastTrack is a peer-to-peer ( P2P ) protocol that was used by the Kazaa, Grokster, iMesh, and Morpheus file sharing programs.

The FastTrack protocol and Kazaa were created and developed by Estonian programmers of BlueMoon Interactive headed by Jaan Tallinn, the same team that later created Skype.

Third-party modifications of Kazaa became wildly popular, as they connected to the same FastTrack network as Kazaa Media Desktop, but didn't include bundled spyware or adware.

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 network.

The Recording Industry Association of America launched its first lawsuits on 8 September 2003, against individuals who illegally downloaded music files from the Kazaa FastTrack network.

Jaan Tallinn ( born February 14, 1972 ) is an Estonian programmer who participated in the development of Skype and FastTrack / Kazaa.

The Kazaa Media Desktop client could be downloaded free of charge ; however, it was bundled with adware and for a period there were " No spyware " warnings found on Kazaa's website.

Initially, some users of the Kazaa network were users of the Morpheus client program, formerly made available by MusicCity, but once the official Kazaa client became more widespread, Kazaa developers used its automatic update ability to shut out Morpheus clients by changing the protocol in February 2002, when Morpheus developers failed to pay license fees.

Searchers on Kazaa were offered a free 30 second sample of songs for which they were searching and directed to signup for the full featured Streamwaves service.

Users with an Australian IP address were greeted with the message " Important Notice: The download of the Kazaa Media Desktop by users in Australia is not permitted " when visiting the Kazaa website.

In yet another set of related cases, in September 2003, the RIAA ( trade association of the music industry ) filed suit in civil court against several private individuals who had shared large numbers of files with Kazaa ; most of these suits were settled with monetary payments averaging $ 3, 000.

Sharman Networks responded with a lawsuit against the RIAA, alleging that the terms of use of the network were violated and that unauthorized client software ( such as Kazaa Lite, see below ) was used in the investigation to track down the individual file sharers.

After lawsuits were filed by members of the music and motion picture industry in the USA, Kazaa was sold to Sharman Networks.

Morle was asked to redesign the Kazaa website in October 2001 as they were a client of Brilliant Design.

The court found that Kazaa had authorised users to infringe music industry copyright, though proceedings against Morle were dismissed.

The Skype software was developed by Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan Tallinn, who together with Janus and Niklas were also behind the peer-to-peer file sharing software Kazaa.

Thomas testified that she does not have a Kazaa account, but her testimony was complicated by the fact that she had replaced her computer's hard drive after the alleged downloading took place, and later than she originally said in a deposition before the trial.

Kazaa Lite was originally created by random nut, Rocko, and Paul.

Cydoor originally placed ads only in software programs such as Kazaa, but has now expanded into running ads on websites as an advertising network.

Sharman Networks ' Kazaa file sharing program was originally amongst the defendants, but was dropped because the company is based in Vanuatu.

Kazaa was originally a party but action was dropped against it because it was based in Vanuatu and Australia.

It was created by third party programmers by modifying the binary of the original Kazaa application.

Kazaa was subsequently under license as a legal music subscription service by Atrinsic, Inc. As of August 2012, the Kazaa website is no longer active.

Kazaa was introduced by the Dutch company Consumer Empowerment in March 2001, near the end of the first generation of P2P networks typified by the shutdown of Napster in July 2001.

On 5 December 2005, the Federal Court of Australia ceased downloads of Kazaa in Australia after Sharman Networks failed to modify their software by the December 5 deadline.

Though, programmers have successfully removed Cydoor's software from Kazaa ( resulting in Kazaa Lite and Kazaa Resurrection ).

* Jammie Thomas-Rasset-defendant in file-sharing lawsuit brought by the RIAA regarding music downloaded from Kazaa

On August 11, 2003, they sent a letter to Google requesting that all links to the Kazaa Lite application be removed from their database.

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.

The name UUHash derives from the sig2dat utility which creates URIs referencing files on Kazaa.

Programs access the chunks by first querying the Master server for the locations of the desired chunks ; if the chunks are not being operated on ( e. g. no outstanding leases exist ), the Master replies with the locations, and the program then contacts and receives the data from the chunkserver directly ( similar to Kazaa and its supernodes ).

Kazaa was then owned by its originators Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis and the company was facing legal action from the Dutch music industry which was suing the company for copyright infringement.

In March 2002, Sharman licenced Kazaa and the associated Fasttrack software from company founder Niklas Zennström after Kazaa had been sued by every major record label and movie studio in the US.

Nikki Hemming ( born 1967 ) is the CEO and part owner of Sharman Networks and President of LEF Interactive, an agency based in Sydney, Australia, responsible for promoting and developing Kazaa, a peer-to-peer file sharing network, since 2002.

In response Consumer Empowerment sold the Kazaa application to Sharman Networks, headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu.

Kazaa, including the domain name, was then sold off to Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Inc. Kazaa now operates as a monthly music subscription service allowing users to download unlimited songs.