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NSA once spied on your *NSYNC downloads from Kazaa
A nostalgic new cache of Edward Snowden files shows the National Security Agency (NSA) has been snooping online for a lot longer than you may think. While you were listening to Enya on your state-of-the-art iPod, the agency was looking into peer-to-peer encryption sites like Napster, Limewire and Kazaa, according to a report by The Intercept. Its crowning achievement was to crack the encryption used by at least two sites, Kazaa and eDonkey, exposing search queries and shared files.
Skype / Rdio co-founder's Vdio service leaks out, pronunciation confirmed
Where does one go after Rdio? Why, Vdio, of course. GigaOm today got some answers about Skype / Rdio / KaZaA co-founder Janus Friis's upcoming service. First and most foremost, it's pronounced "Vee-dee-o." The service is in closed beta at the moment, and will be first made available in the UK. The service will let users watch TV shows and movies -- beyond that, we don't know much, though the company assures us all that it "think[s] people will love using Vdio." Fair enough. At present, the service's homepage is cycling through shots of films like A Clockwork Orange and Ghostbusters and TV shows like Justified and Breaking Bad. Not too shabby.
Kazaa rolls out music streaming app for iOS devices
Kazaa may not have exactly caught fire since it ditched its shady past and went the legit route back in 2009, but the company is still around, and it's now finally released its first mobile app. That comes on the form of an iOS app initially (compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch), which itself is completely free and includes a seven-day trial of the Kazaa music service (including unlimited streaming and downloads of "millions and millions of songs"). Once that's up, however, you'll have to fork over $9.99 a month to keep the service (US-only, for now), which places it in direction competition with the likes of Spotify and Rdio. Hit the link below to try it out for yourself.
Kazaa reborn as iPhone, iPad music service
Several years back, Kazaa shed its roots as a file-sharing service with questionable content and is now a legitimate music subscription service. To expand its offerings, the subscription service recently introduced both an iPhone and an iPad client. Similar to Rdio and Spotify, Kazaa lets you listen to music on the fly on your iOS device. The app lets you search for artists, create playlists and sync your music for offline listening. Kazaa for iOS is available for free, while the service has a $10 monthly fee.
Kazaa also turning its life around, becoming legal music subscription service
We must have missed the memo that informed us of the impending revival sweeping the illicit music landscape, but there's no denying its potency now. Just weeks after Napster and Pirate Bay decided to right the wrong and morph into legitimate music subscription services (or something of the sort, anyway), the infamous and all-but-forgotten Kazaa has evidently decided to do the same. According to "sources close to the company," the site is expected to officially exit beta and begin a $20 per month unlimited download service as early as next week, though details beyond that are few and far between. On the surface, it seems as if it'll be shooting itself in the foot from day one by charging a Jackson per month, but hopefully that includes a little something extra that we aren't privy to yet. At any rate, it looks like your illegal acquisition options are slowly dwindling down, but hey, it's not like a little consolidation ever hurt anybody, right?
Judge declares mistrial in RIAA filesharing case, sets aside $222,000 verdict
We always thought that the RIAA's first-ever filesharing trial victory against Jammie Thomas was a little suspect since the labels weren't required to prove that Thomas even had Kazaa installed on her machine or was the person using the account in question, and it looks like the court agrees -- it's just declared a mistrial and set aside the $222,000 judgment on the grounds that simply making copyrighted works available for download does not constitute copyright infringement. That's a huge decision -- the "making available" theory is the basis for most of the RIAA's legal arguments -- and it means that the RIAA will now have to prove the unauthorized transfer of each song it wants to collect damages on at the new trial. We'll see what effect this has in the broader sense -- we've got a feeling we're in for a slew of appellate decisions on both sides of the "making available" debate -- but for now it looks like the good guys are finally starting to score some points. [Via ZDNet, thanks JagsLive] Read - Wired article Read - Decision [PDF]