p2pnet - rss feed: Kazaa traffic plummets
p2pnet.net News:- Kazaa file sharing traffic has dropped from 90% of the total to just 20% in North America, and from 70% to 20% in Europe, says a study.
Confirming that Kazaa is no longer a major player in the p2p world, the paper, reported in New Scientist here, is from Canada’s Sandvine, based in Waterloo, Ontario.
The situation is somewhat ironic given that Sharman Networks, Kazaa’s owner, and bedfellows Brilliant Digital Entertainment and Altnet, have been going all-out to court the entertainment industry, of which the Big Five record labels are components.
Sandvine technology monitors p2p traffic and usage patterns and according to New Scientist, the study reveals, “File-sharing traffic via Kazaa has dropped from 90 per cent of the total to just 20 per cent. Users in the US have shifted to alternative networks, in particular eDonkey.”
The shift towards eDonkey is particularly interesting given that last year, Sandvine reported that although FastTrack-based applications generated more than 76% of all p2p traffic more or less uniformly across North America, in Europe, it often playing second fiddle to newer software such as eDonkey.
The story quotes Sandvine’s European managing director, Chris Colman, as saying he believes the dramatic fall in Kazaa’s popularity is because the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has so far only sued Kazaa users.
“The RIAA has also sought to undermine Kazaa in particular by uploading thousands of bogus music files, in an attempt to frustrate users,” says the story.
The study also adds to the rapidly increasing number of credible reports that give the lie to music industry claims that its ongoing victimization of p2p file sharers is resulting in meaningful drops in p2p activity.
Rather, file sharing increasing, says Sandvine.
“There’s been no decline in the number of people file-sharing,” Colman says, according to New Scientist, which goes on:
“The company’s research indicates that the proportion of total net traffic used for peer-to-peer sharing has declined only slightly in the US over the last year, from 70 to 65 per cent.
“Furthermore, file-sharing in Europe has not dropped at all - it now accounts for 70 to 80 per cent of net traffic. And internet usage in both the US and Europe is still growing, meaning that file-sharing is growing overall.”
May 27th, 2004 at 10:28 pm
let the spin begin….
I personally quit using Kazaa a looooong time ago, now the rest of the sheeo have finally had someone else tell them about eMule or the like….eventually I’ll be back onto ratio FTPs like I was in 95, I’ll gladly upload on a 1:4 site - travelled a long way to end up at the beginning again.
May 27th, 2004 at 11:09 pm
After the fall of Napster, most users migrated to commercial P2P applications; however, the adware/spyware they contained left a bad taste in the mouths of many.
In the last year or so, the spyware and adware free applications have seen a huge jump in users. Among MP3 networks - Soulseek and Ares have exploded, and among large-file networks - Bittorrent, eMule, and DC++ have seen enormous growth.
May 28th, 2004 at 12:32 am
ha KaZaA king is dying, They deserve it that obsolete protocol can’t last forever, hahahahahaha
long live Shareaza
May 28th, 2004 at 1:36 am
I think the main reason for Kazza’s decline other than spyware (which I think plays a part) it’s the fact that the RIAA is targeting Kazza users and they are looking for an alternitive
May 28th, 2004 at 1:17 pm
What’s being overlooked is the potential blowback this has for the RIAA and friends. They have poured a great deal of money and government favors into pursuing this case. For what? To shut down a sinking ship. What a bunch of schmucks.
It’s a cat and mouse game.
May 29th, 2004 at 12:50 am
kazaa has been plumetting for ages and the music industry has nothing to do withit.
May 30th, 2004 at 5:21 pm
I really wish that the whole scene would fragment further as oppsoed to flocking to one network.
May 31st, 2004 at 5:51 pm
I guess that Sharman’s decision to pull KaZaa off the Downloads.com server was nothing less, than damage control..
Now that the true stats about KaZaa’s rankings in the P2P world are known, they are taking steps to take greater control of the KaZaa propaganda machine. Users have become more sophisticated and seek protections from the spys, loggers and fake filers.
I think this is a reaction from users who are tired of being saturated with spyware and no protections from the spybots and faker filers.. I guess a trip to Estonia and a meeting with the true Fastrak owners is in order to negotiate a lowering of current fees!
I don’t know what others feel about KaZaa’s current state of affairs but speaking for myself.. I say. Good Riddens and I won’t miss you!
July 26th, 2004 at 6:44 am
I think that the shift toward other filesharing networks isn’t solely due to a the RIAA’s bombardment of the Kazaa network. Rather, I think it is partly due to the fact that file-sharers are evolving. Learning how to use alternate sharing networks is part of the obsession p2p users have. For example, I myself began with Napster. I moved to Kazaa shortly after the decline of Napster. Now I find myself using a variety of networks, depending on the files I am looking for. In addition, many legitimate companies are utilizing sharing networks for very large files. Look at Mandrake Linux, one of the biggest Linux distributions available. When you opt to download their CDs (5 700MB CD Image files), they are available (and promoted) using the Bittorrent network. The benefits are incredibly obvious - no longer does a growing business require the use of large servers to spread software or other information! Upload it to a hand-full of mirrors, enable the bittorrent sharing of the file and voila - the more popular the software, the faster it becomes available Large-Scale.
The “other networks” I have mentioned often have a steeper learning curve. To use Kazaa, you simply download and install. To use many of the other networks, you often have to share a unique file before you can use the services, or it is just not as user friendly. However, this brings another point to the fore - most of this software (such as e-Donkey) was in it’s infancy stage while Kazaa was at it’s peak. We are seeing significant leaps in the sheer usability of various other networks including eDonkey, primarily on the development of the software as more people come on-board. Plus, some of the other networks are now seeing financial input from commercial interests and advertising.
Advertising throws another wrench into the p2p sharing demographic. Kazaa users are fed up with the huge burden of spyware and adware which comes along with it, hence the short-term release of kazaa-lite which boasted fewer restrictions and no burden-ware. This seems to indicate that perhaps, as advertising (and thus funding) increases, the ability for the software development to continue increases. But an opposing force of disgruntled users prevents an increase software usage. In a way, the ebb and flow of p2p network usage is somewhat similar to the stock markets - forces from all sides put pressure on specific networks and software developers.
In short, with the number of people on-line increasing, and the speed at which communications research and development is increasing, we are never going to see a significant decrease in overall p2p network filesharing. There is no way to avoid it. A label might put copyprotection on a specific musician’s CD (either within the song or simply on the CD), but this doesn’t prevent a user from playing the CD in a stereo and inputting to a computer’s audio-card. In fact, it is entirely possible to use the same methodology with video particularly since the cost of vivo video cards is ever decreasing.
Anyone who has something to lose from the existing state of p2p networking had better look at viable alternatives. Many ISPs are offering high quality digital audio downloads for a fraction of the cost of actually purchasing a CD which is a wonderful way for musicians to win, but what about CD-jacket printing companies? What about courriers who handle the physical merchandise? There are solutions to all of these, we just haven’t found them yet.
January 13th, 2005 at 4:19 am
Shareaza OWNS