Stealth Distributed Computing Platform Within Kazaa

from the p2p-within-p2p dept

Here's an odd one (and I'm still not sure which stories I'm reading might be April Fool's ones and which ones aren't, but, what the hell, I'll post this one - at least it sounds like it might be plausible). It seems that along with all the adware and spyware that's been a part of the Kazaa installation, they've also been installing another piece of software as well - that can be used as a totally separate P2P network. That's right, a P2P network, within Kazaa's P2P network. Now, the company that made that software, called Brilliant Digital Entertainment, says that without anyone realizing it, they've got their clients installed on millions of computers - and they can turn their network on in a few weeks. They promise that they won't actually use it unless people approve. It's also unclear what they'll use it for, but they give an example of serving ad banners from machines closer to yours. Great. Just what we need. Faster popup ads facilitated by some spyware that no one meant to install.