Battle of the P-to-Ps heats up

by Paul Rincon

March 5, 2002 —

The row between file-swapping services Kazaa BV and Morpheus escalated today after Kazaa made its most blatant attempt yet to poach users from its rival.

Kazaa today launched software designed to help Morpheus users "migrate" to its service. StreamCast Networks Inc., which runs Morpheus, was forced to shut down last week after software provider FastTrack BV upgraded the P-to-P (peer-to-peer) file-sharing program it licensed to Morpheus. Morpheus no longer has a licence for the software.

Kazaa has, rather sneakily, used a period when StreamCast is in a bind over its software licence to pinch users from the service, issuing an 'easy' migration package and adverts. StreamCast hit back by accusing Kazaa's software of having security holes, even though until last week it used the same ware.

The situation isn't helped by the fact that Kazaa and FastTrack were, until very recently, owned by the same person.

In a statement on its website StreamCast blamed FastTrack's software for a recent denial of service attack on Morpheus servers.

"Since it appears that the attack on your computers came from

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