But unlike Napster, which distributed content via a centralized server, Kazaa uses a decentralized system.
Kazaa users contact one another directly online to share content.
The company ran into legal difficulties over copyright infringement.
It ceased operations and was eventually acquired by Roxio.
Kazaa soon became the most popular file-sharing service on the Internet, with millions of users simultaneously sharing content.
But with unlimited file sharing comes the big question: Should users be granted unrestricted -- and free -- access to copyrighted movies, music and games?
However, some services, like Lime Wire, Scour, Grokster, Madster, and e Donkey2000, were brought down or changed due to copyright issues.
It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing digital audio files, typically audio songs, encoded in MP3 format.Just a few years later, a more wide-sweeping file-sharing network, Kazaa (or Ka Za A) emerged.Kazaa enables its users to share not only music, but also movies, television shows and other types of digital information.For the later service that operated as Napster, see Napster (pay service).For the current service operated as Napster, see Napster (streaming music service).