Kazaa is dead! Long live Kazaa! Yes, long-lasting thorn in the RIAA's side Kazaa has finally caved, agreeing to pay $115 million to record companies and become born again as a legit pay-to-download service. Springing up out of the ashes of Napster (remember when Napster started it all? Ah, memories…), Kazaa quickly replaced it as the most popular peer-to-peer file sharing program on the Web. However, as time went on, Kazaa became known almost as much for its tendency to load up user's computers with spyware as it was for all the pirated music and videos it provided. Whether or not people who know Kazaa as a shady, untrustworthy means to an end will be easily persuaded to suddenly give it their credit-card numbers remains to be seen. Recently, BitTorrent has moved in to replace peer-to-peer applications such as Kazaa, so how many people are losing their main source of pirated material is unclear. In any case, this represents a sizable win at least in the PR department for the RIAA.
— Adam Frucci