Kazaa, formerly KaZaA, owned by Sharman Networks is a peer to peer file sharing application using the Fast Track protocol. Kazaa was commonly used to exchange MP3 music files over the Internet. However it could be used to exchange other file types, such as videos, applications, and documents. An official Kazaa client can be downloaded free of charge, bundled with adware and spyware, although there are "No Spyware" claims found on Kazaa's website. Over the past few years, Kazaa has been the target of many copyright-related lawsuits.
Kazaa's legal issues have ended after a hefty settlement in reparations to the recording industry. It still offers a download on its official website for Kazaa 3.25. However, copyrighted music or movies can no longer be downloaded or shared. Copyrighted music cannot be purchased from the website. However, peer to peer clients can still share their personal or non-copyrighted files.
The traffic on Kazaa Lite now is very low, with a new interface that has not been popular and is not being widely used. The site no longer seems to be updated, judging by the unchanging number of total and weekly downloads. The contact links on the website also do not work (not even for advertisers) which may indicate Kazaa is no longer technically in business. Nothing has been updated or changed for one year as of July 2007. Following the bad publicity and lawsuits, the numbers of users on Kazaa has dropped dramatically.