Stanford University Residential Computing

A department of Academic Computing, Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources

Information & News: File-sharing and copyright law: Useful Configuration Information for popular P2P applications

This information is provided as is with no guarantees. Please be advised that violation of copyright laws can result in serious penalties. Never share or distribute material for which you do not own the copyright. These steps keep you from sharing files, but downloading files you don't have the right to own is also illegal, and can also lead to serious consequences.

For a list of services/Web sites where you can legally get digital music, click here.

KaZaA

  1. From the Tools menu select Options
  2. Select the Traffic tab
  3. In the box labeled "You can define the maximum number of simultaneous uploads here: ___" set the number to 1 (If you choose not to share files: check the box for "Disable sharing of files with other KaZaA users")
  4. Select the Advanced tab
  5. Check the box for "Do not function as a SuperNode"
  6. Uncheck the box "Optimal bandwidth use when computer is idle"
To set the files that are shared from your computer:
  1. From the Tools menu select Find Media to Share
  2. Click the Folder List button
  3. Check off all folders that are to be shared.
Note: Programs based on the Kazaa protocol need to disable the "supernode" function. The way that the Kazaa protocol works, any site is enabled to be a supernode (enable on by default). A supernode acts as a distribution point for Kazaa network information and IRC traffic. In addition to limiting uploads to one, the supernode ability should also be disabled.

Morpheus

  1. From the Edit menu select Preferences
  2. On the left, select Transfer
  3. Check the box for "Maximum simultaneous uploads" and set the number to 1
  4. On the left, select Network under the Local heading
  5. Select "Regular node on the internet"
To set the files that are shared from your computer:
  1. From the Edit menu select Preferences
  2. On the left, select Share
  3. Click to Add or Remove shared directories
BearShare
  1. From the Setup menu select Uploads
  2. Fill in the following sentence: "Allow up to ___ uploads at a time, with no more than ___ per person" - set both numbers to 1.
  3. You may also want to uncheck the following options: "Activate the built in personal web server" and "Make shared files available to web-based search engines"
To set the files that are shared from your computer:
  1. From the Setup menu select Sharing
  2. Click to Add or Remove folders under "Share the files in these directories and their subdirectories"
LimeWire
  1. From the Tools menu select Options
  2. On the left, click the arrow next to Uploads to expand the options beneath it
  3. Select Slots
  4. On the right, set the following three values to 0: Uploads per person, Start upload slots and Max upload slots
To set the files that are shared from your computer:
  1. From the Tools menu, select Options
  2. On the left, select Sharing
  3. On the right, click to Add or Remove folders
AudioGalaxy Satellite
  1. Click the Go button to launch the Web interface
  2. Set the pulldown for "limit simultaneous transfers to ___" to 1
  3. Click the Change button
To set the files that are shared from your computer:
  1. In the AudioGalaxy Satellite (not the Web interface) select Edit Shares from the File menu
  2. Click to Add or Remove folders
Gnucleus
  1. From the Edit menu, select Preferences
  2. Under Network, select "Regular node on the internet" and uncheck "Able to become ultrapeer"
  3. Under Transfer, set "Maximum simultaneous uploads" to 1
To set the files that are shared from your computer:
  1. Click "Shared Files" from the toolbar or Connections window
  2. Click the "Configure Sharing" button
  3. Click to Add or Remove shared directories