Michael Schumacher

Michael is fiercely protective of his private life and takes every effort to keep his family out of the spotlight. Currently, other clean variants use an older core (2.02) and thus, K-Lite has some features that others will never have. 1999), and they currently reside in Vufflens-le-Château, Switzerland near Lake Geneva. K-Lite is also built off the new 2.7 core and is the only client in development. 1997) and son Mick (b. They also hope that since these clients use newer versions of the actual Kazaa program, they won't be affected by attempts to block Kazaa Lite from the network. Schumacher married Corinna (née Betsch) in August 1995; they have two children together, daughter Gina-Maria (b. The authors believe that these versions might therefore be legal.

In more recent years, however, his success with Ferrari, moderation of his on-track tactics, and a more relaxed public persona have rehabilitated Schumacher's image for most fans. These programs don't include any code by Sharman: they require the user to supply the original, unpatched Kazaa Media Desktop, and they execute it in an environment which removes the malware and adds some features. Schumacher's car was also disqualified at some races due to technical infringements of race rules. Other programmers produced K-Lite v2.6/2.7¹, and Diet K. The two most-cited examples are the 1994 Australian Grand Prix (where a crash with Damon Hill in the last race of the year ensured Schumacher's first drivers championship), and the 1997 European Grand Prix (where a collision with eventual champion Jacques Villeneuve led to Schumacher's disqualification for dangerous driving). These are slightly modified versions of Kazaa Lite. Some (but by no means all) observers considered his crashes to be deliberate attempts on Michael's behalf to take rivals out of a race, which (if true) would be not only bad sportsmanship but also incredibly dangerous, given the fragile, super-fast open-wheel race cars. After development of Kazaa Lite stopped, Kazaa Lite Tools K++ and Kazaa Lite Resurrection appeared.

However, Schumacher's driving tactics have been called into question by some observers who note that, in his early racing years, Schumacher had a tendency to crash into his rivals in championship-deciding races. There are rumours that new versions of Sharman's Kazaa will prevent Kazaa Lite from connecting to the FastTrack network, but as of mid-2005, this hasn't happened. Since the 1994 death of Ayrton Senna, Schumacher has been widely regarded as the fastest driver in F1 and the most dominant driver of his era. It also remains available on the FastTrack network itself, where it can be downloaded with Kazaa or any other FastTrack client. He would finish the season with a record 148 points. As of mid-2005, the program is again widely available. Schumacher started off the 2004 championship with typical domination, winning a record twelve of the first thirteen races of the season; he clinched the seventh drivers title of his unequalled F1 career where it all began for him: at the Belgian Grand Prix. Because of this, the program was for a while difficult to find on the web, and development of it stopped.

In 2003, he broke Fangio's record by winning the drivers title for the sixth time in a closely-contested season (afterward making front-page headlines in the tabloid The Sun by trashing a hotel suite and madly piloting a forklift around the paddock). During December 2003 Sharman emailed the owners of all sites hosting a copy of Kazaa Lite, threatening legal action if it was not removed. In a dominant 2002, he easily took his fifth drivers title (equalling the record set by Juan Manuel Fangio) due to his driving talent and the sheer dominance of his Ferrari machinery, which won 15 of the 17 races that season. On August 11, 2003, they sent a letter to Google requesting that all links to the Kazaa Lite application be removed from their database. During the next year (2001), while en route to his fourth drivers title, he broke Alain Prost's record for most grand prix wins. Sharman Networks considers Kazaa Lite to be a copyright violation. But Michael would re-claim personal glory once again in 2000, winning his third drivers title (and Ferrari's first since Jody Scheckter in 1979). Later versions of Kazaa Lite included K++, a memory patcher that removes search limit restrictions, multisource limits, and sets one's "participation level" to the maximum of 1000.

After several rebuilding years, Schumacher helped Ferrari win the constructors title in 1999; however, his hope for another driver championship were dashed at that year's British Grand Prix, where he crashed heavily and broke his leg, causing him to miss six races. It was created by third party programmers by modifying the binary of the original Kazaa application. In 1996, Michael signed a contract with Ferrari, which at the time was a highly risky move, given Ferrari's championship drought (the Italian-based giants had not won a title in well over a decade). It connects to the same FastTrack network and thus allows to exchange files with all Kazaa users. During this span of 31 grands prix, only once did he qualify worse than fourth position. It can be downloaded free of charge, and as of mid-2005 is almost as widely used as the official Kazaa client itself. In his two first championship seasons, Schumacher won 17 races, achieved 21 podiums, and notched ten pole positions. It became available in April 2002.

With teammate Johnny Herbert, he also helped Benetton win its first (and only) constructors' championship. Kazaa Lite is an unauthorized modification of the Kazaa Media Desktop application which excludes adware and spyware and provides slightly extended functionality. Leading by a single point going into the final race in Australia, Schumacher clinched the title after a collision with Hill knocked both drivers out of the running. Schumacher successfully defended his crown in the 1995 season, accumulating 30 more points than the second place driver, who was once again Hill. For other FastTrack-compatible clients, see FastTrack. However, in the latter portion of the year, competitor Damon Hill began to edge closer to Schumacher in the standings, aided by two technical disqualifications of Schumacher's Benetton (in Britain and Belgium). This section is limited to those programs which are based on the official Kazaa client. He won the first four races of the year, and six of the first seven events. As a result of these additional components, CNet's Download.com site stopped the distribution of KaZaA in April 2004.

Schumacher won his first championship in 1994 while driving for Benetton in an extremely exciting and closely-contested season. Malware installed by Kazaa includes:. The following year, 1992, he won his first F1 race (again at the Belgian Grand Prix, on August 30), and he placed third that year in the driver championship. Also, spyware detection and removal software has frequently failed to delete the code without special actions taken by the PC user. He was quickly signed by Benetton-Ford for the next race, and immediately showed great potential. Since the allegations have surfaced, however, the code has been bundled into the main Kazaa software, and it is not possible to uninstall it. Eddie Jordan signed Michael to his Jordan team at the Belgian Grand Prix, where Michael astonished everyone by qualifying seventh, in his first competition in an F1 vehicle. At one time, the part of the Kazaa code which was considered adware was an optional, though technically difficult not to install, part of the Kazaa installation.

Schumacher made his F1 debut in 1991 as a replacement driver for the imprisoned Bertrand Gachot (incarcerated for spraying CS gas at a London taxicab-driver's face). Sharman, Kazaa's home company, claims that the products are adware and do not collect personal user information. He also briefly competed in the Japanese Formula 3000 Championship and the German Touring Car Championship in the early 1990s. Kazaa has, from early on, been accused of installing spyware or adware onto users' computers. In 1991, he continued his ascent up the racing ladder, joining the Mercedes junior racing program in the World Endurance Championship, , winning races in Mexico City and at Autopolis, at the wheel of a Sauber-Mercedes C291. There are over 1.5 billion files on the network totalling 26 petabytes, with about 1,000 downloads every minute. In 1988, Schumacher raced in the Formula Ford series, and over the next two years competed in the German Formula 3 series, winning the title in 1990. The number of users connected to the Kazaa network at any given time fluctuates between 1 million and 5 million users, with the average usually being around 3 million.

Between 1984 and 1987, Michael won numerous German and European kart championships, including the Formula Konig Series. This is subverted by most of the unofficial clients and leaves legitimate third-party clients suffering. He obtained his first license, and began racing competitively, by age twelve. Kazaa uses a "participation level" system intended to reward participants who share much material with fast downloads. He began racing karts at the age of four in a home-made kart built by his father, Rolf, who managed the local karting track (located in Kerpen, Schumacher's hometown). Many consider Kazaa to be superior to other file sharing programs because of its wide file selection and fast transfer speeds. While it is the P2P network with the largest installed userbase, it is worth noting that the Kazaa client installs spyware onto the user's machine, with potential security and privacy implications. Schumacher was born in Hürth (close to Cologne). It can be run on Linux, Mac OS X and other operating systems with emulation software like WINE and Virtual PC.

One notable deal is with the German investment counselling Deutsche Vermögensberatung, which will pay him US$8 million over three years for him to wear a four-inch ad on his post-race hat. Currently, Kazaa has been released only for the Windows operating system. He is statistically the most successful F1 driver ever, with the most career victories, and a record seven world driver championships. As of 2004, he earns an estimated US$80 million annually, including all his endorsement deals. The trial began on November 29, 2004, and closing statements are expected in March 2005. Michael Schumacher (born January 3, 1969) is a German Formula One (F1) driver. In February 2004, the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) announced its own legal action against Kazaa, alleging massive copyright breaches. 2005 — Ferrari — 0 wins, 24 points (in progress). An effort to throw out this suit was denied in January 2004.

2004 — Ferrari — 13 wins, 148 points, World Champion. Sharman Networks responded with a lawsuit against the RIAA, alleging that the terms of use of the network were violated and that unauthorized client software (such as Kazaa Lite, see below) was used in the investigation to track down the individual file sharers. 2003 — Ferrari — 6 wins, 93 points, World Champion. In September 2003, the RIAA filed suit in civil court against several private individuals who had shared large numbers of files with Kazaa; most of these suits were settled with monetary payments averaging $3,000. 2002 — Ferrari — 11 wins, 144 points, World Champion. That decision is currently under appeal to the US Supreme Court and a decision is expected in 2005. 2001 — Ferrari — 9 wins, 123 points, World Champion. That lawsuit is still pending, although a recent judgement by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a related lawsuit against a similar FastTrack client Grokster appears to take away the basis for the US Kazaa suit.

2000 — Ferrari — 9 wins, 108 points, World Champion. However, in 2002, Sharman was sued in Los Angeles by the RIAA and the MPAA. 1999 — Ferrari — 2 wins, 44 points, finished 5th. A court of appeal in late March 2002 reversed the earlier judgment, stating that Kazaa was not responsible for the actions of its users. 1998 — Ferrari — 6 wins, 86 points, finished 2nd. Consumer Empowerment responded by selling the Kazaa application to a complicated mesh of offshore companies, primarily Sharman Networks, headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu. 1997 — Ferrari — 5 wins, 78 points, disqualified (having finished 2nd). In November 2001, the court ordered Kazaa's owners to take steps to prevent its users from violating copyrights or else pay a heavy fine.

1996 — Ferrari — 3 wins, 59 points, finished 3rd. Consumer Empowerment was taken to court in the Netherlands in 2001 by the Dutch music publishing body, Buma/Stemra. 1995 — Benetton-Renault — 9 wins, 102 points, World Champion. Like the creators of many similar products, Kazaa's creators have been taken to court by music publishing bodies to restrict its use in the sharing of copyrighted material. 1994 — Benetton-Ford — 8 wins, 92 points, World Champion. (Morpheus subsequently became a client of Gnutella.). 1993 — Benetton-Ford — 1 win, 42 points, finished 4th. However, once the official Kazaa client became more widespread, its developers used their ability to automatically update it, changing the protocol in February 2002 to shut out Morpheus clients when its developers failed to pay license fees.

1992 — Benetton-Ford — 1 win, 53 points, finished 3rd. Its initial userbase was made up of users of the Morpheus program, formerly a client of MusicCity. 1991 — Jordan-Ford; Benetton-Ford — 0 wins, 4 points, finished 13th. It appeared during the end of the first generation of P2P networks – Napster shut down in July of that year. Most time between first and last wins (12 years, 1 month, 10 days). Kazaa and the FastTrack protocol are the brainchild of the Scandinavians Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis and were introduced in March 2001 by their Dutch company Consumer Empowerment. Most points in a season: 148. The official client can be downloaded free of charge and is financed by attached adware and spyware.

Most championship points: 1,186. It is also increasingly being used to exchange movie files. Most second places: 36. It is commonly used to exchange MP3 music files. Most poles with the same team: 53 (Ferrari). Kazaa Media Desktop (once capitalized as "KaZaA", but now usually left as "Kazaa") is a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol. Most podiums with the same team: 99 (Ferrari). Altnet - A distribution network for paid "gold" files.

Most podiums in a season: 17. B3D - An add-on which causes advertising popups if the PC accesses a website which triggers the B3D code. Most podiums: 137. Cydoor - Collects information on the PC's surfing habits and passes it on to the company which created Cydoor. Most wins from pole position: 37. Most wins with the same team: 64 (Ferrari).

Most wins in a season: 13. Most Triples: 19. Most wins: 83. Most laps led: 4625.

Most races led: 124. Most fastest laps: 66. Most consecutive titles: 5. Most championship titles: 7.