Morpheus
is the name of a file sharing client for Microsoft Windows,
operated by the company StreamCast (formerly called
MusicCity), that originally used the OpenNAP peer-to-peer
(P2P) platform.
Located
at Morpheus.com (http://www.morpheus.com/), it has a
Web-based search interface, just like Audiogalaxy had,
though Morpheus searches all kinds of media, not just
MP3s. In 2001, Morpheus changed protocols, from OpenNAP
to FastTrack. On February 26, 2002, all Morpheus clients
suddenly stopped working when the FastTrack protocol
was updated and Morpheus users no longer were allowed
to log into the network. This was apparently because
of a licensing dispute between StreamCast and the owners
of FastTrack. On March 2, 2003 a new, less-robust Morpheus
client using the Gnutella network and the networking
core from the Gnucleus servent was released. After some
dispute over the GPL, under which Gnucleus had been
released, Morpheus switched to a very outdated Jtella
core, and after the disputes had been worked out, Morpheus
switched back to the Gnucleus core. Since then, the
network core has been updated to include Gnutella2,
and StreamCast has created their own network, 'NEOnet,'
and has included support for MLDonkey plugins, allowing
access to EDonkey Network, Overnet Network, and, once
again, FastTrack.
In
April 2003, Grokster and StreamCast (providers of the
Morpheus P2P software) obtained a ruling by a Los Angeles
federal court judge, Stephen Wilson, in its favour against
the RIAA and the motion picture industry which stated
that their file swapping software was not illegal. On
20 August 2003, the decision was appealed.
Morpheus,
Music City's latest project, is a great network with
a lot of users, all who want to trade songs. The interface
is convenient and fairly like napster's. Even a novice
can search and download songs without much of a problem.
You can search for all types of media, music, images,
and video. Morpheus also has a built in theater, which
will let you listen to and view the files you have downloaded.
Another great feature is that you can download the same
file from multiple sources at the same time, so you
have more opportunities to get a great download speed.
The program is still in it's early stages, and there
appear to still be bugs in it, but nothing that will
crash your computer. The only thing we really don't
like about Morpheus is the lack of higher bitrate (song
quality) available. Most of the songs seem to be available
at only 128 kbps, which is still fine for the majority
of users. This could be due to KaZaa, a program that
shares the same network (group of connected computers)
limits users to 128 kbps songs. However, despite it's
quirks Morpheus is a great song sharing program and
for sure one to download.
