While Kazaa claims to be 'completely legal,' there are those who disagree: The free-to-download blue files are controlled by Kazaa users and include copyrighted content. Like the old version of Napster, Kazaa users can exchange copyrighted material without paying royalties to the owners.

Once the correct file has been located, it is transferred directly from the file owner to the requester using HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) - it doesn't have to go through a supernode. The supernode communicates with other supernodes, which in turn connect to regular nodes that in turn connect to even more regular nodes, to fulfill the request until the Time to Live of 7 runs out - this means that the search request will extend seven levels into the network before it stops propagating. When the computer sends out a request for files the user wants to download or upload, the request is funneled through the supernode. Every time the user launches the Kazaa application, his or her computer registers with the central server and then chooses from a list of currently active supernodes. When a user installs the Kazaa software on his or her computer, it comes coded with a list of supernodes.

Each supernode may serve between 60 and 150 ordinary nodes at one time. The approximately 30,000 supernodes on Kazaa act a lot like traffic hubs, processing data requests from the slower ordinary nodes. Supernodes are powerful computers with fast network connections, high bandwidth and quick processing capabilities (computer owners don't know that their computers have been designated as supernodes). The system divides Kazaa users into two groups: supernodes and ordinary nodes.

FastTrack is a so-called 'second generation' P2P protocol. To transfer data between users (peer-to-peer), Kazaa uses the FastTrack protocol.

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