infringer
December 13th, 2004, 11:59 AM
For six years, Stephen Cooper ran a song-sharing website from his modest brick home in Bellbowrie, in Brisbane's west (Australia), that attracted 190 million visitors a year and allegedly earned him up to $64,000 a month.
Now the world's record companies have put the former policeman on their hit list - with a $500 million lawsuit.
His website, which began as a hobby while he looked for a job in the computer industry, has also made him a star defendant in a landmark civil lawsuit.
After raids in October 2003 - on his home and at the Sydney offices of his Internet service provider - the father of two is facing a damages claim for as much as $500 million from 31 Australian and international record companies for copyright infringement.
The MP3s4free.net website, which Cooper set up in 1998, is believed to have become the fourth-largest source of music piracy on the Internet before its shutdown two weeks after the raids.
More than 10,000 song files - including the best of local and international artists - were hidden in websites and internal operating systems that included the Australian Defence Force Academy, Queensland Police, the department of the NSW Premier (Bob Carr) and various universities.
Cooper, who claims he would never have started the website if knew he was doing anything wrong, says the lawsuit is "ridiculous" and that he doesn't have enough money for legal fees to fight it in the Federal Court.
But documents filed in the Federal Court in Sydney earlier in October 2004 show that America's Music Publishers' Association warned Cooper in 2002 that he would face civil action unless he closed the website.
Instead, the Australian Recording Industry Association took up the investigation into Cooper, and his Sydney-based Internet provider ComCen.
It involved weeks of surveillance, forensic Internet tracking and, finally, the raids in 2003.
SOURCE: http://www.asianlaws.org/cyberlaw/archives/10_04_hobby.htm
Now the world's record companies have put the former policeman on their hit list - with a $500 million lawsuit.
His website, which began as a hobby while he looked for a job in the computer industry, has also made him a star defendant in a landmark civil lawsuit.
After raids in October 2003 - on his home and at the Sydney offices of his Internet service provider - the father of two is facing a damages claim for as much as $500 million from 31 Australian and international record companies for copyright infringement.
The MP3s4free.net website, which Cooper set up in 1998, is believed to have become the fourth-largest source of music piracy on the Internet before its shutdown two weeks after the raids.
More than 10,000 song files - including the best of local and international artists - were hidden in websites and internal operating systems that included the Australian Defence Force Academy, Queensland Police, the department of the NSW Premier (Bob Carr) and various universities.
Cooper, who claims he would never have started the website if knew he was doing anything wrong, says the lawsuit is "ridiculous" and that he doesn't have enough money for legal fees to fight it in the Federal Court.
But documents filed in the Federal Court in Sydney earlier in October 2004 show that America's Music Publishers' Association warned Cooper in 2002 that he would face civil action unless he closed the website.
Instead, the Australian Recording Industry Association took up the investigation into Cooper, and his Sydney-based Internet provider ComCen.
It involved weeks of surveillance, forensic Internet tracking and, finally, the raids in 2003.
SOURCE: http://www.asianlaws.org/cyberlaw/archives/10_04_hobby.htm