Australian Court Rules Against KaZaA

[Dandermouse]

Just onthe radio here in Sydney...
They've been found guilty and have been given 2 months to modify kazaa to allow only licenced material from their software

more to follow

Dandermouse

[Mels_Smileys45]

Is this real? How the hell will they do that?

[Dandermouse]

dunno,

check this out

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian court ruled on Monday that users of Kazaa, a popular internet music file-swapping system, breached music copyright and ordered its owners to modify the software.

Australian court rules Kazaa users breach copyright (http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/NewsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-09-05T063256Z_01_KRA523507_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-MUSIC-KAZAA.XML)

Dandermouse

[crackerjacker]

An Australian court ruled on Monday that users of Kazaa, a popular internet music file-swapping system, breached music copyright and ordered its owners to modify the software.

"The respondents authorised users to infringe the applicants' copyright in their sound recordings," Federal Court Judge Murray Wilcox said in his ruling.

Australia's major record companies sued Kazaa's Australian owners and developers, Sharman Networks, claiming Kazaa had cost them millions of dollars in lost sales.

The music industry told the court that Sharman Network licensed users to access a network it knew was being used for piracy and hence it was authorising people to infringe copyright.

Sharman Networks defended the use of the internet to download music tracks, but said it could not control the actions of estimated 100 million world-wide users.


source
http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/NewsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-09-05T063256Z_01_KRA523507_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-MUSIC-KAZAA.XML

[DwarfBaby]

It's about freakin time. No, not that the Great Satan won this case (as we all knew he would) but maybe we'll see fewer posts like "I just Installed kazza and everything I download is silent.

[Mels_Smileys45]

So will they only have to filter results for Australia? uh huh sure.


The music industry told the court that Sharman Network licensed users to access a network it knew was being used for piracy and hence it was authorising people to infringe copyright.

Thats some dazzling bullshit there. So they knew people were doing things they told them not to do. How is that authorising a damn thing. I guess now they'll move on to the next big app, maybe your favorite program or mine. I wonder how effective any of this will be.

[DwarfBaby]

j
Thats some dazzling bullshit there. So they knew people were doing things they told them not to do. How is that authorising a damn thing. I guess now they'll move on to the next big app, maybe your favorite program or mine. I wonder how effective any of this will be.

Kind of like driving on I5 in California. Sure the speed limits 70 Miles per hour. But the only people doing the speed limit are those whose ages exceed it.

Basically, right or wrong the majority rules. You can stand on a podium and denounce evil but if the crowd you’re talking too is what you consider evil then you're the only one who looks like a fool.

[Sparky9]

well thats the last nail in kazaa coffin

[shawners]

Uh. . . .what about all the networks that connect to the fast track network? Urgent message going out through kazaa users urging them to upgrade?? or from now on, downloads would be modified.

[mcovey]

hmmm... oh well.

if they allow only licensed content, does that mean that all the fakes will dissapear? :p

Kazaa sucked of course anyway.


I suppose that they will just go out of business and concentrate on Skype... they make that too? Because it's an amazingly GOOD program.

[shawners]

did they even did what grokster did, bring up the betamax case?

[Cydor]

dunno,

check this out

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian court ruled on Monday that users of Kazaa, a popular internet music file-swapping system, breached music copyright and ordered its owners to modify the software.

Australian court rules Kazaa users breach copyright (http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/NewsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-09-05T063256Z_01_KRA523507_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-MUSIC-KAZAA.XML)

Dandermouse

It's about time...Burn that Spy-ware fest to the ground...it's long over due.

It was awesome P2P prog in the begining...but the bastards turn it to money making machine full of Spy-ware.

It deserves to DIE.

[Ne007]

Yeh....let it die!.

But if they were smart they would completely redo their software...serverless like they should have long ago.

OH....AND UPDATE YOUR HASHING!

but they are stupid...they should have done all that long ago.

This isn't the end of Kazaa....unfortunately. They are just banned from releasing it in Australia. This is just another judges retoric...trying to control something he can't....all the while taking kickbacks.


__________________________________________________ _____________

Kazaa owners, users infringe copyright - judge

Australian Federal Court Judge Murray Wilcox has ruled that Kazaa owner Sharman Networks and its principals are guilty of copyright infringement.

Judge Wilcox declared that Sharman Networks Ltd, LEF Interactive Pty Ltd, Altnet Inc, Brilliant Digital Entertainment Inc, Nicola Anne Hemming and Kevin Glen Bermeister "have infringed the copyright" of the 30 or so music labels and copyright owners who brought the case against them. Furthemore, he said, the defendants "authorised" Australian Kazaa users to "make a copy of the sound recordings" and to "communicate the recordings to the public".

"The files are shared without the approval of the relevant copyright owner," said the Judge in his summary of the case. "It follows that both the user who makes the file available and the user who downloads a copy infringes the owner’s copyright."

Judge Wilcox was unmoved by Kazaa's incorporation of "warnings against the sharing of copyright files", stating that "far from taking steps that are likely effectively to curtail copyright file-sharing, Sharman Networks and Altnet have included on the Kazaa website exhortations to users to increase their file-sharing".

He also noted the defendants had not "taken any action to implement... technical measures... that would enable the respondents to curtail – although probably not totally to prevent – the sharing of copyright files".

The defendants were banned from offering their P2P file-sharing systems in Australia until they modify the software essentially to exclude copyright works from searches. The modification must come in the form of a "non-optional key-word filtering technology", and the company must place "maximum pressure" on existing Kazaa users to upgrade to the modified version of the software. Sharman has a grace period of two months before it must comply with the order.

Read the Rest here:
http://www.theregister.com/2005/09/05/kazaa_verdict/

[Krell]

This isn't the end of Kazaa....unfortunately. They are just banned from releasing it in Australia. This is just another judges retoric...trying to control something he can't....all the while taking kickbacks.



True True!

One ruling will never change the course for that many stupid people



.

[shawners]

Id rather it not die, since after they win this, they will go down to other networks.

[XtraNtnse]

If guilty for anything its

fake files

viruses

overall shitty network

[origin]

it was good to begin with like 3-4 years ago then it got too big went waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay south to where it is now. sad to see it happen but this may be the end for fastrack.

l8

[Jorge]

An Australian court ruled Monday that file-swapping service Kazaa breaches copyright. The owners have been given two months to modify their web site to prevent piracy by their users. The ruling only covers Australia, but the record industry hailed it a victory that would be felt around the globe. "The court has ruled the current Kazaa system illegal. If they want to continue, they are going to have to stop the trade in illegal music on that system," record industry spokesman Michael Speck said outside the court. Federal Court Judge Murray Wilcox found six of the 10 defendants, including owners Sharman Networks Ltd., infringed copyright and ordered them to pay 90 per cent of the record industry's costs in the case. The final total could be massive. "These people have crowed for years about the downloads -- 270 million downloads of somebody else's work each month," said Speck. "We will ask the court when it comes to damages to reflect the value of the music these people ripped off." In a statement, Sharman said that "we will appeal those parts of the decision where we were not successful and are confident of a win on appeal." What was clear is that the judgment does not attempt to make file-swapping illegal. Wilcox said that if Kazaa is to continue its operations its owners have to ensure that new versions of the software filters unlicensed copyright material. How that can be managed was unclear. The case is the latest in a long line of courtroom showdowns between peer-to-peer networks and copyright holders, such as record companies. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Hollywood and the music industry can file piracy lawsuits against technology companies caught encouraging customers to steal music and movies over the internet.

Read the complete article (http://www.zeropaid.com/news/5666/Australian+Court+Rules+Against+KaZaA/)

[zpman]

Id rather it not die, since after they win this, they will go down to other networks.

True, but if you use an open source network ,like gnutella, for instance, which cannot be shutdown, you'll have better reliability. The government can sue a company such a Limewire, or Bearshare's, (whatever it's called). They can only get rid of gnutella clients, not the protocol they use.

The only solution for the party which is suing would be to pass legislation to ban P2P in general, which would be impossible, since it can be used for legal distribution. Look at GNU/Linux distros for instance. They use BT to cut distribution costs/bandwidth. Banning a proprietary protocol like Fasttrack is completely different. Sharman owns it. Nobody owns Gnutella. BT is open source. Nobody owns it. Companies only own the (non open source) client which uses the open--source protocols.

So, suing Limewire, might shut down Limewire, but since it is open-source, someone could just make a Limewire clone. Or someone could just use a different client like Gnucleus to get similar results using the same protocol.

[Comax]

Can they host the site somewhere else?
Europe?

[Krell]

Can someone please consolidate this in to existing threads?


THX


.

[The Hunter]

hummmm.....

[Krell]

THX you rock



.

[The Hunter]

LOL sort of a geriatric one man band. ROTFL

[Krell]

Hey don't discount your talent, Bob Dylan is a geriatric one man band!



.

[aqlo]

Hunter you're the Bomb !!!

[The Hunter]

LOL thanks, all this and baking cookies at the same time.

[meyou123]

I really don't see a clear cut "win" for anybody. So I don't see how the person that wrote this is correct. Sharman networks was NOT found guilty of copyright infringement (like the industry wanted the ruling stated) but instead, they have to "filter" out copyrighted content (yeah, good luck) ...but even one of the judges said THAT might not be possible.

So to me, it is kinda like the US Supreme court decision on Grokster....as long as Kazzaa changes it's model and they show that they are trying to filter content, then apparently they can stay open, as the court did not order the shutdown of kazaa.

To me, this is good news....because mabye kazaa will stay open and still act as a legal shield against the stupid lawsuits the industry is making and edonkey and BT users can still do what they do while the industry stays "busy" with the retards at kazzaa!

At least that is a hopeful thought.

[whitenoise22]

Hmm its good and bad. The bad thing is that the riaa will be looking for other networks to be there main target.

[Digital Bliss]

I can see how its a bad thing but on the other hand kazaa does suck now

[teto]

Yeah, KaZaA makes a pretty good buffer between us and the Corporates. I'd call it the canary even, as gaudy a canary as it is. ed2k may be more ethical than KaZaA, but it's not more Corporate, so our oligarchs will advertise people into believing that makes it therefore illegal. Because only Corporations are legal, all else are not team players. Something no one wealthy entity can profit from, is therefore stealing and illegal. Welcome to your new gods, sheesh. Fukai here we come.

[mp3master1215]

australia sucks

[Ne007]

follow-up:




Peer-to-peer (P2P) music file-sharing service Kazaa said today it would appeal an Australian federal court ruling condemning the company's business model as aiding and abetting copyright theft.

On Monday, the court ruled Sydney-based Sharman Networks, owner and operator of Kazaa, knows its customers are swapping copyrighted files and is doing little to stop it. In particular, the court said merely posting a warning about swapping copyrighted files on the Kazaa software download site is inadequate.

"The respondents have long known that the Kazaa system is widely used for the sharing of copyright files," Judge Murray Wilcox said in his ruling. "Both the user who makes the file available and the user who downloads a copy infringes the owner's copyright."

Wilcox added, "Despite the fact that the Kazaa Website contains warnings against the sharing of copyright files, and an end user license agreement under which users are made to agree not to infringe copyright, it has long been obvious that those measures are ineffective to prevent, or even substantially to curtail, copyright infringements by users."

The court gave Kazaa two months to install copyright filters or close its doors. The court also ordered Kazaa to pay 90 percent of the court costs in the long-running litigation between Sharman and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

A hearing later this year will determine the damages due to the recording companies for Kazaa's slack enforcement policies. The entertainment industry claims it will ask for more than $1 billion. According to Kazaa, its more than 300 million users swap approximately 3 billion files a year.

For the P2P music industry, the ruling is the second major legal setback this year. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Grokster business model illegal on much the same grounds.

The RIAA was quick to hail the decision.
read the rest here:
http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3532336

[serrebi101]

didn't sharman or however you spell it lie about the decentualization of the network?

[charzzx]

Why should they only just ban it in Australia All they want to do is give some freedom to music lovers I have saved £160 on CD's Isn that amazing I think that KAAZA SHOULD BE ALLOWED :devil2

[Vampmon]

Well, this is a blow, not just for KaZaa, but for all of file-sharing, we'll be getting some more copycat judges soon! arse!