"Today's judgment shows that Kazaa – one of the biggest engines
of copyright theft and the biggest brand in music piracy worldwide
– is illegal,” said John Kennedy, Chairman and CEO of industry
group, the International Federation of Phonographic Industries.
“This is a milestone in the fight against internet piracy
worldwide. Today there is a resounding signal to other unauthorised
file-swapping networks: they should adapt their systems and go
legitimate now," he added.
Kazaa was once the most popular file-swapping service, allowing
users to download its peer-to-peer software and use it to access
the music, images and movie files stored in other users' computers
– all free of charge and mostly in breach of copyright.
It has now been overtaken in popularity terms by sites running
software such as BitTorrent, but Kazaa is still a major player in
the P2P community.
Sharman Networks, which is headquartered in Australia but
registered in the Pacific island of Vanuatu, has been accused of
knowingly allowing the exchange of copyrighted digital material on
its network, and cases have been brought against it by recording
industries in Australia, the US and the Netherlands.
The Australian action charged the company, Sharman License
Holdings, the firm's CEO Nikki Hemming, Altnet, which bundles
software with Kazaa, and others, with copyright infringement.
Today, Judge Murray Wilcox of the Australian Federal Court
upheld the charge in part, finding that while the 10 defendants did
not breach copyright themselves, six of them, including Sharman
Networks, Nikki Hemming and Altnet, acted illegally in allowing
users to swap digital files in breach of copyright.
“I have no doubt that, at all material times, each of the
respondents was aware that a major use of the Kazaa system was the
transmission of copyright material,” he wrote.
According to Judge Wilcox, the measures taken by the Kazaa
website to prevent illegal file-sharing – such as website warnings,
and a provision in the end user licence agreement – were clearly
ineffective.
Nor had the firm taken any steps to implement technical
measures, such as keyword filtering, which might reduce the
sharing.
The Judge was also concerned that a “Kazaa Revolution” campaign
sponsored by the firm could give the impression to young people
that it was “cool” to oppose the music industry by file-swapping in
breach of copyright.
Judge Wilcox granted an injunction in favour of the Australian
music industry, delayed for two months so that Kazaa’s owners could
add filters to the software that should help to limit illegal
file-sharing.
Welcoming the judgment, Australia’s Music Industry spokesman
Michael Speck said:
“This judgment is one of the most important
achievements in the fight against music piracy anywhere. The
court’s decision confirms that people cannot build a business on
stealing the creative work of others and profiting from it.”
The question of damages has still to be determined, but
according to reports, Sharman Networks is already planning an
appeal.
The decision follows a US Supreme Court ruling only two months
ago that Streamcast Networks Inc, the company behind the Morpheus
file-sharing software, and rival Grokster Ltd could be sued for
copyright infringement carried out by users of the software,
because they had intended it to be used for that purpose.
According to the IFPI’s John Kennedy, "Within the space of ten
weeks, two courts in different continents and hemispheres have
given a huge boost to the efforts by music and technology companies
to forge a legal online music business”.
The IFPI is calling on similar networks around the world to stop
infringing copyright or face the legal consequences.
