Kazaa ‘pirate’ trial continues
p2pnet.net News:- Sharman Networks is being hoist on its own petard in its constant denials that it’s not able to control activities of people using its Kazaa p2p file sharing application.
It’s offering the Grokster / Morpheus defense against Big Music’s efforts to hammer it in Australia, using recording companies that include Universal, EMI, Sony BMG, Warner and Festival Mushroom as the nails.
Recently, in the now-famous Grokster / Morpheus decision, a US appeals court unanimously ruled a p2p application owner can’t be held responsible for what a user does with it. Kazaa was included in the decision
Having had a clear and unequivocal ruling, the entertainment industry is now pulling all the legal tricks in the book to try to have it turned around, but it’s not likely that it’ll succeed.
In the meanwhile, Tony Bannon, QC, representing the record companies, said Kazaa’s published, “no-tolerance policy on child pornography, including its threat to disconnect and bar users from the system, showed Sharman could exercise some control,” according to a Sydney Morning Herald story.
Bannon isn’t alone.
StreamCast owns Morpheus and ceo Michael Weiss, too, wonders if Kazaa is in fact centralized and controlled by Sharman and, consequently, is able to track users’ identities.
In the meanwhile, Australians make up less than 2% of Kazaa users, with most living in the US, says the SMH.
Tony Meagher, SC, defending Sharman and Altnet from accusations of piracy, said the central issue was whether or not the two authorised the illegal use of Kazaa software by Australians.
The same principle had been dealt with in the 1980s in the Betamax case, he said.
“Mr Meagher said it was plain that the double-sided tape deck was used to make infringing copies of songs and was even advertised for this purpose by Amstrad,” the SMH report says, going on, “But the House of Lords had upheld that there was no authorisation of this behaviour by the company because the product also had a lawful use. Mr Meagher said the Kazaa software had lawful use, and Sharman and Altnet could not control the behaviour of users.”
He also differentiated between the free Kazaa and Kazaa Plus, whch people have to buy.
Kazaa Plus comes minus four software components, said Meagher, adding, “If you pay you don’t get the privilege of being bombarded with advertisements.”
Yesterday, a “music industry insider” told Wired News the investigation of Sharman, registered in the tax haven of Vanuatu, ” has revealed its true owners” and, “will allege Nikki Hemming, the CEO of Sharman, and Kevin Bermeister, the CEO of Brilliant Digital Entertainment and Altnet, own and control the company”.
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See:-
now-famous - Morpheus, Grokster win p2p fight, p2pnet, August 19, 2004
no-tolerance policy - File-sharing lawful, court hears, Sydney Morning Herald, December 1, 2004
centralized – Weiss waits for Kazaa raid findings, p2pnet, February 12, 2004
own and control – Trial to Unmask Kazaa Owners, Wired News, Novermber 29, 2004
November 30th, 2004 at 11:43 pm
“StreamCast owns Morpheus and ceo Michael Weiss, too, wonders if Kazaa is in fact centralized and controlled by Sharman and, consequently, is able to track users’ identities.”
Michael Weiss should give it a rest. He needs to put his anger towards Sharman networks in check. If Sharman loses this case it’s bad news for every P2P developer.
Drake
December 1st, 2004 at 1:05 am
According to Julian Ashton, who reverse-engineered the FastTrack protocol, Sharman changed the software so they could no longer ‘push’ code into a user’s computer, as they were once able to do. The reasons for making this change should be obvious: since sharman was already under legal attack, and had to ditch their ability to control users’ computers so they could make the claim that they are powerless to stop copyright violations.
Because of this change, unupgraded older versions actually formed their own sub-network when the protocol was revised, rather than being shut down the way Morpheus users once were.
Also, Imesh quit paying its license fees some time ago, but was not disabled by Sharman, and Imesh also formed part of this sub-Fasttrack network along with older Kazaa clients.
So it seems that Sharman is really telling the truth now when they say that they (conveniently) have no control over users.