Damned if it does
Kazaa could if it wanted to. But it won’t.
Block porn.
"Pornography producer Titan Media said Kazaa’s owner, Sharman Networks, can closely monitor activity on the network through ’spyware’ installed on users’ computers and could use that capability to block its users from downloading copyrighted files," says a Reuters report here.
"But Titan said in a letter to Congress that Sharman has not cooperated with a request to stop unauthorized copying of Titan’s adult videos over its network."
Loathe as we are to take Kazaa’s part, if they did do as Titan asks – always assuming they could get users to download and install said spyware in the first place – every civil liberties group in the US would be screaming about rights violations
In the meanwhile, Titan’s letter is the latest blow to Sharman as it battles charges that it facilitates widespread copyright abuse and the spread of child pornography over its Kazaa network, says the story, and "like other movie studios and record companies, Titan has sought to stop unauthorized copying of its products by Kazaa and other ‘peer to peer’ networks".
"Like other movie studios and record companies", eh? Sweet. At last someone has put the labels and movie makers together with suitable company.
"Sharman has long maintained that it cannot control what users share over Kazaa, though it told a Senate committee last fall it would try to improve its content filters to help users avoid offensive material,
the story, by Andy Sullivan, who says asked Sharman to block 1,400 of its movies last month but received no response.
"Sharman Networks does not want to interrupt the flow of adult materials through its network because its existence is a primary factor in the growth and profitability of (the) company," Titan vp Keith Ruoff wrote the Senate Judiciary Committee, says Sullivan.
