Australian Kazaa case rolls on
p2p news / p2pnet: As you read this the duelling lawyers in the Kazaa case are back in court.
This time it’s the appeal following the September decision. And the stakes are higher than ever. Where the earlier case was heard by a single judge, Judge Murray Wilcox, the appeal is to be heard by the full bench comprising federal court judges Justice Branson, Justice Finkelstein and Justice Lindgren over at least five days.
So what’s happened, and what’s going to happen?
On September 5, 2005, the record companies lost more than two thirds of their court case against Kazaa when Wilcox handed down a landmark ruling indicating that it wouldn’t shut down Kazaa. And true to the court’s word, Kazaa has not been shut down.
Despite this result, and despite criticism by Justice Wilcox, thed Big Four record companies sought to make the world believe they’d scored a major win.
Remember their famous words, "In an historic victory, the record industry has won its copyright case against Kazaa"?
The record companies even insisted on the steps of the court that there would be no appeal.
Now the record companies are showing their true colours. They’re preparing to spend millions more of artists’ money on an appeal against the very judgement they were, until recently, calling a victory.
But that’s no surprise. Time after time they put their own interests ahead of the interests of recording artists and customers and it will be no different tomorrow in the Australian Federal Court.
The case promises excellent theatre. In a bizarre turn of events, the record companies come before the three judges having loudly declared, in an exchange between record industry lawyer Tony Bannon and Justice Wilcox, that they don’t trust the full bench. (See page 45 of 52, of the transcript from January 30, 2006.)
The record company case has continued to unravel since judgement and now we’ll see if this trend continues.
In any event, it’s now evident the Australian record companies intend to shut down Kazaa, despite two years of promises not to do so.
In the meanwhile, the quotes have already started coming.
"Sharman Networks is determined to resist the record companies’ appeal in this case with its own appeal presenting arguments against the record companies’ position. We are confident of the ultimate outcome of this case."
And all of that is before a single word has even been uttered in the appeal.
The Wizard of Oz – p2pnet
February 19th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Duh! P2Pnet.net…all of u news reporters are so slow to the news?
Whats that mean? There is a new court case in the Los Angeles against Kazaa!! Look all you slycks and zeros and slashdots….
Knock Knock, whos there? Skype, Skype who? I couldnt eskype ur lawsuit…
Phones it in..
February 19th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
It was never made clear that the record companies lost so much of the case. You have to wonder why they were so dishonest about it all?
February 19th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Of course the record companies lost part of the case. Who appeals a victory???
February 20th, 2006 at 1:55 am
You failed to mention that via Sharman networks Hemming, Bermeister and the hidden ones they are protecting are appealing the entire guilty verdict. Also the three Judges will be handling the contempt of court issue of Hemming and co for ignoring the filtering court orders. On top of that Nikki Hemming has a seat booked for herself in the same Federal court,in early march 06 where she will be cross examined by the music industry. Just a few facts that the above article ignored. Nikki Hemming will either have to lie under oath or reveal the trail that leads to Mark Dyne, the Skype duo and the cash from the Skype sale. The Recording industry may very well land massive damages claims taking all of the above into account. The above article looks like it was written by Sharman Networks or Hemming herself. Even Patti Santiago noted her main issue is with Sharman Networks for allowing children to download pirated music.
February 20th, 2006 at 8:29 am
There was no finding of guilt…that is a LIE…this was a civil case as painful as it might be to the record industry’s lawyers they lost most of their case and probably are running the appeal to get over the embarrasment of that if anyone at a record comapny had the smarts to ask why ten million dollars was spent losing so much
February 20th, 2006 at 8:34 am
That would be Mrs. Patti Santangelo. Her picture has graced the lead story on p2pnet for several weeks now.
February 20th, 2006 at 8:48 am
… The Recording industry may very well land massive damages claims taking all of the above into account … or will they shoot themselves in the foot again?
February 20th, 2006 at 10:14 am
or they may end up with nothing because they did nothing to prevent people from sharing music other than line the pockets of politicians and lawyers. It is highly likely that the need for damages will be directly related to the size of the explanation the record company lawyers need to give to justify the artists dollars spent on this case
February 20th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
Given that Judge Wilcox took six months to announce his judgement, a quick ruling is extremely unlikey in this latests Sharman appeal. There will be no slithering out of cross examination by Nikki Hemming, she could very well end in prison if she lies to the court. There will be no hiding behind some high paid Lawyer. They pulverised the CTO Phil Morle. She is in deep, deep shit. She may well spend her 40th birthday Jan 2007 as a convict or the truth of the whole Kazaa, Sharman, Altnet,Jolted,Vanuata trust scam wil be revealed . Australian courts dont take kindly to being lied to. That deep shit that your gagging on Nik is your own, liar liar pants on fire!
February 21st, 2006 at 1:53 am
No that would be, “spelling wrong”, “Facts correct”. It must be hard for you to admit that even your poster child despises Sharman, Kazaa and crew. She is a victim of Sharman as well as the RIAA machine. Lets call it for what it is. Copyright infringement is not a victimless crime. Lets not waste time on semantics. All creations return to their creator, its the law of Karma. Ignorance is no defence.
February 21st, 2006 at 2:09 am
Spelling wrong, facts spot on
your honour.