Kazaa Court Trial Brings File Swapping to the Judge
Kazaa has had a bumpy ride in the last couple of years. While Kazaa is dropping down users’ popularity ratings (because of the high rate of bad files), it is high on the “potential list of companies to sue†of big music companies.
And the latest trial will be making big news in the coming weeks as the recording companies goes on find out the real owners of the Sharman Networks, which develops the software. It starts in Australia and is expected to last three weeks.
The music labels represented by Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music, and others are claiming that Kazaa is responsible for almost three billion music files exchanged monthly. And a large percentage consists of illegal transactions. All of this is causing billions worth of damages to the music industry.
They also claim that the company (Sharman Networks) tried to pressurize music companies to collaborate with them to sell music through their channels using these tactics. One of the major aims of the lawsuit is to get the company release the source code of the application to the music industry giants. This would let them check if the company could have prevented sharing of copyrighted materials by making changes to the code. Sharman Networks continues to defend their position by claiming that they do not host any of the illegal material and just provide a medium to share files.
And if we consider the medium of sharing illegal, CD-Writers and Floppies provide similar functionality!
