| Subject: P2P raids in Australia |
Author:
Betty
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Date Posted: 10:05:56 02/08/04 Sun
In reply to:
Betty
's message, "RIAA & goofy laws." on 17:09:22 02/01/04 Sun
Investigators Raid Offices of Kazaa in Australia
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 7, 2004
SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 6 (AP) - Investigators for the major record labels conducted raids Friday on the Sydney office of the company that owns Kazaa, the world's largest file swapping network, seeking evidence of possible copyright infringement.
The federal court here gave five major record labels permission to raid 12 premises in three states to collect evidence against Kazaa, said Michael Speck, general manager of the Music Industry Piracy Investigations, an organization that is financed by the labels.
The group is owned by Universal, Festival Mushroom Records, EMI Music, Sony Music, Warner Music Australia and BMG Australia.
The sites that were raided included the office of Sharman Networks, which owns Kazaa; the homes of two of the company's executives; three Australian universities; and Internet service providers.
Mr. Speck said that the record industry would begin a civil action against Kazaa in the federal court on Tuesday.
"This sends a very clear signal to Internet pirates in Australia that the game is up," he said.
Sharman Networks said in a statement that it would appeal the court's orders, but that it would comply with them in the meantime.
"This action appears to be an extraordinary waste of time, money and resources going over legal ground that has been well and truly covered in the U.S. and Dutch courts over the past 18 months," the company said.
"This is a knee-jerk reaction by the recording industry to discredit Sharman Networks and the Kazaa software, following a number of recent court decisions around the world that have ruled against the entertainment industry's agenda to stamp out peer-to-peer technology."
In December, the Supreme Court in the Netherlands ruled that the makers of Kazaa could not be held liable for any copyright infringement related to music or movies that were swapped on its free software.
In the United States, a federal judge has already dismissed the entertainment industry's lawsuits against two of Kazaa's rival file sharing services, Grokster and StreamCast Networks.
The judge ruled that the services could not be held liable for what their users do with the software.
That ruling has been appealed, and a decision is expected this month.
The Media Desktop software from Kazaa is one of a variety of file swapping programs that are used by millions of people worldwide. Kazaa alone has three million to four million users at any given time.
Sharman denied that it promoted copyright piracy.
"It is a gross misrepresentation of Sharman's business to suggest that the company in any way facilitates or encourages copyright infringement," the statement from Sharman said.
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