The Kazaa Court Battle Downunder

It's still going. Below is a news article done by myself. If you want any more info on the current court case just reply or contact me.

Sharman Networks wants its users
Thursday, 17th June.By oscyaki (oscyake@hotmail.com).

The latest development of the on-goings in Federal Court room 23C of the case between Kazaa owner, Sharman Networks and the Australian Music Industry (ARIA) have been quite a twist with even a new QC being hired by Sharman to support their case. Acting on behalf of Sharman Networks orders, new Sharman QC, Mr RJ Ellicott is demanding the names and addresses of all users infringing the Copyright Act of Australia.

Suddenly this case has just been heated up a bit more with quite a twist from a company who won’t reveal its users in the first case. Is this (most likely) because all those users identified (if it happens, very doubtful though) will have to foot all expenses made by Sharman Networks as agreed to in the extremely long EULA which most users will just ignore.

At the other end of the camp on the ARIA side of the court room, the QC, Mr Cobden, responded with, “The evidence is perfectly clear that recordings were made available..We are very suspicious of what the other side wants to do with that information.”

And why wouldn’t they as if you go over item 12.1 of the Kazaa Media Desktop and FastTrack network EULA (www.kazaa.com/us/terms.htm) you will find exactly what I said above.

Then to top all of this off the Sharman QC argued against the ARIA prosecution that digital music is not music. I’m sure lots of people’s heads shot funny looks at the QC as this was mentioned. And through his point he argued that a digital copy is not a copy either. Just remember that currently Sharman through their KMD application and FastTrack network that they are currently selling legal songs, movies etc. through the system so now why would they be paying for those licences if Sharman believes that.

But after putting that all together in your mind, I don’t think the new QC really understands the Copyright Act of Australia seeing as (obviously) he has not read section 21, part 6 of the Act which acknowledges that a digital copy of music or film is to be taken as a copy.

Sharman Networks sure has a sticky finger at the moment in the beehive as they try and get out of all the crap they have just put themselves into. Good luck to them and I still believe that by the end of this year the FastTrack network which is under legalisation of the New South Wales government, Australia will be shut down.

To Justice Wilcox, good luck because this case sure is turning nasty.
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Looks like trouble for many people...

digital music is not music? wtf?

i dont use kazaa, id rather stay away from more legal action.

oscyaki, I really must applaud you on that article. You are an excellent writer indeed.

I'm not really sure what to say to that. I used to use Kazaa Lite to download a song/anime episode now and then but I've found far more ways to get anime now (including a job) and the only music I like I can't find on Kazaa Lite anyway so I won't be affected by this one program dieing (lots of other P2P things anyway). It is a pioneer case though so it still deems a lot of relevance and proves very worthy of interest.

Once again, thanks for a very informative article.

Originally Posted by Shihai

digital music is not music? wtf?.

Yeah, tell that to Sharman. God, some QCs can be such dickheads in burying themselves inside a hole. Sharman's digging themselves a grave at the moment. One moment that say all laws of the product are to be abided by the court of New South Wales, Australia, next minute they don't even care about what the Copyright Act of Australia even says. Can they read?

Obviously your writing has improved since you were a part of Zelda Universe, Oscyaki Hehe, we still have some of your reviews up on the site. I really, really need to do something about that.

Anyways, I've steared clear of Kazaa for a long time now, mainly because of their spyware which makes any comp go cocooboo.

Yep, I still use Kazaa :eek: but what I do is about once a month I will download Kazaa and get what I want from it then, becasue yeh the spyware that comes as pasrt of the Kazaa package makes computers confuzzeled :confused:
Kazaa are now doing a version without spyware but its just under $30 to buy