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Australian MP3 site shut down

28 October 2003 12:22 by Jari Ketola | 2 comments

Australian ISP ComCen has agreed not to re-post any contents to web site under the url www.mp3s4free.net. ComCen and record labels agreed on the arrangement on Tuesday in the Federal Court in Sydney.

The site, which offered links to pirated MP3 files, was removed from the Net yesterday by the site's owner, Stephen Cooper. According to Cooper he didn't have enough financial resources to fight the case to the end. ComCen had refused to take the site offline in spite of legal threats from the music industry.

Both Cooper and ComCen were sued last week by major labels alleging that www.mp3s4free.net violated their copyrights. The site, however, contained nothing but links to files -- none of the illegal files were hosted at ComCen or posted by Cooper. Both Cooper and ComCen insisted that the site was just a directory.

The nature of linking directly to third party files has been a matter of debate for ages. Is it illegal to provide links to pirated material? Would a database of user submitted URLs be illegal, if the only intention of the database was to gather links to copyrighted music? Morally the question is clear, but the legal aspects are far more complicated.

Source:
ZDNet Australia

Permalink to this article

MP3s4free.net owner faces a $360m lawsuit (18 October 2004)

Trade agreement affects Australian copyright laws (updated) (14 February 2004)

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GrayArea (Member) 29 October 2003 7:15
Quote from news item above>"Morally the question is clear," If you take into consideration how "major lables" and the RIAA have treated their artists and customers over the years is it really all that clear? I guess stealing from a thief does not make it right. As Bob Dylan said, "Steal a little and they through you in jail, steal a lot and they make you a King." We mustn't lower ourselves to the level of those we loathe, lest we become loathsome ourselves. [ + quote]
GrayArea (Member) 29 October 2003 7:16
Oops, that would be THROW, not through. We mustn't lower ourselves to the level of those we loathe, lest we become loathsome ourselves. [ + quote]