Jari Ketola
5 Sep 2005 3:59
Peer-to-peer software maker Kazaa has been ordered by the Australian court to implement filters to its software. Kazaa's owners will also have to pay damages to the Australian music industry. Sharman Networks, the owners of Kazaa, were ordered to pay 90% of the record companies' legal costs. The amount of damages will be determined later.
According to the courts ruling Kazaa, its owners and executives had knowingly allowed Kazaa users to illegally swap copyrighted songs. The court found the defendants guilty of copyright infringement even though the infringements were carried out by Kazaa users.
Kazaa must now implement filters to block the sharing of copyrighted content. They must also apply "maximum pressure" to the users of the software to upgrade their software to the filtered version. How the filters will be implemented remains to be seen.
Sharman Networks has announced it will appeal the ruling on some parts.
In June US supreme court saw that Grokster and Morpheus promoted their products as a device for copyright infringement and ruled against them. The European Commission is also preparing a directive that would criminalise indirect copyright infringement.
The complete ruling is available through the Australasian Legal Information Institute.
Sources:
Sydney Morning Herald
ZDNet Australia