Kazaa Head Speaks
from the blah-blah-blah dept
The head of Sharman Networks that bought Kazaa hasn't said anything since the purchase. Now she's granted her first interview talking about what's going on. She clears up some of the mystery behind the company (they're not listed in Australia, but say they're an Australian company). She also talks about the various relationships they have with spyware or other intrusive programs - which she defends as being reasonable. The interviewer doesn't challenge her much on this point. She also mentions that Kazaa/Sharman believes they should have a seat at the table to determine what happens in the world of online music - and they're even pushing for some sort of ISP tax that goes to the record companies and artists to pay for file sharing. While I'm glad that someone is pushing for the continued use of file sharing, I have to admit that their use of spyware, and weird corporate secrecy makes me very wary of trusting this company to act in the real interests of consumers.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Oh great, another unfair tax...
Does it seem fair that once again there is a person or group who feels it's necessary to assume everyone is guilty and that everyone should help pay the record/movie companies even though only a fairly small percentage of people may actually be violating copyrights?
[ link to this | view in thread ]