Kazaa Barred From Pursuing Anti-Trust Lawsuit
from the a-bit-of-a-stretch dept
In the ongoing legal battle between file sharing networks and the entertainment industry, one of Kazaa's more "out there" strategies had been to accuse the entertainment of antitrust violations for not allowing their content to be placed on their network. This seemed more like a "throw it up on the wall and see if it sticks" strategy than a well thought out legal move. So, it's no real surprise that a judge has dismissed the claims. He points out that even if the entertainment industry is guilty of what they're being charged with, Kazaa wouldn't be entitled to damages because they're a software company, and not an entertainment company. Of course, the original charges probably were more to do with them having control over distributions, and in that sense, Kazaa (via altnet) can be seen as a competing distribution company.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