Kazaa And Related Companies Raided By Authorities
from the so-much-for-the-cloak dept
Sharman Networks, the owner of Kazaa, and somewhat related to Brilliant Digital, the owners of Kazaa sister application Altnet, has done a good job staying somewhat hidden in the details of how they operate. However, that secrecy may be over, as Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) in Australia has raided their offices, the homes of executives and various ISPs to collect various information with the intent of taking the company down. The article actually quotes someone as saying that "Internet music piracy is finished in Australia" following this move. Considering the fact that (a) the network doesn't need Kazaa to still be in operation to keep working and (b) people have been shifting away from Kazaa for a while now, that seems to be a bit of an overstatement. At the same time, it will be interesting to see what they claim Kazaa, as a system provider has done. As it looks like the US Courts are realizing, simply providing the technology (which has plenty of non-infringing uses) is not copyright infringement at all. It looks like some folks in Australia might be a bit slower in realizing this fact.
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