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.
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
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in thread ]