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Music, Copyright, And The Internet: Universal Music -V- Sharman Networks "The Kazaa case". |
Kazaa is a website that has been used to download music. It uses file sharing software. Music was downloaded without consent of copyright owners (including record companies and artists). |
The Federal Court in Sydney recently delivered its decision in this important long running case. The Court held that Sharman Networks (Kazaa) had authorised infringement of copyright by users of its file sharing software. The Court found that Sharman's warnings to users were ineffective, that it could have adopted technical measures to curtail infringement, and that on the contrary it had exhorted users to increase their file sharing, and as a result of its criticisms of record companies to ignore copyright constraints. However, the judge was concerned that file sharing software continued to be available for legitimate purposes: |
The Courts orders allow Sharman to continue to distribute the file sharing software if it adopts certain measures to curtail infringement of copyright; The record companies must provide Sharman information about recordings in which they claim copyright. |
david.palmer@cmlawyers.com.au
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