Kazaa loses landmark copyright court case
- Added:
- Sep 06, 2005
The Australian federal court ruling concludes an 18-month legal battle between the recording industry and the Australian-based owners of Kazaa.
In a summary of his judgement, federal judge Murray R. Wilcox wrote: " The respondents authorized users to infringe the applicants' copyright in their sound recording. The respondents have long known that the Kazaa system is widely used for the sharing of copyright files."
Kazaa is one of the world’s largest file-sharing services, with more than 317 million users having downloaded at least one file using the software.
The ruling means Kazaa will now have to use copyright filters in future editions of its software and the company behind the program are being forced to pressure current users to upgrade to the new version.
Kazaa’s owners said they plan to appeal the decision.
Back in June, the US Supreme Court ruled that the makers of the file-sharing services Grokster and Morpheus could be held liable for contributing to the infringement of copyrights.
