Updated Sept 9 2005

Judge Murray Wilcox ruled that kazaa was guilty of "authoriz[ing] users to infringe the applicants' copyright in their sound recordings". The judge required Kazaa to immediately implement a filtering system and be more forceful in getting users to obey copyright. Kazaa will appeal.

Some reporting claims the ruling was similar to the US Supreme Court in trying to find a middle ground. However Australia law has limited applicability to other countries, including the US. Australia is a copyright-friendly country. Australia does not have case law that establishes protection for technology offerings like the Sony Betamax decision in the US or copyright law like Canada.

Still, the ruling is chilling in its clear anti-innovation and anti-consumer aspects, which could just as easily apply to instant messaging software, broadband Internet access, or other technology that can be misused.

• The ruling does not make individuals responsible for their use of Kazaa software.
• The ruling forces Kazaa to be responsible for and directly control the use of the software.
• The ruling criticized Kazaa for attacking the major record companies and their stance on copyright. So much for free speech.

Ruling: Federal Court of Australia

Analysis: Copyright (Donna Wentworth) - Kim Weatherall - Kazaagate - Slyck - Slashdot

Coverage: The Australian "The Day the Music Died" - Financial Times - AP/Business Week - Bloomberg

Marc Freedman
RazorPop, developer of TrustyFiles, the leading multiple network file sharing software with search and download of ALL top networks.
Are you a major entertainment company, other content provider, distributor, marketer, advertiser, or other organization seeking to reach the huge 80 million P2P user market? Then you need BrandedP2P.