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Sharman begins defense in Kazaa case
By Martyn Williams

Sharman Networks Ltd., the company behind the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing software, began its defense in a Sydney court room on Tuesday against charges by members of the music industry that the company aided music piracy and copyright infringement.

Speaking on the second day of the case at the Australian Federal Court, Anthony Meagher, a lawyer representing Sharman Networks, said the key issue is whether the company authorizes breaches of copyright by users of its software, according to a summary of the arguments issued by its public relations agency.

Meagher cited two previous cases -- one in the House of Lords in the U.K. against Amstrad PLC concerning double-deck tape recorders and one in the U.S. Supreme Court against Sony Corp. concerning video cassette recorders -- that found manufacturers do not authorize breaches of copyright by users. Sharman Networks is in the same situation, he said in the summary.

Moreover, no more than 2 percent of Kazaa users are located in Australia with the vast majority of them in the U.S., where the distribution of Kazaa software is legal, according to the summary. The defense team aims to prove the testimony of experts that the owners and distributors of Kazaa have no control over users of the Kazaa software or their activity, it said.

The trial is expected to last about three weeks.

Steve Deare of PC World Australia in Sydney contributed to this report.>/I>

Posted November 30, 2004 04:26 PM | TrackBack (2)