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The Courts Government Media Music News

Kazaa's Australian Assets Frozen 137

Posted by Zonk from the high-court-smackdown dept.
sandstorming writes "Wired is reporting that Sharman Networks (the creators of Kazaa) and Altnet (which licenses technology to Kazaa) have had their assets frozen in the country of Australia. The verdict comes almost four months after the start of the trial prompted by five record company suits. The Australian federal court will convene on March 22nd for final oral submissions, and the verdict is expected several weeks later. Is this the beginning of the end for Kazaa?"
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Kazaa's Australian Assets Frozen More

Kazaa's Australian Assets Frozen

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  • This is why (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tavor ( 845700 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @11:01AM (#11852201)
    you should always keep your money in Swiss banks...

    • Re:This is why (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      This is why smart people haven't used Kazaa for years. Try Gnutella or eMule. Google on your own.

  • first post! (Score:1, Informative)

    by rayamor ( 245814 )
    Well, DUH! Just move to the next p2p software. Kazaa was shit anyway.

    • Re:first post! (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05, 2005 @11:07AM (#11852236)
      I might be a cynic but this could be a bad idea because of the influx that all 3 Kazaa users will generate when they switch over to other networks, I mean do you really want longer queue lines? I know I don't.

  • This is the End (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05, 2005 @11:06AM (#11852228)
    I'd say this is the end of the beginning of the end.

    I mean even if they did win. They'd have to install alot of spyware to pay for all the court costs.

  • freedom (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sonoluminescence ( 709395 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @11:07AM (#11852238)
    "I worry about my child and the Internet all the time, even though she's too young to have logged on yet. Here's what I worry about. I worry that 10 or 15 years from now, she will come to me and say 'Daddy, where were you when they took freedom of the press away from the Internet?'"
    --Mike Godwin, Electronic Frontier Foundation

    Don't balme to tools.
    • How is this freedom of the press?
    • I worry about my child and the Internet all the time...
      "Won't somebody please think of the children?!?!"

    • Re:freedom (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Mike Godwin's daughter: "Daddy, where were you when they took freedom of the press away from the Internet?"

      Mike Godwin: "Why at my desk downloading porn of course"
    • "Don't blame to tools."

      Don't blame the tools, blame the people who misuse them, right?

      EFF used to suggest that downloaders get sued [com.com] -- but as soon as those people get in trouble, it's all about "how dare these big mean companies sue music lovers".

      Slippery, sloppy logic.

      • I'd say the EFF didn't expect our elected representatives to make punishment for file sharing harsher than many rape, fraud, manslaughter etc. sentences.
        • "I'd say the EFF didn't expect our elected representatives to make punishment for file sharing harsher than many rape, fraud, manslaughter etc. sentences."

          That's not what's happening -- people who get caught are mostly choosing to settle for a few thousand dollars, for sharing a few thousand files. Measured against files that cost a dollar apiece, it's tough to call that penaly "harsher than rape."

          • That'd be all well and good if people weren't potentially settling despite being innocent. As RIAA has sued dead grandmothers who never had computers, there are probably at least a couple people who settled instead of going through a long and expensive legal process.
          • ...people who get caught are mostly choosing to settle...

            Well hell, some of those other cases, including rape, are settled, too. That means nothing. The point is that if one chooses to maintain his innocence or his rights, the penalty can be harsher than an assault charge. What you call settlement in the ??AA cases, I call blackmail. People are being blackmailed into not standing up for their rights. It happens all the time in drug cases, too. If you "cooperate", we'll let you off light. Maybe if enough p

      • Re:Don't balme to tools. (who is the tool?) (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        No, it's more like "How dare these big mean companies claim ownership of something that can't be owned". That we, through our gov't, gave them this power makes no difference. We're going to take it back. Using Kazaa is a little like firing up a joint in the capitol building. It's a stupid program for all the obvious reasons. If I share files, I sure don't broadcast it out to the world in big bright lights, but I do like for it to be known that unless they outlaw uploading, P2P is unstoppable, and we will sh
    • What does people protecting their property from people who want their work for nothing have to do with freedom of the press? The only freedom threatened here is people's freedom to download what isn't theirs, and I'm pretty sure they were never given that in the first place.
      • My point was (spelling and typing mistakes aside) that there is nothing wrong with Kazza in it's self.

        There are plenty of perfectly legal uses for kazaa. Most of the users of kazaa use it to break the law but that dosen't mean the program (or the program maker) is inherently bad or illegal.

        A hammer can be used to kill someone but do we sue hammer manufacturers?

        • IF you continually advertise your "People Killer" hammers, and everyone uses them to kill people, and you keep designing them to not only better kill people, but also leave less evidence, then, yes, you will be sued.

          In fact, gun companies have to deal with this all the time.

          What legal uses of Kazaa are not better served by Bittorrent?

  • Kazaa - the golden days are over (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Japong ( 793982 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @11:08AM (#11852244)

    Is this the beginning of the end for Kazaa?

    The beginning of the end for Kazaa came when Cohen released the first Bit Torrent client. The program has gone dangerously downhill since then, with ever-increasing corrupted or misnamed files being uploaded by corporations, a smaller user base with a smaller variety of files, and increased fear by the public of getting sued for downloading illegal MP3s - not to mention slower download speeds and an adware-riddled client.

    Hopefully this is closer to the end of the end for Kazaa.

    • Re:Kazaa - the golden days are over (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      And when Kazaa is gone, what makes you think the laser beam of governance isn't going to be pointed bittorrent's way?

      • Re:Kazaa - the golden days are over (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Japong ( 793982 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @11:25AM (#11852330)

        Oh it certainly will, suprnova.org has already proved that. But BT isn't based off a centralized hub. As long as you have google, you can find torrents, and they're likely to be more secure and non-corrupt.

        The RIAA and MPAA will keep hunting, and the pirates and filesharers will keep on evading and moving further into anonymous and untrackable uploading on the dark side of the 'net. Just like how it took the **AA a year or two to catch on to BT, they're going to have to play catch up with whatever next generation secure P2P apps that come out.

        Remember the days when they were targeting warez groups, and taking down a group like CLASS or MYTH was a feather in the anti-piracy cap? Well the anti-pirates have moved on to fry bigger and more user-popular fish, but the warez groups still operate in the largely unmonitored Usenet and IRC communities... protected by their obscurity.

        So the faster they track, the faster people run. Eventually they'll all come full circle.

        • Dude, class and myth were the user-popular ones. And the other ones mostly went away. Remember razor 1911 shutting down because everyone else was getting busted? There are a few places on usenet you can get stuff, but not much. Large organised videogame piracy groups are a white dwarf, slowly shrinking away. The game makers have wone that one.
    • ahh but when kazaa is gone the RIAA filth will start on something else, and also try to turn it into a compliant DRM loving music store like they did with napster
    • The golden days of Kazaa were over as soon as Napster went under and they became the most popular p2p app out there. From then on out, Kazaa users were plagued by lawsuits, spyware, and the possibility of government intervention. The key to keeping an app used largely for illegal purposes (yeah, I know there are some legit ones but come on guys) is keeping a low profile. Regardless of whether you think it's "right" for the government to do things like this to companies who are not committing any crimes t
    • Exactly. So many people I know have lost their...faith in teh Kazaa. I doubt, though, that BitTorrent will get much help either from SuprNova's eXeem and the **AAs also threatening legal action left and right to both Kazaa and BT users and trackers. I think I'll just stay on the "safe" side and listen to ic-musicmedia's [ic-musicmedia.com] tracks (not that I can vouch completely for their legality or coolness, but I love it).
    • Actually, it's not BitTorrent which is the main competitor of Kazaa, it's ED2K and eMule.

  • The beginning of the end of the Internet (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Long live the new age of governance! Our wonderful Wild West internet is just becoming another government approved entity. Sharman sucks balls, but the idea that all the governments of the world are going to be able to reach out and touch the assets of any non-approved internet entities, means the age of innovation and information dissemination is over. Regulation of any behavior that threatens the status quo of any government on this planet will end what makes the internet great.
  • All of this nonsence sets a bad precident.

  • A bit off topic (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hnile_jablko ( 862946 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @11:26AM (#11852335)
    Where can a person live to escape the influence of corporate america and its legal influence of politicians world wide... I move to australia and this crap happens with the free trade agreement, and now here in the UK on the front of the times there is a threat of prosecution for 'copyright infringement'. I am starting to understand the desire to see the end of my home country in some ways. Yes, I said it. I do not believe in the death of innocent people, but those innocent people have voted to perpetuate the lifestyles they cling to and that involves in many ways (oil, patents, etc) the erosion of other cultures value systems. No longer does morality play a role in the US (has it for some time?), but more it is what can we get and how can we get it. Make my shares climb and I do not care how you do it. Greed is a virus. UGH!!! For those who wish to vilify me for this sentiment, have at it.
    • There are nearly 200 countries, theres got to be at least one that doesnt give a shit about the US and its extreme copyright law.
      • True... but corporate america still has a vested interested in most countries... in Africa they could care less about copyright law and more about the oil and diamonds. The profits go to wealthy shareholders outside the continent while corrupt governments benefit from corporate payouts and political pressure from the US to swing laws in favour of american corporate interests. And should the locals wish to rise up... well they suddenly are put on a global terrorist list and the US helps hunt them down. I
      • "There are nearly 200 countries..."

        *Cringe* There are over 240 countries, actually, but not all are UN members. I know this isn't "news for geographers, international politics that matters", but this kind of basic information is only a google away...

        "...theres got to be at least one that doesnt give a shit about the US and its extreme copyright law."

        Yep. North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Libya...does this list look familiar?

    • Corporate World (Score:4, Interesting)

      by nurb432 ( 527695 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @12:35PM (#11852775) Homepage Journal
      Its not 'corporate *america*' that is the problem.

      Its corporations in general, *world wide*, who now have more power then small countries.

      This of course doesnt mean governments are also an issue, but today it looks like the corporations are a much larger threat in general.

      Dont blame the USA for a systemic world problem.

      • Re:Corporate World (Score:3, Interesting)

        by gstoddart ( 321705 )
        Dont blame the USA for a systemic world problem.

        But this is in part the US insisting its trade/copyright laws are mirrored by everyone else.

        This is a side-effect of US corporate-friendly practices causing corporations to have more sway. If someone buys^H^H^H^Hlobbies for a law in the US, it frequently gets exported to other countries.
    • ISPs can't be forced to give up who used ISP address by corporations.
    • Look no further than your cute and cuddly friends [afterdawn.com] to the north.

      And check out this [michaelgeist.ca] too, if interested in what we think up here.

  • You can still get sued using BitTorrent (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Using BitTorrent doesn't make it "harder" for you to get caught than using KaZaa and whatnot. I deal with cease and desist letters involving BitTorrent files all day.
  • Like we really didn't see that one coming.

  • simple lesson (Score:2, Insightful)

    by nurb432 ( 527695 )
    Dont try to profit off of copyright infringement.

    Until this took place, the industries really didnt notice, or care.. It just increased the market share in the long run.

    If things had been kept 'free', with no commercial angle, there would have been no massive lasuits and attacks on our digital rights..
    • I totally disagree. Even before services like Kazaa came along, the authorities were shutting warez operations down. I remember the fright everybody got into when #warez4cable on Newnet got shut down. :-) Don't remember them making a profit.
    • humm... I seem to remember them busting ftp networks long before this.
    • Dont try to profit off of copyright infringement.

      Yeah, bend over & try to enjoy what the corporations do to you. Remember, if you push back against people trying to wipe out your personal liberties, you'll be hurting the children and helping the terrorists.

  • Since most of the music from the RIAA is imported from america why would the australian government try to stop people getting the music for free? and possibly increase the amount of money leaving the country to america to pay for music? even though we all know most people will just get it for free elsewhere or simply not bother getting it. Why are people so chronically against themselves these days? "support the industry" "support the economy" "give them your money they need it" they think walmart is a dam
    • Why? Pressure from the US. Same reason why non-US isps will take measures against their customers who break US copyright laws. Case in point, a frind of mines who lives in Switzerland got an MPAA form letter for shareing a movie. Now, while the MPAA has no hold there his isp asked him to remove it becuase they were being pressured by the uplinks to the US. It's like this "Oh you DON'T want to stop them? Fine, we are terminating your peering."

      Slimy, yup, but thats what kind of pressure the **AA is put

      • Why? Pressure from the US. Same reason why non-US isps will take measures against their customers who break US copyright laws. Case in point, a frind of mines who lives in Switzerland got an MPAA form letter for shareing a movie. Now, while the MPAA has no hold there his isp asked him to remove it becuase they were being pressured by the uplinks to the US. It's like this "Oh you DON'T want to stop them? Fine, we are terminating your peering."

        Correct. And that is a damning indictment of the fucked-up st

    • Under the terms of the US-Australia free trade agreement, Australia accepted several US laws regarding copyright, patents and trademarks wholesale. Yes, that includes the DMCA and the corrupt patent system.

  • Sharman Networks (Score:4, Informative)

    by owlstead ( 636356 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @11:53AM (#11852497)
    The creators of Kazaa? I think not. They are the current owners of Kazaa maybe, but it seems that a Swedish guy together with two Estonians created the application, while the P2P protocol came from Amsterdam. It was sold to Sharman Networks later on. The Australian software company then messed it up big time - but that is history (it seems).

    Source: various articles on Google found by searching for "creators of kazaa".

  • Fact is.. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I dont buy stuff because I do not have the money, I dont have the space for it and I can get it free so I do. Get over it, things will NEVER change.

    IF we CAN we WILL. Im reducing my "paid" software regulary once they become viable alternatives, ie openoffice instead of Office, tbird instead of outlook and so on. I dont do that out of morality, I do that because I like those products. I still use pirated copies of VMware Photoshop etc because there are no other alternatives that suit my needs and I cannot
    • agreed! I already use tbird and OOo instead of the m$ crap outlook is just too cumbersome for me. and ya gotta love the pdf-export on OOo - you pay $250 for that button with m$ office, if you buy the professional adobe which i still have a warez copy of laying around which I dont use
    • I heard that someone stole some software from M$. If they've lost it I'm sure I got a copy of Windows lying around somewhere that I can give them. They can just pay me for the blank CD. They should make more backup copies for themselves.
  • ... you'll use anything else but Kazaa for your P2P needs. Kazaa is spyware ridden crap.

    Anyway, this is like blaming Smith & Wesson for people shooting each other in the street.

    "The trial primarily focused on the authorization of copyright infringement. Lawyers representing the music industry say Sharman can prevent the transfer of illegal material. It doesnt, it says, because the primary activity of Kazaa users is to infringe copyright."

    This is interesting though - can you really tell the
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • To my knowledge (and I did a bit of research into this when a friend recommended the program, because I really don't want spyware on my system), Skype was created by the *original* developers of Kazaa, and is NOT IN ANY WAY associated with Sharman Networks, who bought Kazaa from the original developers early in its life. I've had Skype on my system for quite a while and have noticed no spyware, nor has Ad-Aware picked up any from it.
  • Does this mean that other, previously usable, networks will experience an influx of Kazaa-using idiots; resulting in a crapflood of corrupted/mislabelled/poorly tagged/shit quality files? :(

  • But... but... I thought it was summer... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Esion Modnar ( 632431 ) on Saturday March 05, 2005 @12:34PM (#11852768)
    down there.
  • "...assets frozen in the country of Australia"

    Australia is a country now?
    I thought Australia was a penal colony of the British Empire. This is very disturbing news indeed.
    I fear what will happen if this news spreads to other parts of the Empire. What if the barbarians of the American colonies want to govern themselves?
    The mere thought almost makes me feel nauseous enough to skip high tea.
    • I'm sure your companions for high tea will thank you if you don't show up: "nauseous" means "nauseating", not "nauseated".
      • From dictionary.com:

        Usage Note: Traditional critics have insisted that nauseous is properly used only to mean "causing nausea" and that it is incorrect to use it to mean "affected with nausea," as in Roller coasters make me nauseous. In this example, nauseated is preferred by 72 percent of the Usage Panel. Curiously, though, 88 percent of the Panelists prefer using nauseating in the sentence The children looked a little green from too many candy apples and nauseating (not nauseous) rides. Since there is a

    • The mere thought almost makes me feel nauseous enough to skip high tea.

      Funny that you'd have a High Tea, the commoner's (working class) supper mean, when your language speaks of a more rarified upbringing; I'd expect you'd be more likely to have an Afternoon Tea? http://coffeetea.about.com/cs/culture/a/aftervshig h.htm [about.com]

  • God I hope not, the RIAA may look into real P2P (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Kazaa has been a usless network for a long time. Its only saving grace is that the RIAA was obsessed with them. If Kazaa falls they will need a new target.

  • Frozen Assets (Score:4, Funny)

    by Kenshin ( 43036 ) <kenshin@lunarOPENBSDworks.ca minus bsd> on Saturday March 05, 2005 @02:19PM (#11853552) Homepage
    I just took a walk outside, here in Canada, and my assets are frozen too!

    I don't thik it would be possible to freeze my assets in Australia.
  • I don't mean this as a troll, but does anybody even care? As far as I know Kazaa is permanently on Slashdot's shitlist for the spyware issue. Then there's the fact that they are simply slow, out-dated, and have a pitiful userbase compared to those of the bit torrent trackers out there. But I guess the dinosaurs had to die off before the mammals could truly rule, eh?

  • Kazaa's Australian Assets Frozen

    - I'd have told them it was a bad idea to keep their money in a PayPal account, but they never thought to ask me I guess.
  • Why do Record Companies want DRM in music downloads? Even notwithstanding that DRM will always be broken, there doesn't seem to be any need. They don't put DRM on CDs, and it didn't damage CD sales. Copying on the internet is easier, but DRM will always be broken and people will eventually develop swarming P2P which cannot be shut down. A much better strategy would be:
    1. Sell DRM-free files direct from the record companies, cheaply because of minimal individual production costs (bandwidth instead of stamping
    • They don't put DRM on CDs, and it didn't damage CD sales.

      What scares the industry is the lack of degeneration from copy to copy. They also don't like one copy providing thousands of duplicates.

      When CD's came out ther was no such thing as a consumer CD burner. The only way to copy a CD was to copy it to tape. This is done one copy at a time. A one hour CD takes an hour to make a single copy (most people only had one cassette deck) and the copy was degenerated from the original. A copy of the copy is
    • Why do Record Companies want DRM in music downloads?

      Because it's the only way to make obscene levels of profit from producing and distributing music now that consumers have cheap and easy access to duplication and distribution facilities.

    • Sue everyone still stealing files.

      How many times must it be said...
      1. copying is not stealing, there is a difference
      2. sharing music is not illegal, much less files, as long as you don't violate copyright
      Please remember to separate these, as they are quite different.
  • These idiots are hurting some of my friends. It appears that school kids are now told they aren't allowed to download music since its "illegal" when its not. Its only illegal to download music when its authors didn't put it up. The result is that a great way to promote local bands is now being blocked by the the schools.

    I would like to get a transcript of what is being said in this court room because I expect someone is not telling the whole truth.
  • If you want to know more about how the trial went, please check out apcmag.com's coverage [apcmag.com]. It's entertaining, descriptive and insightful. It covers each day of the Kazaa et al. trial. For some reason, links to the other 15 or so articles are missing from this URL (I'm certain they were there earlier). Just search for "kazaagate" on the site, and you'll see all the articles.

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