So many countries are coming in with new laws against file sharing, and Australia is no exception. It looks like they sort of lost the court battle as they will be playing for 90% of the record company legal fees, but I am not sure the extent of the final ruling.

In a mixed ruling, the court dismissed allegations of breaches of trade practice legislation (fair trading), conspiracy and direct copyright infringement against Sharman, instead concentrating on the service to users provided by Kazaa.

In essence Judge Murray Wilcox acknowledged that whilst Kazaa did not directly communicate copyright works themselves, he considered that “The respondents authorized users to infringe the applicants’ copyright in their sound recordings”.

The defendants reasoned that they had no control over how their technology was used, rather simplistically likening their use of the P2P network to the use of a photocopier or a tape recorder, although conveniently glossing over the fact that they profited from substantial advertising revenue as a consequence.

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