Court: Kazaa Not Responsible for Swapping


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Dec 19, 1:25 PM (ET)

By ANTHONY DEUTSCH

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - The makers of Kazaa, the world's most popular computer file-sharing program, cannot be held liable for copyright infringement of music or movies swapped on its free software, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The decision upheld a 2002 appellate-court verdict in Amsterdam that dismissed a suit filed by Buma/Stemra, which protects the interests of the music industry.

Buma/Stemra had demanded that Kazaa stop offering free downloads from its Web site, or face a daily fine of $124,000.

Kazaa's Media Desktop software is one of a variety of file swapping programs used by tens of millions of people worldwide. Kazaa alone has 3 million to 4 million users at any given time.

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Looks like this file swapping thing is starting to blow up in the recording industry's faces. Going to be an interesting few months coming up....

Yeah, after being hit by record company this past months, seem they begin to counterattack. I like to hear news about LEGAL file sharing, just wait and see.

Down with the Recording Industry. The days of paying for overpriced, underproduced music are OVER. Time to move into the 21st century.

Sounds like good news to me!! This is the beginning of a long battle. My support lies with file sharing. Those greedy music industry execs are starting to have the courts go against them now, it will be interesting to see how they react.

AMEN!!