RIAA and Sharman legal battles continue

[Phantasm66]

The U.S. District Federal Court Judge is currently hearing the case for summary judgment against Sharman Networks, parent company behind the P2P file sharing service Kazaa. The Federal Court Judge will listen to further arguments from both the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA and Sharman, who both want the summary judgement motion settled by the judge without going to full trial. The RIAA and the copyright holders want Kazaa network shutdown immediately, whereas Sharman is contending that there is not sufficient evidence to legally do so.

Will Kazaa go the way of Napster? Post a comment now.

 

[vassil3427]

I can't stand the RIAA, I hope Kazaa(Sherman Networks) wins.....

 

[Phantasm66]

in a perfect world they would, but i think that the money and influence that the RIAA has will no doubt lead to a victory on their part.

 

[Vehementi]

Yeah, I'm sure P66...RIAA will find some way to cripple KaZaA, even if they don't win the case, which they'll most likely bribe and cheat...

1/2 the malicious viri on KaZaA are probably the work of the RIAA. I can't stand them.

I think their site needs to be hacked a few more times.

 

[running]

As part of what I do, I'm researching the Music Industry and their history, and I can tell you that they don't have the guts to assume their totalitarian digital police role completely. It already happened a few decades back, and the result of their copyright complaining was that independent artists got a chance. They know perfectly well that independent labels and artists are ready to make themselves known through the media, and are anxious to free themselves from the monopoly.

Perhaps at some point I'll post a thread with the evidence and historical references, so you can dare them and say: "You greedy b@!$~@!s, I dare you make the same mistake again!" Maybe before I finish my Ph.D.

 

[MoRulez]

I thought it wasn't possible for Kazaa to be shut down since there is no centralized server (which Napster had) to shut in the first place. If Kazaa goes down, then we will have to say goodbye to the freedom to share files of any type over the internet in a program which is VERY WRONG!!! Can anyone imagine a world we would have had without Napster or any other file-sharing program!!!!! ITS INSANE!! These huge corporations want money any way they can, and we, the average person, cannot let them win !!!! VIVA LA KAZAA!!!!!!

 

[RustyZip]

If theres no centralized server, how are they going to stop existing users from using Kazaa???

Or am i missing something here?

 

[Rick]

There IS a centralized server from my understanding. KaZaA is NOT true P2P. Now, gnutella and edonkey do a much better job of P2P in this respect.

 

[SleeperDC]

the shut of napster is already stupid enough...
hope RIAA won't shut down all the P2P networks one by one...

 

[poertner_1274]

I'm sure that is their thoughts, which is a bad thing IMO. They just need to quit complaining, because they are still making a LOT of money.

 

[Phantasm66]

I think the point is that now that the cat is out of the bag, there is nothing that can stop P2P technology. Something will just spring back up in its place, probably offering a more expansive service (like Kazaa after Napster) and that will likely be designed to circumvent the very legal problems that killed Kazaa.

But Kazaa may still prevail.

 

[poertner_1274]

I don't even use it, but I hope it stays alive.

 

[Phantasm66]

You don't know what you're missing....

 

[poertner_1274]

Reason it isn't used is due to a campus firewall. If I had a chance I would probably give it a shot.

 

[MoRulez]

umm...VIVA LA KAZAAAA!!!!!!
Unite my fellow net users!!!!!

 

[conradguerrero]

When I installed Kazaa, I got all these spyware warnings ...

I don't want someone sending me targeted ads, spam is bad enough in e-mail.

Is there a way to avoid the spyware?

 

[RustyZip]

Hey, Conradguerrero, use KazzaLite - its a stripped down version of Kazaa with no spyware.
Just look on any serch engine for "kazaalite" and you'll find it...

 

[Phantasm66]

Yes kazaalite is very good.

 

[Rick]

I prefer Diet KaZa.. But I haven't used KaZaalite in awhile.

On some systems where using 3rd party software isn't a good idea or too much to fool with, I just edit the hosts file to block KaZaA's web address. It blocks all the ads and startup page.

 

[conradguerrero]

Wow! So there's two other KaZaas out there.
Which one is better to avoid ads:
Diet KaZa or kazaalite?

 

[RustyZip]

Well, i dunno about Diet Kazaa, but KazaaLite has no ads and no spyware...

 

[minnesota_slim]

running

we might have some simil;ar research issues- can you please contact me at minnesota_slim@hotmail.com? I am researching the legal aspects of copyright issues as they relate to P2P filesharing and one important topic for me is whether the RIAA can still claim to promote creativity. Please contact me if to discuss.

Originally posted by running
As part of what I do, I'm researching the Music Industry and their history, and I can tell you that they don't have the guts to assume their totalitarian digital police role completely. It already happened a few decades back, and the result of their copyright complaining was that independent artists got a chance. They know perfectly well that independent labels and artists are ready to make themselves known through the media, and are anxious to free themselves from the monopoly.

Perhaps at some point I'll post a thread with the evidence and historical references, so you can dare them and say: "You greedy b@!$~@!s, I dare you make the same mistake again!" Maybe before I finish my Ph.D.

 

[Unregistered]

Legal Arguments

Hi

I would tell the sharman legal team that the argument they should make is that record companies charge artists for distribution to encourage popularity. This incurs a cost that has to have an effect on the end price of a cd. Sharman should simply argue that they offer a distribution service free of charge that would eventually result in the reduction of CD cost to the consumer and therefore should actually be entitled to a percentage of sales.

utamalianga@msn.com