Kazaa, AU Music Industry at Odds Again

The fight between Sharman Networks, the owner of the Kazaa peer-to-peer service, and the Australian music industry intensified on Tuesday.

The record industry accused Sharman of failing to comply with a September mandate that it install filters to weed out copyrighted content. In turn, Sharman accused the record industry of attempting to sidestep the decision and have the service shut down altogether, which was not part of the ruling.

Sharman put into place on Monday deterrents that would make it harder for Australian Web users to download or access the service. Visitors from IP addresses from within the country are greeted with a message in red letters stating "the download of the Kazaa Media Desktop by users in Australia is not permitted."

Australian users of the software also receive a message indicating use of the software is unlawful in the country: "Attention users in Australia: To comply with orders of the Federal Court of Australia, pending an appeal in February 2006, use of the Kazaa Media Desktop is not permitted by persons in Australia. If you are in Australia, you must not download or use the Kazaa Media Desktop."

A similar message appears on the Kazaa Web page for international users.

The moves to comply with the court order did not include one item that the court had asked for -- keyword filters. According to the record industry, the steps Sharman took were not good enough.

"Sharman has thumbed its nose at the court. They were given a chance to do the right thing and they've ruined it," Stephen Peach, CEO of the Australian Recording Industry Association, said in a statement.

"They cannot be trusted to even take the simplest steps towards complying with the court's orders and again have shown they intend to do nothing about the illegal activities occurring on a massive scale on their system."

The record industry plans to attempt to have Kazaa shut down entirely as a result, claiming Sharman is ignoring the court order. However, such a move may be difficult, as the company has taken steps to prohibit or limit use by Australians, and the court does not have the jurisdiction to shut down the service in other countries.

Sharman has also shot back, saying the reason why the filters have not yet appeared are a direct result of the record companies' "intransigence."

"We are doing everything in our power to comply with the Court's orders. First, they refused to turn up to a conclave, and then they threatened to shut us down," a Sharman Networks spokesperson quipped. "It is clear they are only interested in removing a competitor."

Sharman also says it remains committed to bringing filter technology from Audible Magic to the Kazaa software, with or without the help of the record industry. It claims that the Audible technology was agreed upon by both parties as an "excellent long term solution."