Kazza's Violation of Copyright

Well I believe most of you know what Kazza is! For those who do't know, Kazza is a P2P music sharing program.

In a win for the music business, a judge in Australia has ruled that the operators of the Kazaa file-sharing network authorized the widespread violation of copyright works. He ordered that significant changes be made to how the Kazaa service works.

The decision is a blow to Kazaa operator Sharman Networks, which has been battling the closely watched case since early last year. In a brief statement, the company said it was disappointed with the decision and vowed to appeal it vigorously.

Sharman Networks, along with five affiliates named in the case, was ordered to pay 90 percent of the labels' legal costs. Well that's gonna be a big sum but not to worry as a further hearing will take place to determine monetary damages, Justice Wilcox ordered.

The Kazaa network can continue to operate if it meets one of two conditions. One option is to include a "non-optional" key-word filter that excludes from the service all works identified in a list provided by the copyright holders. The filter must be available to all new users of Kazaa and in all future versions. The second option is that Kazaa's TopSearch feature be modified so that it only returns results for works that have been licensed for use on Kazaa.

Recently some versions of Kazza were also found to be containing dangerous spywares.So Bad days are really not ending for Kazza's operators!