KaZaA launched in 2000 at a time when Napster was popular.
Napster was subsequently forced to suspend its service in the face
of legal battles. KaZaA allows users to download free peer-to-peer
(P2P) software which can be used to swap music, images and movie
files over the internet. To date, tens of million of copies of its
software have been downloaded.
The Court of Appeals ruled at the end of last week that:
“KaZaA rightfully appeals the ruling of the
District Court, where it stated that as a preliminary issue KaZaA
acts contrary to copyright law. In so far as any infringing use is
being made by the means of KaZaA, these acts are committed by its
users, not by KaZaA.”
The court added: “It is not correct that […] KaZaA's computer
program may exclusively be used for downloading copyrighted
works.”
The company is claiming that this ruling means that, at least in
the Netherlands, developers of technology cannot be held liable for
what others do with it.” Users of the KaZaA software are able to
share files via the internet, including copyrighted files.
Accordingly, music copyright organisation Buma/Stemra sued KaZaA BV
for copyright infringement.
The company acknowledged that “the practical meaning of the
ruling for KaZaA BV remains to be seen.” As a result of the earlier
judgment of November 2001, KaZaA BV says it "was forced to sell its
most important business assets" to an Australian company. The
Australian company now running the KaZaA.com site has not been sued
- yet.
The Dutch company’s CEO, Niklas Zennstrom, said on Thursday: “I
have received this verdict with mixed feelings. Surely, it comes
too late for KaZaA BV. Hopefully, organisations such as Buma/Stemra
will come to their senses and stop these legal battles against
peer-to-peer file sharing technologies”
