The war between the music business and the peer-to-peer community took a nasty turn early Feb. 6, when an Australian music industry group obtained a special court order to raid both the offices of two peer-to-peer companies – including Sharman Networks, the parent of KaZaA – and the homes of some of their key executives and some Internet service providers.
The homes of Sharman Networks chief executive officer Nikki Hemming, Brilliant Digital chief executive officer Kevin Burmeister, and Sharman technology director Phil Morle were raided by the Music Industry Piracy Investigations group, which also raided Sharman and Brilliant Digital offices and the Universities of Queensland and New South Wales, not to mention four ISPs including Telstra, according to CNET.
The MIPI obtained what's called an Anton Pilar order Feb. 5, an order that lets copyright holders "to enter premises to search for and seize material that breaches copyright, without alerting the target through court proceedings," CNET said. Telstra spokesman Warwick Ponder told ZDNet Australia, a CNET sister site, that his company's attorneys are working with music label attorneys to learn just what information was sought under the Pilar order's terms.
MIPI general manager Michael Speck said the main target was KaZaA. "This is not about individuals," he told ZDNet. "This is about the big fish. This is a signal that Internet music piracy is finished in Australia."
"We have not been asked for and will not provide any BigPond (an Internet access service) subscriber information," Ponder continued. "Telstra has made it very clear for a long time now that it does not support copyright infringement or any other illegal activity. At the same time, Telstra clearly respects its obligation to protect customers' information and privacy under the Telecommunication Act and Privacy Act under federal law."
MIPI accuses KaZaA of infringing copyright under the Australian Copyright Act, but Sharman Networks rejected that accusation. "This action appears to be an extraordinary waste of time, money and resources going over legal ground that has been well and truly covered in the U.S. and Dutch courts over the past 18 months," Sharman said in a statement after the raids. "This is a knee-jerk reaction by the recording industry to discredit Sharman Networks and the KaZaA software, following a number of recent court decisions around the world that have ruled against the entertainment industry's agenda to stamp out peer-to-peer technology."
Speck isn’t buying that. "KaZaA operators know the difference and make the decision as to whether they facilitate legitimate or illegitimate downloads," he told ZDNet. "It's very clear they are facilitating and authorizing global copyright infringement."
The MIPI has estimated that each downloaded track from KaZaA to its Australian users, if bought instead at 99 cents a track as Apple's iTunes Music Store charges, would be worth about $2 billion a month globally, CNET said.
But Sharman – which first became a music business target when it bought KaZaA from its Dutch creators in 2002 – called the Pilon order and raids "a cynical attempt by the industry to disrupt our business, regain lost momentum, and garnet publicity… It is a gross misrepresentation of Sharman's business to suggest that the company in any way facilitates or encourages copyright infringement."
Sharman has partnered with Brilliant Digital, whose Altnet subsidiary offers to pay people to host content on KaZaA.
Monash University and the University of Queensland have challenged the Pilon order and were due in court later Feb. 6, while Sharman and Brilliant Digital were due for a court date on the issue Feb. 10.
Titan Media, the gay adult video company who has had its own battle with KaZaA in particular trying to stop P2P swapping of its video materials, did not want to comment on the Australian raids at this time.
