MP3 - Kazaa Another Victim

The popular file-sharing company, a successor to Napster has sold its software and web site to a private Australian firm Sharman Networks Limited.

The popular Kazaa is facing a Napster like lawsuit in a Dutch court.

Kazaa said "Sharman will once again make the Kazaa media software, which lets users search and download music and video files that are publicly available."

On Jan 17 2001, Kazaa suspended the downloading of it popular software, pending a court decision. But the thousands of users who already have downloaded software are still free to swap files.

Kazaa and the Fast Track, a file-sharing technology that it licenses to other file swapping services, such as Grokster and Morpheus were both founded and run by 35-year-old Swedish-born Niklas Zennstrom.

"The original brains behind Kazaa have moved on to develop new innovative software," the Kazaa.com website said Monday.

The sale included the website, name & logo and the license for the FastTrack software.

The Kazaa web site has listed a copyright notice saying "users of the software are bound by the laws governing copyright in their respective countries.

A Dutch judge ruled, In November, that the company must stop its users from sharing copyrighted music files. But Kazaa said it could not comply because its decentralized system did not allow it to know who its customers are.

Kazaa is not the only file sharing service to be named in a suit filed last fall by the trade groups for the music recording and motion picture industries.

Many trade groups are claiming these services permit users to download and trade copyrighted material without permission.

Napster was ordered to shut down with a similar lawsuit, because of the lawsuit by the Recording Industry Association of America.

But major media companies have since moved to take advantage of the pent-up demand for sharing media files online. Sony and Vivendi Universal have backed an online subscription service called Pressplay. AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann AG and EMI Group Plc have established a rival service called MusicNet.

As many more lawsuits are both to the file sharing services, many more spring up. As for example when Napster was ordered, many more file sharing services took its place, Kazaa had been one of these newly developed services. But now Kazaa is also facing Napster faith, to come up with a subscription service. But if history has taught us another file sharing service will pop up to take Kazaa's place and fight will continue till someone gives up or copyright agreement it meet.

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