Kazaa owner sued

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Record labels are suing the firm behind leading file-swapping software Kazaa, in the latest round of the fight over copyright.
Sharman Networks, based in Australia but registered in the Pacific island state of Vanuatu, is being sued along with nine other firms.

In court, the labels dubbed Kazaa "an engine of copyright piracy to a degree of magnitude never before seen".

Sharman says it has no control over what users do with the files they swap.

The labels behind the case are EMI, Warner, Sony BMG and Universal, as well as a number of Australian record companies.

Their lawyer, Tony Bannon, told the judge in Sydney's Federal Court that 100 million users swapped 3 billion files a month - and that Sharman was both making it easy for them to find illicit music and profiting from it by selling adverts on its website.

The industry raided Sharman's offices as well as those of several other companies in February in the search for evidence to support the suit.

Sharman opens its defence on Tuesday.


sourc full story: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4051489.stm