Corporate officers at Sharman Networks, operators of Australia’s Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing service, could face jail time if a judge finds them in contempt of court for failing to implement search filtering technology designed to prevent the illegal trade of copyrighted material.
In late November, Australian Federal Court Judge Murray Wilcox ordered that Kazaa must deploy search filtering technology by December 5, 2005 to prevent the illegal distribution of copyrighted material over the Kazaa peer-to-peer network. The technology was to filter queries for some 3,000 keywords supplied by the music industry to prevent Kazaa users for searching for, locating, and downloading material matching those terms (presumably the names of top-selling artists and titles).
Instead, Sharman has attempted to prevent Australian Internet users from downloading its software, and posted notices that, pending appeal, Australians are not to use or download the Kazaa Media Desktop software.
Record companies contend that Sharman has failed to follow the court’s order regarding filtering, and have filed contempt proceedings against Sharman’s corporate officers. In a statement, Sharman contends that preventing Australian downloads of Kazaa Media Desktop and warning off Australian users constitutes compliance with the court order; Sharman admits it has not implemented search filtering technology.
A hearing on the contempt charges is currently scheduled for January 30, 2006.
