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A person sued by the RIAA is in turn suing Kazaa on a number of claims

Catherine Lewan, a former Kazaa user who was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) during the organization's attempt to crack down on file sharing, has filed a class-action lawsuit against Sharman Networks, the company which created the Kazaa file sharing program.  Due to fraudulent misrepresentation and deceptive trade practices, Sharman is responsible for all copyright violations that are made by Kazaa users.  Lewan is alleging that Sharman led users to believe that Kazaa allows for free and legal downloads through Kazaa.

Lewan's lawsuit also accuses Sharman of creating its software in a manner that has forces "Kazaa software to install... spyware... for nefarious purposes," without the knowledge or consent of the program's users.

Lewan reportedly paid Sony BMG damages of more than $75,000 to resolve the litigation.  Although Lewan  is the first to specifically name Kazaa, it is likely that she won't be the last to do so.

Last July, Sharman Networks paid more than $115 million to settle litigation which was filed against the company by the RIAA, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and the International Federaion of the Phonographic Industry.

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RE: whats next?
By Live on 12/10/2006 2:59:07 PM , Rating: 3
That was kazaas defense (or rater Sharman networks, who bought the software from the inventors who then invented skype). But they lost in court. So if the court believes kazaa is responsible for the copyright infringement then the user might not be. It's not that far fetched. The difference with the gun companies is that the gun companies that has been sued has not lost there court cases. My bet is that the courts will rule that both kazaa and the user are responsible but they might not.


"The whole principle [of censorship] is wrong. It's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't have steak." -- Robert Heinlein

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