Kazaa Too Legit To Quit

Filed in archive Companies , International , Legal , RIAA, IFPI on July 27, 2006

Sharman Networks, developer of Kazaa P2P file sharing software, has settled with both the major labels and studios in a global agreement with RIAA, IFPI, and MPAA. Sharman will pay $115 million and use filtering technology to ensure only legal content is shared and downloaded. Details on the filtering and a timeframe for conversion were not announced. The filtering is likely beyond the simple keyword filtering mandated by an Australian judge.

Sharman had lost a copyright infringement lawsuit in Australia Federal Court last year. Sharman joins major services Grokster, bearshare, and iMesh to convert or close down, as well as ezPeer in Taiwan and Soribada in Korea, under entertainment industry pressure.