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Aussie Kazaa Offices Raided by Recording Industry

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  • Aussie Kazaa Offices Raided by Recording Industry

    As you all know, Kazaa is based in Sydney, Australia. Not sure if what just happened here is good news for any Kazaa fans. Also, could someone familiar with the Australian legal code please explain the "Anton Pillar" law? Seems like these "investigators" overstepped their bounds to me. Not sure if they were private or actually the police as the article doesn't seem to say.

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    By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Writer

    SYDNEY, Australia - Investigators from the Australian recording industry raided the Sydney offices of Internet file-swapping network Kazaa on Friday in search of evidence to support allegations of copyright infringements.

    The raid was conducted under a rarely used law, known as Anton Pillar, which allows litigants in civil copyright cases to gather evidence.

    The Federal Court gave major Australian record labels permission to raid 12 premises in three states to collect evidence against Kazaa, said Michael Speck, general manager of Music Industry Piracy Investigations. The group is owned by Universal, Festival Mushroom Records, EMI Music, Sony Music, Warner Music Australia and BMG Australia.

    The raided sites included the office of Kazaa owner Sharman Networks, the homes of two of the company's executives, three Australian universities and Internet service providers.

    Speck said the recording industry would launch a civil action against Kazaa in the Federal Court on Tuesday.

    "This sends a very clear signal to Internet pirates in Australia that the game is up," he said.

    In a statement, Sharman Networks said it was complying with the court orders, but was appealing them, saying they amounted to "a knee-jerk reaction by the recording industry to discredit Sharman Networks and the Kazaa software."

    "This action appears to be an extraordinary waste of time, money and resources going over legal ground that has been well and truly covered in the U.S. and Dutch courts over the past 18 months," the statement said.

    In December, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that Kazaa's makers cannot be held liable for copyright infringement of music or movies swapped on its free software. In the United States, a federal case against Kazaa is pending.

    A U.S. judge has dismissed the entertainment industry's lawsuits against two rival file-sharing services, Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc. An appeals court heard arguments in that case this week.

    Sharman has denied it promotes copyright piracy, saying it has no control over what users do with its software.

    Kazaa's Media Desktop software, one of several programs that let users swap music, movies and other computer files, has 3 million to 4 million users at any given time.

  • #2
    This whole downloading music thing is going crazy. Why do people download music? Because we can't afford to pay 15 bucks for 12 crappy songs and one good one. Which, unfortunetly, seems to be the majority of cd's these days.

    Record companies have been loving this system, because cds cost almost nothing to make. Bands make a majority of their money with concerts and tours. The record companies want this situation to continue, and don't want to let go of those profits.

    They really should be concentrating on a way to capitalize on the popularity of downloading music. Like I-Tunes. Instead of sueing all their customers.

    I don't even need to download music to get any cd I want. I just wait for a friend to buy it, then burn the cd. That's probably where most of the record companies lose their profits anyway.

    /end of rant/

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    • #3
      Originally posted by bloodhound96
      This whole downloading music thing is going crazy. Why do people download music? Because we can't afford to pay 15 bucks for 12 crappy songs and one good one. Which, unfortunetly, seems to be the majority of cd's these days.
      I agree with that

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      • #4
        I am listening this very second to music off kazaa the quality tends to be better than data protected CD's. Why go and buy when you can sit and download...


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        • #5
          Originally posted by G-MIDY
          I am listening this very second to music off kazaa the quality tends to be better than data protected CD's. Why go and buy when you can sit and download...
          Because as the trend continues, and people don't actually buy the music, the record company does not get paid, and in return the performer does not get paid, and when that happens, how much music do you think will be out there to download...?

          Don't be such a loser...go buy a damn CD.

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          • #6
            If you don't want to spend the money for the CD use a service like I-Tunes. Each song costs .99 cents and the download speeds are amazing. I've used them now for a couple of months and since then haven't used anything else i.e WinMX, Kazaa. Just watch out, those .99 cent songs add up quickly.

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            • #7
              Piss on the record company!
              Who needs 'em?
              I'd prefer to give my money directly to the artist, rather than their pimp!
              ...And with indie labels, internet distribution, etc, the record company is a disappearing dinosaur.
              ...which is why they're scared as hell, and resorting to goofy tactics.
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              • #8
                How much does it cost to make a copy of a 12 track CD with labels/covers.
                7 cents maybe? How much does it cost? 17$ How much is going to a record company? 40-50% if not more? Like hell I'll buy the CD...

                -Clovis

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                • #9
                  Jeff has it right. If you don't support the infrastructure you end up with nothing. Look at a toaster for instance. North Americans didn't want to pay $40 for a toaster(made in Canada or U.S.A). They went to Walmart and bought one for $20. Well the one for $20 comes from a China and while it works today it will be broken in 6 months as their quality isn't as good as ours. And then you have to fork over for another. It happened so much you can't find a toaster on the shelves that is made in Canada or the States.

                  And guess what guys. That means fewer jobs for you!

                  I don't buy a lot of CD's, my daughters do though. Here in Ontario the record companies dropped the price to $14.99 for nearly all CD's to keep market share. Thinking you can have everything free is stupid. Some one has to pay!

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                  • #10
                    Record company CEO's can stop pocketing 20 million per tune and start being reasonable. Untill then there will always be ways of getting music online, and they will be used.

                    -Clovis

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                    • #11
                      Sorry to dredge up an old post but those guys should have been arrested for making such a crappy P2P program.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Leftseat86
                        How much does it cost to make a copy of a 12 track CD with labels/covers.
                        7 cents maybe? How much does it cost? 17$ How much is going to a record company? 40-50% if not more? Like hell I'll buy the CD...

                        -Clovis
                        I read in an Argentinean magazine a few months ago an article about that. Let's take for instance a "xxx" CD and see who gets most of the money:

                        - Artist: ~ 4%
                        - Manufacturer (the company that makes the CD): ~ 8%
                        - Store: ~ 25%
                        - Record company: ~ 63%

                        And that in your $ 17-CD:

                        - Artist: $ 0.68
                        - Manufacturer: $ 1.36
                        - Store: $ 4.25
                        - Record company: $ 10.71

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by ptbodale
                          Jeff has it right. If you don't support the infrastructure you end up with nothing. Look at a toaster for instance. North Americans didn't want to pay $40 for a toaster(made in Canada or U.S.A). They went to Walmart and bought one for $20. Well the one for $20 comes from a China and while it works today it will be broken in 6 months as their quality isn't as good as ours. And then you have to fork over for another. It happened so much you can't find a toaster on the shelves that is made in Canada or the States.

                          And guess what guys. That means fewer jobs for you!

                          I don't buy a lot of CD's, my daughters do though. Here in Ontario the record companies dropped the price to $14.99 for nearly all CD's to keep market share. Thinking you can have everything free is stupid. Some one has to pay!
                          All right with both Jeff and Dale. Nothing can come up absolutely free.
                          Btw, in France, the producer of a movie had some nice idea.
                          - He let hackers believe they could get the movie for free months before release at theaters.
                          - He waited for them to get conned by leading them into unloading a dummy combining cuts of the make-up
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                          • #14
                            It's funny to see people justify theft.

                            Music piracy is THEFT ... in EXACTLY the same way downloading aviation pictures off the net without permission of the photographer is.

                            Why is one OK and one not OK?






                            ADG
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                            No makeovers please .....

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                            • #15
                              so technically saving an aircraft picture, is illegal without the photographers permission? If so that is really lame and cheezy... only in america ay!

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