KaZaa Ignores Court Order to Shut Down

An anonymous reader submitted that "The Amsterdam district court ruled two weeks ago that the KaZaa P2P program is acting unlawfully by making software available that allows users to download music files and must shut down. The court gave the company 14 days to do this or face $40,000 US a day in fines. KaZaa has chosen to ignore the shutdown order."

No centralized server.

[Godeke]

Sounds like they made a bad choice in having the technology to shut down the prior versions of the software... they could have been the first test of truely "uncontrolled" software vs a court order.

Personally, I hope Freenet or one if it's same minded ilk (redundent caching with encrypted content) builds the technology to scale out as large as these kinds of systems have.

Re:Usenet anyone?

[WildBeast]

P2P is easier for newbies, it's more familiar. But not to worry, even newbies will do whatever is needed to get what they want. MP3's are everywhere and their's nothing that can stop it.

Once the toothpaste is out, it's hard to get it back in.

What really happened...

[bluenirve]

KaZaa "We can not shut down because our product because people cannect to each other, not a server."
Reporter "You have shut down earlier clients..."
KaZaa "But in the newest client, it is impossible to do so..."
Reporter "If it is run by clients connecting to clients, why do you need to be around."
KaZaa "Because the software won't work otherwise."
Reporter "For some reason, this seems like what Microsoft would do..."

Let's sue everybody that shares files

[Webmoth]

Hmm. They are suing KaZaa because they make software that allows file sharing over the internet.

Are RIAA/MPAA et al going to sue Microsoft, too? After all, Microsoft makes software that allows file sharing [slashdot.org] over the internet with no content control.

Shoot, even WITHOUT all the unintended security holes, it's pretty easy to set up a web server with all your mp3's and get a search engine to list them all.

Re:Umm...

[_UnderTow_]

I think we can all agree there are flat out illegal pirates out there amongst the legal users.

I think what you meant to say was this:

I think we can all agree there are legal users out there amongst the flat out illegal pirates.

Reverse Class Action

[ryouki]

Why don't the record companies just sue everyone in a kind of reverse class action suit? If thousands of smokers can sue 1 company, Why can't 1 company sue thousands of copyright infrengers? That way everone can owe the record labels millions in damages. Then everyone can go bankrupt together. Afther that the CEO's of the record lables can jump ship enron style before the music industry goes out of buisness for lack of demand as all the consumers are without money.

Re:My Defense of Kazaa

[de_boer_man]

Yes, I stole that man's shoes, but here's the reasons that I did so: (I own several other pairs of shoes, by the way)

First, I really love Nike Air Jordan shoes. Not the new ones, I'm talking the original red and black ones. But you can't buy those ANYWHERE these days. Not even on the internet.

Second, I have tried a lot of different shoes. A lot of the shoes I've tried fall apart soon after I buy them. So maybe I was just borrowing his shoes to see how long they would last before they wore out.

Third, I'm poor. I don't think I could afford more than a couple pairs of PAYLESS shoes a year. Can you believe my hardship! I'm probably the only poor college student in the world. Like I said, I have other pairs of shoes, but I wanted THOSE AIR JORDAN shoes that the other guy was wearing. I don't think I would actually go out and buy Air Jordan shoes though, even if they were for sale.

Fourth, everywhere I look, shoe sales are booming. And shoes cost even more now that when I was a teenager. Even more than when I could actually buy the original air jordan. Shoe companies sell PLENTY of shoes, probably even more because the guy I stole them from probably had to go buy another pair!

The only thing I can find in my local shoe stores are idiot employees, limited selection (plenty of Sketchers crap), and high prices. I could buy online, but it's more of the same except the salesperson is taken out and replaced by crappy customer service.

I'm glad this guy was there. I was able to get the shoes I wanted that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to find.

Seriously though, I know that shoes and digital music are not the same. Not at all. However, all of the reasons above are justifications for behavior that TeleoMan himself admits is wrong. (Unless he has a different interpretation of the word "pirating.") Every lawbreaker has their reasons, their justifications, but that doesn't make the action legal or moral.

For now, sharing digital music in certain ways has been ruled illegal. It might not always be. I hope it won't always be. But none of the reasons listed above would keep you out of trouble would the .mp3 police come knocking on your door. (I don't even want to go there! Imagine... .mp3 police!)