Lawyers for Australia"s recording industry have called Kazaa"s file sharing network "an engine of copyright piracy to a degree of magnitude never before seen" and have filed a suit to have Kazaa"s owners, Sharman Networks Ltd., held accountable for the actions of its 100 million worldwide users.
Lawyer Tony Bannon, representing Australia"s six major record labels, claims Kazaa simply isn"t doing enough to filter or limit their users actions. He claims that Kazaa allows users to filter files from their network containing viruses or pornography, but not files that contain copyrighted songs, movies or television programs.
Bannon also claims Kazaa is doing little else than trying to get rich from advertising revenue based on the volume of traffic while painting themselves as crusaders for music fans.
"It"s a charade," Bannon said. "The respondents" motives are not altruistic. On the contrary, the respondents trade off the copyright infringing activities of (Kazaa"s) users."