Music sharing system KaZaA has been given two weeks by a Dutch court to cease infringing recording artists" copyrights.
If the company fails to comply with the order, it faces a penalty of 100,000 guilders ($40,317) a day, the Judge warned.
The ruling concludes a copyright violation case brought by the Dutch wing of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry against the Netherlands-based file-sharing operation.
KaZaA is run by Consumer Enpowerment, which also owns FastTrack, the software developmer which created the Napster-like code KaZaA uses. FastTrack"s software is also used by Grokster and by MusicCity"s Morpheus system.
KaZaA claims its software has been downloaded more than 20 million times.
Still, the Dutch judge didn"t settle entirely on the side of the music industry. According to a report on Dutch Web site WebWereld (in Dutch), the IFPI has been told to resume talks with KaZaA about the formation of a legal music-sharing service.