Judge: Kazaa Must Reveal Investors, Officers

Legal Issues

from the give-'em-up dept

Late last year there were a bunch of articles discussing the convoluted corporate structure of Shaman Networks the owners of file sharing software Kazaa. Much of the structure was designed to make it much more difficult for the music industry to track them down and sue them. Of course, the industry’s lawyers should never be underestimated. They’ve convinced a judge in the US to order Kazaa to reveal all of their investors and officers. The article doesn’t go into much detail as for why the judge ruled this way. Of course, with the recent rulings saying that Grokster and Morpheus are legal, Kazaa now have something of a precedent – and they’ve even got more ways to show that their system offers plenty of non-infringing uses. Still, you have to expect that the music industry is going to follow through on its recent moves against Bertelsmann and Hummer Winblad and try to directly sue the investors. If this keeps up, it will have something of a “chilling effect” on investors – who shouldn’t be liable for actions their companies take.