Kazaa Owner Suing P2P News Site For Comments

from the bad-news dept

Someone who prefers to remain anonymous writes “It seems Sharman and Nikki Hemming have become court junkies… as if fighting copyright cases in both the United States and Australia isn’t enough, now it appears they have turned on file sharing news site P2Pnet.net. Although owner operator Jon Newton is keeping quiet about the libel suit, Slyck.com has done some research and it appears that the Kazaa parties have lodged a civil action in the British Columbia Court of Appeals against him and his site. It also appears as though Jon is being sued, not for something he wrote, but for comments made on his site by members of the public.” This is unfortunate for a variety of reasons. First, that Kazaa would go after a news site, but that they would sue the site for its comments. The case in Canada, where the laws may be different, but in the US it’s pretty clear (still disputed in some areas) that the publisher of a website is not responsible for what others say on their site. This is the way things should be, as it would basically make any online forum impossible to run otherwise — as the publisher would be entirely liable for all comments the publisher had no control over. Right now the details are still missing, but this is a strange move and one that seems to smack of desperation.


Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “Kazaa Owner Suing P2P News Site For Comments”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
8 Comments
Nilt says:

Re: WTF

It’d be helpful if you were a bit more specific. Without any access to the facts of the case at this stage, we just don’t know enough to comment yet.

It may simply be a case of Sharman suing the site owner in an attempt to force the revelation of those who posted the allegedly libelous information. It may be a publicity stunt. We just don’t know at this stage.

That’s not to say I am defending Sharman. My gut reaction is to favor the little guy. Still, until we know more we are just babbling.

null (user link) says:

Re: Re: WTF

The aimini P2P 1.9.0.1 released and the all new aimini.net launch.
http://www.aimini.net/

Aimini’s users will can create sharing resource list on the website. The list contains personal information card and all type file: photo, video, music, software, games etc.

Aimini P2P software lets people communicate and collaborate over the Internet and corporate intranets, holding real-time communicatings where they can see, hear, and exchange information with each other. Aimini P2P software allows using PozID, IP, Hostname or URLs address to connect up in between users. Person to Person, direct connect up in between users, File Direct-Transfer, peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing, making for faster searches and downloads of all types.

Aimini P2P software supports industry standards and offers rich data transmission, audio transmission, and video transmission capabilities in a seamless, easy-to-use client.
http://www.aimini.com/

Anonymous Coward says:

Lets hope its just an attempt to find out who made the comments cos if Sharman and Hemming were really worried about their reputation in the p2p community it would have been a much better move to have demanded a full retraction and public appology rather than to take the litigation path… closing down p2pnet is not going to get people to move back to Kazaa, nor is it going to make up for whatever bad things were said about them

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

A weekly news podcast from
Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

Subscribe now to Ctrl-Alt-Speech »
Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...