A new candidate to become center of the file-swapping universe has been unveiled: Vanuatu, a small group of Islands in the South Pacific. Thanks goes to Kyle SGMS again for his submission.
Hemming and Sharman control software that has been downloaded more than 60 million times, with more than 1.5 million people using the software on any given day, the company says. Now, with ambitious commercial plans and a lobbying presence in Washington, D.C., Hemming is poised to make a bigger mark on the business of file swapping and digital entertainment than any figure since Napster's Shawn Fanning.
But to get there, the company will have to wend its way through legal threats from movie studios and record labels, as well as concerns of consumers angry about Kazaa's policy of bundling software that will use individuals' computers for other companies' purposes. On Tuesday, Hemming defended company policies that have drawn criticism from both sides.
"Our primary goal is to deliver quality software to users," she said. "I'm very comfortable that we've kept our word to users so far."
Beset from both sides
Sharman is the largest peer-to-peer company that hasn't been sued by recording companies or movie studios. Kazaa BV, the Dutch company that sold Sharman its software, is still being sued. StreamCast Networks and Grokster, two companies that initially shared the Dutch file-swapping technology, also are being sued.
A Dutch appeals court ruled last month that the owners of the Kazaa software weren't liable for the actions of people using the software to trade copyrighted works illegally. That ruling doesn't hold immediate value as precedent in United States courts, however.
Australian copyright authorities have previously said they were investigating Sharman, but were not able to find records of the company's existence. Now they're mum on their plans, but say they're still looking.
"They are still a matter of interest to the anti-piracy unit," said Michael Speck, head of the Australian Record Industry Association's (ARIA) anti-piracy division, in an e-mail to News.com. "The unit down here has...zero tolerance (toward) piracy, and any piracy identified in this territory is dealt with according to the available resources."
Even while scrutiny from copyright holders has tightened, Hemming has tapped into some deep consumer fears about privacy and loss of control of their own computers. For the last two weeks, Sharman has been trying to assuage consumers' concerns about Brilliant Digital Entertainment's Altnet, which will use consumers' PCs in a new commercial peer-to-peer network. Altnet is installed with every copy of Kazaa.
Hemming said that Kazaa has changed its policies to ensure that no personally identifiable information is collected by any of the company's partners, and that all companies--including Brilliant and Altnet--communicate directly with consumers about what will happen to individuals' computers.
"Look, I've got the most powerful brand in the market right now," Hemming said. "I'm not about to put this brand into any risk whatsoever by making a hasty discussion on partnerships."
Some online file swappers are taking matters into their own hands. A hacked version of Kazaa stripped of Brilliant and other companies' advertising software has begun circulating online. Sharman has persuaded Download.com, a popular software aggregation site operated by News.com publisher CNET Networks, to remove that software program from its database, but it is still readily available elsewhere. She said the companies' attorneys are in the process of issuing cease-and-desist orders to the distributors and creators of that software.
Source: Yahoo! News
