The assets of Sharman Networks in Australia, Sharman's directors including their homes as well as the assets of Altnet have been frozen until March 22, excluding ordinary business transactions. This comes just several days after Altnet announced that they would prepare a fund from a share of Kazaa's advertising revenue for the independent record labels Sharman has signed deals with. Altnet licenses its technology to Sharman, the makers of Kazaa.
According to Altnet, this decision to freeze the assets is just there to prevent the independent labels Sharman has deals with from receiving any funding. This means that if the music industry wins their case, the preserved assets could then be awarded as damages to compensate the four major record labels.
The music industry raided Sharman's Sydney offices back in February 2004 on claims that Sharman has assisted in copyright infringement. Recently, the music industry's lawyers claims that Sharman could have prevented illegal file sharing on its network, but avoided so in order to allow users to go about their prime activity of sharing copyright infringing content. This case is expected to be back in the Federal Court on March 22, when the judge hearing the case returns from vacation. pipemanid and DamnedIfIknow both submitted the following news via our news submit :
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The maneuvering comes just days after Altnet said it would set up a fund designed to give independent record labels a share of Kazaa's advertising revenue. Lee Jaffe, Altnet's president, told Wired News the asset freeze is nothing more than an attempt by the major record labels to choke off a revenue stream destined for the cartel's smaller rivals. "They're just trying to freeze any money going to independents," Jaffe said. "We made an announcement that we had convinced Sharman to share its advertising revenue with all the labels that we've signed deals with ... and I think that really freaked them out." However, Michael Speck, the managing director of Australia's Music Industry Piracy Investigations, a division of the Australian Recording Industry Association, says the action has more to do with preserving the assets of the respondents in the Kazaa case. Read the full article here. |
To me, this freezing of assets is just pure greed by the four main record labels since it appears like they deserve maximum compensation and that the independent labels Sharman actually has deals with should not get anything, or at most what remains after the music industry gets its portion.
DamnedIfIknow added: Gotta love the "shotgun" approach to lawsuits. Sue everyone that might possibly be connected.
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Source: Wired News
