Talking of illegal file sharing, lawyers representing one of the main P2P file sharing networks - Kazaa - have pointed to the Betamax ruling as a defence to a copyright violation lawsuit they currently face in the Australian courts.
As previously reported, Kazaa's owners, Sharman Networks, are being sued by the Australian music industry who claim that by providing P2P software that is used primarily to illegally share copyright material, Sharman are themselves guilty of copyright infringement. Lawyers for the record labels said Kazaa is "an engine of copyright piracy to a degree of magnitude never before seen", claiming Sharman should he held liable for the loss, to the music industry, of about $2.4 billion a year.
However Kazaa's lawyer Tony Meagher argued that file sharing networks were no different than video recorders - although both can be used for piracy, both also have legitimate uses that do not involve copyright violation. The US Supreme Court famously ruled in 1984 that Betamax could not be held accountable if consumers chose to use their video recorders to commit piracy - Kazaa argue the same should apply to them and their P2P network.
Meagher: "It is plain Kazaa has lawful uses, we are not in a position to control and we do not control use."
Whatever the outcome, the court hearing, now expected to continue into the New Year, may prove interesting once the record labels start to present their case in detail. Australian law allows legal teams involved in civil cases to gather evidence in a similar way to criminal cases. The record labels secured evidence by staging raids on some of Sharman's Australian offices earlier this year. That evidence may shed some light on the somewhat mysterious operations of the Kazaa owners who, while run from offices in Australia, are officially based on the island of Vanuatu, putting their operations outside the scrutiny of most courts or financial bodies.