Ruling in July, presiding judge, Justice Murray Wilcox dismissed a number of objections to the case raised by Sharman regarding access to evidence seized in raids undertaken by MIPI in early 2004.

Permission for the twelve raids, which took in the homes of Sharman's chief executive and director of technology, Nikki Hemming and Phil Morle, was granted by the Sydney Federal Court. However, Sharman questioned whether the court had the authority to authorise the probe.

The firm also called for the Australian copyright infringement case against it to be halted until similar proceedings (in which the firm is a co-defendant) have been concluded in the US. However, these objections were rejected, meaning that the civil copyright infringement trial could get underway yesterday.

According to reports on the case in the international media, Sharman has argued that it has no control over the use to which its P2P software is put. However, MIPI's legal team has countered by suggesting that as the file sharing software contains filters designed to sift out files containing viruses and pornography, there is no reason why Kazaa could not also filter out copyrighted material.

Sharman Networks' legal team is expected to deliver its opening statement today.