Kazaa Wants Australian Raid Evidence Dismissed

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

12 February 2004

Sharman Networks, the parent company of file sharing software service, Kazaa has called on an Australian federal court to rule that evidence obtained by the Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) group during raids across the Commonwealth is inadmissible.

Permission was granted for the twelve raids, which took in the homes of Sharman's chief executive and director of technology, Nikki Hemming and Phil Morle, by the Sydney federal court last week as part of a copyright infringement case, but the company is questioning whether the court had the authority to authorise the probe.

Sharman is also calling for the copyright infringement case to be halted until similar proceedings (in which the firm is a co-defendant) have been concluded in the United States.

In a statement, the technology firm suggested that the raids had been unnecessary, given that it has already provided evidence, similar to that which was seized, freely in the US case:

"The recording industry plaintiffs, through their representative MIPI, have used the legal equivalent of a nuclear bomb to obtain documentation that is already being readily produced by Sharman through the US court system," it announced.

The case has been adjourned until February 20 by the presiding judge, Murray Wilcox.

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