Judge Rejects Requests To Close Kazaa

The Federal Court in Sydney turned down this week Australian record companies' request for seeking the immediate and permanent closure of the peer-to-peer file-sharing system Kazaa.

On Oct. 10, the record companies demanded that Kazaa be closed immediately after parent company Sharman Networks claimed it could not filter out copyright-infringing material from the system's software.

Justice Murray Wilcox turned down the labels' claim to close down Kazaa immediately by explaining that, "To do that two months short of hearing an appeal...would be a very unusual step for any judge to take."

Sharman Networks will return to court Nov. 24 to report on its progress, following the Sept. 5 landmark decision by the Federal Court of Australia. The court held Sharman Networks liable for authorizing Kazaa users to infringe the labels' copyrighted recordings.

Justice Murray Wilcox had ordered the software altered so that its search function does not display files with names that match a list of copyrighted recordings belonging to the music industry.

He also asked technical advisers of the labels and Sharman to jointly find ways to filter material as quickly as possible and appointed a registrar to ensure a timetable was adhered to.

If the registrar appointed by the court then agreed "a genuine attempt was being made," Wilcox said he would extend the deadline to Dec. 5.

After that, however, the judge warned there was a possibility of the Kazaa system being closed down.