[EAS]Suing KaZaA

[pjk]

Subject:   Suing KaZaA

In times digital the media industries have sprung major leaks.
Napster may be 'plugged' but others continue to leak. Oh, those
golden days of vinyl LPs and laser disks (analog video, digital
sound).  --PJK
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(from NewsScan Daily, 7 October 2002)

HOW DO YOU SUE A COMPANY YOU CAN'T FIND?
The Internet music-swapping firm KaZaA, which has assumed the
successor  role to now-defunct Napster, is being sued in a federal
court in Los  Angeles by the Recording Industry Association of
America for copyright  violations, but the RIAA has several problems
to overcome. First, there is  a question of geography, since KaZaA
is everywhere and nowhere: its  distributor, Sharman Networks, is
incorporated in the South Pacific island  nation of Vanuatu, it is
managed from Australia, its computer servers are in Denmark, and
its developers can't be found. Second, there is an issue of 
jurisdiction: Sharman's lawyer says, "What they're asking is for a
court to  export the strictures of U.S. copyright law worldwide.
That's not  permitted. These are questions of sovereignty that
legislatures and  diplomats need to decide." And third, there is the
question of whether  giving people the tools (KaZaA's service) to
break the copyright law is  itself a copyright violation, even if
KaZaA itself did not misappropriate  copyrighted music. 
(New York Times 7 Oct 2002)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2002/10/07/technology/07SWAP.html