Though it is known as the land down under, Australia’s understanding and respect for intellectual property rights are anything but upside down.
On Sept. 5, an Australian court ruled that Internet file-sharing network Kazaa violated the country’s music copyrights. The court didn’t shut down Kazaa, ruling that the company was not guilty of copyright infringement. But, it ordered the company to modify its software to prevent file sharing, saying it had authorized users to illegally exchange copyrighted songs.
File sharing has been an issue since 1999, when Napster users began to swap music across the Internet through a central server. Kazaa is one of the file-sharing technologies that followed Napster, which was shut down in 2001 by the courts after legal challenges that it was violating intellectual property rights. Kazaa actually went further than Napster in that not only is music illegally exchanged but so are movies and software.
The Kazaa ruling closely follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that said Grokster, another file-sharing operation, could be sued for copyright infringement.
The courts, it seems, are at least being both clear and consistent. That’s because the people who create these file-sharing operations aren’t naive victims who developed an innocent product that is being misused by millions of people. The developers know exactly what they’re doing and why. They are purposefully and flagrantly providing a product that has one overwhelming use: to steal intellectual property.
What many consider harmless sharing of music is actually a form of piracy. It’s the theft of intellectual property, which costs U.S. business between U.S. $200 billion to $250 billion a year. That’s a lot of money, and that money represents a lot of jobs. The U.S. Customs Service estimates counterfeiting alone costs the U.S. 750,000 jobs. And in Kazaa’a case the theft includes software and movies.
So this isn’t just about rich rock stars and record company executives taking a light hit in their swollen wallets; it’s about the tens of thousands of everyday working people who make up the industry and depend on it for their livelihoods.
The protection of intellectual property means as much to them as it does to those who create it.