Locked in a court battle with film and music studios over its popular Kazaa file-sharing software, Sharman Networks this week accused its legal foes of copyright infringement -- the same charge the entertainment companies have leveled against it.
Sharman, headquartered on the island nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, on Monday amended its claim in federal court in Los Angeles to accuse the labels and studios of breaching its copyright and privacy provisions to covertly gather information about users of Kazaa. It also revived its antitrust charges in the claim.
Last year, the record labels and movie studios filed a copyright infringement suit against Sharman, one of several such legal battles against file-sharing services in their effort to stamp out online piracy.
A spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major labels, said the copyright infringement claim was ironic for a company accused of abetting online piracy.
"Sharman Networks' newfound admiration for the importance of copyright law is ironic, to say the least," the RIAA spokeswoman said. "Too bad this self-serving respect stops at their headquarters' door in Vanuatu, and doesn't extend to preventing the rampant piracy on their networks or lifting a finger to educate their users about the consequences of illegal file sharing," she added.
Sharman also accused the studios of a concerted scheme to keep Sharman, its partner Altnet, and peer-to-peer technology out of the market for licensed digital content distribution.
Since last year, digital media company Altnet, owned by Brilliant Digital Entertainment Inc., has placed pay-content listings among Kazaa search results to lead users to authorized, protected files instead of unlicensed music tracks and other content on Kazaa.
Sharman has touted the partnership with Altnet as a potential and legitimate revenue source for music labels.
But in its counterclaim, it said that while Sharman and Altnet held various productive talks with executives at AOL Time Warner's Warner Music, Vivendi Universal's Universal Music and other labels, these efforts were later stymied by industry body directives.
It said the studios also engaged in collusion to apply pressure to advertisers, Internet service providers, and business partners of Sharman and Altnet, as well as public smear campaigns.
