Distributing software for sharing files on the Internet is legal even if the application is being used for illegal activity, the Supreme Court of The Netherlands has ruled. In upholding a lower court ruling, the high court found that Sharman Networks, maker of the Kazaa file-sharing application, did not infringe on the rights of music and movie copyright holders by distributing its application on the Web. In a statement, Sharman’s founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, hailed the decision as a “historic victory for the evolution of the Internet and for consumers.”
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Dutch Supreme Court Declares Kazaa Is Legal
Posted by: John P. Mello Jr. December 23, 2003 07:49 AMDistributing software for sharing files on the Internet is legal even if the application is being used for illegal activity, the Supreme Court of The Netherlands has ruled. In upholding a lower court ruling, the high court found that Sharman Networks, maker of the Kazaa file-sharing application, did not infringe on the rights of music and movie copyright holders by distributing its application on the Web. In a statement, Sharman’s founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, hailed the decision as a “historic victory for the evolution of the Internet and for consumers.”