In a request filed by six Australian music labels to the Federal Court, access has been granted to documents and computer records of Sharman Networks, including source code and encryption technologies used by the infamous P2P file-sharing application, Kazaa. Universal Music, Festival Mushroom Records, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, and BMG Australia successfully applied to the court for an Anton Piller order, the effect of which is to prevent the destruction of what the Court ruled as evidence vital to their ongoing proceedings in the United States.
Though Sharman Networks requested a stay of the applicants’ motion until the completion of their United States litigation, this request was explicitly denied by Willcox J, who upheld last week’s ruling. Implicit in His Honour’s reasoning is the assumption that an Anton Piller order is the only means by which transitory, digitally-stored evidence concerning the Kazaa network’s operation could be obtained (at [79]):
[T]he operation of the Kazaa system does not depend only (or even principally) upon action then being taken by the respondents or the Brilliant Digital parties, but upon the actions of countless other participants using the system the respondents have allegedly created. I do not understand how it could be ensured that these participants would act in a normal and natural way in an organised demonstration [without the Anton Piller orders].
The effect of the order is to require Sharman Networks to provide detailed information about the structure and content of the Kazaa network. If the applicants are able to identify a way that Kazaa could potentially exert control over the distribution of copyrighted materials, this could spell an end for Sharman’s last defence.
Sharman Networks is expected to appeal the decision early next month.
