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Kazaa owner back for another bite at content conspiracy

Anti-trust action

File sharing network owner, Sharman Networks is set to give its private anti-trust action against the major record labels and Hollywood studios, another bash, after it failed to get a court to take it seriously last time, saying it didn't offer evidence of harm from the defendants.

Now it has come back with another suit, this time saying that it will name names, and places and meetings of when industry executives courted the company and how they then conspired to shut them out. The new suit is identical to the last one, filed in January, except for this provision of extra evidence.

The purpose of the conspiracy is to drive peer to peer technology out of business, the suit claims. There must be, at some stage, a serious platform to investigate the cartel nature of the music companies, with common pricing and the film companies, both of which control their channel to market to the detriment of other competitors. In particular the existence of Movielink, owned by the studios (except Disney) and run for the studios (including Disney) as the most privileged of Video on Demand movie services.

But chances are that the peer-to peer brigade, (Sharman networks now owns Kazaa) are perceived as far less trustworthy even than the comfortable establishment represented by studios and record labels, so perhaps this will not be the case that brings their relationships out into the open.

The record labels are still suing Kazaa and Sharman Networks and go to appeal shortly, where they will argue against the first round judge's belief that peer-to-peer networks are not in themselves responsible for piracy, their customers are.

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