James Delahunty
5 Mar 2005 9:41
Sharman Networks have had their assets frozen pending the outcome in a lawsuit brought against them by the music industry. This includes the personal assets of Sharman's directors including their homes. The assets of Altnet, which licenses technology to Kazaa, have also been affected. This comes just days after Altnet said it would setup a system that would give a cut of Kazaa’s advertising revenue to independent record labels. Alnet's president Lee Jaffe says this is just an attempt by the major labels to cut revenue stream going to their smaller rivals.
"They're just trying to freeze any money going to independents," Jaffe said. "We made an announcement that we had convinced Sharman to share its advertising revenue with all the labels that we've signed deals with ... and I think that really freaked them out." Managing director of Australia's Music Industry Piracy Investigations, Michael Speck claims the action has more to do with preserving the assets of the respondents in the Kazaa case. "What freaked us out is finding out they'd sold their homes," Speck said.
"Sharman CEO Nikki Hemming recently sold her house to Sharman's accountant only 12 months after she bought it", Speck said. If the lawsuit goes in favour of the music industry, then those frozen assets may be awarded to the major record labels as damages. However, Jaffe insists that this move is only another attempt by the major record labels to protect the music industry's monopoly of the marketing and distribution of music. "It's frustrating that four record labels would want to prevent dozens of other record companies from getting paid," Jaffe said. "That, to me, doesn't make sense. That's upsetting."
This all started in February 2004 when the Sharman headquarters were raided by Australia's Music Industry Piracy Investigations, a division of Australian Recording Industry Association. Kazaa challenged the legality of the raids but lost.
Source:
Wired