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| Founded | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Port Vila,  Vanuatu |
| Key people | Nikki Hemming (CEO) |
| Products | KaZaA |
| Services | P2P Networks |
| Website | www.sharmannetworks.com |
Sharman Networks is a company headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu. It owns the rights to the KaZaA file sharing software. It was created for this purpose in 2001 when the original owners of KaZaA were sued in the Netherlands.
In December 2003, Sharman shut down Kazaa Lite K++ by serving DMCA notices to all the server owners that hosted the software.
In April 2004 Sharman threatened legal action against Markus Kern for his distribution of the giFT Fasttrack plugin claiming that reverse engineering Sharman's Fasttrack network was illegal.
The CEO of Sharman Networks is Nikki Hemming. Alan Morris is the executive vice president. Phil Morle is the director of technology.
In 2006, Sharman launched a defamation suit against p2pnet.net, a one-man digital media news site specialising in freedom of speech and file sharing issues [2]. Sharman later dropped out, leaving executive Nikki Hemming to keep the suit going. It has not yet been resolved.
The company is currently involved in legal brawls in Australia and the U.S. over the alleged use of KaZaA to infringe copyrights. (As of March 8 ,2009 its still unclear if these cases have been resolved.)
KaZaA has partnered with Major Record Labels, Music distributors,and Re-opened the KaZaA website, To listen and download any music for a monthly cost with certain Strings attached. as said in their about section of their new website.
"KaZaA is a subscription-based service that gives you unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of CD-quality tracks.
For just $19.98/mo, you can download unlimited music files, and play those files on up to 3 PCs that you own. The subscription package is for PC only, which means that you won’t be able to play those files on a portable music player. The files will remain playable while your subscription is active – once your subscription ends, you will no longer be able to play those files.
The subscription package also enables you to download unlimited ringtones to a single cell phone.
Unlike other music services that charge you every time you download a song, Kazaa allows you to listen to as much music as you want for one low monthly fee. This allows you to explore all the music you want without having to pay for every single track or album." article text.[1]
There are limitations to the downloads of the music offered. This is due to RIAA legal Case In 2008. its No longer a P2P (Peer to Peer) network but more like a Music Distribution service similar to that of Napster, Rhapsody and iTunes. (Note: Napster, Rhapsody and iTunes have Nothing to Do With KaZaA or the Sharman Netowrks.)
External links
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