I wasn't alone in my cynicism regarding Sharman's decision to add Skype to its latest Kazaa offering. Sharman is on trial in Australia, accused just as Grokster is in the U.S. case of enabling copyright infringement. According to CNet, an attorney for the recording industry said adding free VoIP to Kazaa was a "robber's reward."

Somewhat disconcerting was what appeared at the bottom of the story, a sponsored link titled "Download Kazaa Now." When you type "Kazaa" into the CNet search engine on its home page, three sponsored links appear at the very top, all for downloading Kazaa software. One says "Legally & Safely Download 1000's of Songs & Movies Don't Get Sued." That's quite a promise, not only because no such legal guarantee exists, but because Computer Associates just labeled Kazaa the Internet's top spyware threat. Not very safe.

All of the reader comments on the CNet story defended Kazaa and its users, and faulted the recording industry. The posts, unfortunately, reflected the usual lack of logic found in the free content universe, with the first arguing that the recording industry has "desire for TOTAL world domination." I likely watched too many James Bond movies this Thanksgiving weekend on Spike TV, but I thought that was the mission of the dreaded SPECTRE.

posted by Patrick Ross @ 6:43 PM | General

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