According to a document entitled "Kazaa Technology 2004", written by Phil Morle, Sharman needs to be careful about installing too much adware on the user's computer upon the installation of the Kazaa software.
The document said the adware "slows down users' machines and can affect other activity such as browsing the Internet". Morle added in his statement "We are also adding increasing p2p networks to the users' machines. These are good value to users but they use more resources and create confusion for users as to what resources they are sharing and where this can be controlled."
Morle continued saying that these two issues could be reasons why Kazaa "loses users by over-stepping the mark" and that the company should base this by looking at how many employees at Sharman Networks refuse to install the p2p software.
"Consider how many people that work for Sharman Networks and its partners that hate installing Kazaa on their machine," Morle said in the document.
Australian record labels Universal Music Australia, EMI, Sony/BMG, Warner, Festival Mushroom and 25 additional applicants are suing Sharman and associated parties -- including Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Altnet, Sharman Networks CEO Nikki Hemming and others -- over alleged music copyright infringement made through the Kazaa software.
The document also stated the company's awareness of the legal risks involved with the technology.
"Our competitors are taking risks legally, but delivering compelling consumer solutions. We need confidence in what we do and must take similar leaps of faith. eDonkey is not yet being sued and is in a strong position to out-innovate us," Morle wrote.
The Australian record companies believe that Sharman is misrepresenting when it claimed that "the performance of a personal computer will not be, or is unlikely to be, noticeably affected by its functioning as a supernode for the purposes of the Kazaa software."
The document is part of the bundle for which a request for confidentiality was rejected by Justice Murray Wilcox this week.
Kristyn Maslog-Levis reported from Sydnet for ZDNet Australia. For more ZDNet Australia stories click here.
Talkback
Oh that is gonna hurt.
One small cockup for Kazaa, one massive stumble for p2p.
I had Kazaa on my new Compaq computer and it slowed down my computer so much, every program I tried to get to would freeze up.I finally uninstalled it, and it was much faster after that. I think that no one should ever get Kazaa, and if they do, I wish them good luck on trying to actually do anything on their computer
We operate 10 community broadband networks in Midlands UK with several hundred users and I have never seen more havoc caused by a single application. Performance hits on other applications by the adware, performance hits on Internet speed, performance hits on other broadband users, trojans, worms, overworked CPU's and somethimes very stubborn removal processes make for trouble everytime we install a Kazaa user.
In response to nj comments..
Anyone in the know will avoid Kazaa,and was only a matter of time before this kinda bad press came out.
But p2p on the whole wont be affected as their are much better programs such as Shareza which dont fill your pc with adaware and junk and work great.
Massive stumble?
No way nj
I have been running Kazaa lite for nearly three years without any problems as I paid my $29.99 "DID YOU" No ads No pop ups No problems
I also stand by Sharman networks in their sole fight against the RIAA and the FIAA
and hope that they win their case against
these money grabbing sharks
Libraries dont pay Authors
Radio stations dont pay Royalties
So why should we pay the RIAA to share music
Good Luck KAZAA
Both my brothers and my new computers were infected with the Trojan virus upon installation of Kazaa, it was tracked back to the Gain files that were part of the installation.
It was quite an inconvenience to get rid of.