Kazaa gets stay; industry sees changes

NEW YORK: The operator of the Kazaa file-sharing network said an Australian court would hear an appeal on a copyright case in late February conditional on Kazaa making some changes to its software in the mean time.

Kazaa will have to modify its software to filter out key words linked to copyrighted material by Dec. 5 or be shut down, music industry officials have said of the ruling.

The court extended until late February a stay of an injunction barring it from distributing copyrighted recordings, Kazaa operator Sharman Networks said.

Peer-to-peer networks let users share files rather than relying on a centralized server. In recent years, such networks have been a hotbed of pirated entertainment and software.

The imposition of the deadline follows a ruling in September by the judge in Sydney that Kazaa users were breaching copyright and that the network's owners had to modify the software.

Other global peer-to-peer (P2P) services, which distribute data between users instead of relying on a central server, also have come under fire from courts in recent months.

Sharman Networks had appealed the judgment, and the company on Friday said the appeal to the full court will be heard in late February.

But according to music industry trade group IFPI, the Australian court said that to avoid complete shutdown Kazaa must, as a first step, put in place a keyword filter system within 10 days.