The Australian Federal Court has decided that Sharman Networks and Altnet are responsible for the fact that users were transferring files which infringe copyrights, and what's more, they've even encouraged that practice.

The decision of the Australian court has thrilled companies and music studios all over the world, Kazaa being considered a P2P network that has caused losses to all the companies, not only to the Australian ones.

In conclusion, the companies behind Kazaa, Sharman Networks, Altnet, the general managers of the companies, LEF Interactive and Brilliant Digital Entertainment have until November to devise a filtering system to prevent the transfer of illegal files, if they want their P2P system, Kazaa, to continue to function.

The Australian court considered that Kazaa has encouraged users to disregard the copyrights, although Sharman Networks and Altnet clearly stated that they were not encouraging the transfer of files that infringe copyrights.

The damages Sharman and Altnet will have to pay to the studios which were affected by Kazaa's activity will be established by the Australian court, the companies asking for compensatory damages corresponding to the number of files transferred through Kazaa.

Music companies and studios consider that the decision of the Australian Court is just and they hope that their example will be followed by other courts.