SHARMAN Networks chief executive Nikki Hemming wasn't in court to see the music industry deliver its body blow to file sharing, but there's no doubt Justice Wilcox's ruling on the Kazaa peer-to-peer network is a major win for the big record companies.
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It was quickly clear to those crowding court 21C in Sydney's Queen's Square complex that the judgment represented a victory for the record labels, which have been fighting peer-to-peer around the world.
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Justice Wilcox found the respondents - Sharman Networks, management company LEF Interactive, chief executive Nicola Anne Hemming, business partners Brilliant Digital Entertainment and Altnet, and BDE chief executive Kevin Glenn Bermeister - had authorised copyright infringement.
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They have been given two months to install filters to stop traffic in pirated tracks on their system, and face a large damages bill, to be assessed at a later hearing.