Kazaa verdict due in hours

Justice Murray Wilcox is scheduled to deliver his judgement at 4pm (AEST).

Sharman, the owner of the software and record labels such as Universal Music and Sony have been involved in litigation since March last year.

The labels allege Sharman authorises copyright infringement through the design and distribution of Kazaa and takes advantage of its high volumes of traffic via advertising revenue.

Sharman has argued it has limited control over how the peer-to-peer program works and is used and includes copyright warnings in its software.

The parties have been at loggerheads over the peer-to-peer application since the labels initiated court action in the US in 2002.

At the time, Kazaa was the most popular file-sharing software on the Internet. The record labels alleged millions of copyright infringements occurred each day on the network.

The labels kicked off their assault on Kazaa in Australia in February last year. Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), a division of the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), seized hard drive images and other documents from the Sydney offices of Sharman, associated companies and the homes of executives Nikki Hemming and Kevin Bermeister, under a court-sanctioned civil search order.