The company that created the program known as Kazaa says it doesn't have enough money to continue battling copyright-infringement lawsuits in the U.S., while two other outfits in the file-sharing game have signaled that they, too, may not have the financial fuel for a powerful defense in the same litigation.

Complaining that record companies and motion picture studios have engaged in "Rambo-style litigation" that has terminated its financial resources, lawyers for Kazaa BV told a U.S. District Court in California last week that the Netherlands-based company is about to cry uncle in copyright-infringement lawsuits it has been fighting for nearly eight months.

In a document filed with a U.S. District Court for the Central District of California last week, lawyers for the Dutch company once called Consumer Empowerment BV served notice that they weren't going to participate in the latest legal jockeying in the case "due to financial constraints."

"Simply put, the (entertainment companies) have run Kazaa out of business," the lawyers reported to the federal court.

Kazaa lawyer Kenneth Wilson told Newsbytes Wednesday that the filing is his client's response to a request from the entertainment companies to hasten the date for what would normally be a routine status conference on the case so far.

However, Wilson and Kazaa complained to the court that, in making that request, the plaintiffs managed to generate "88 pages of pleadings and declarations (just to change) the date of a status conference."

Wilson said that kind of paperwork was an example of the kind of "Rambo-style litigation" that was exhausting Kazaa's budget.

Full Article: Computer User