Nikki Hemming (born 1967) is the CEO and part owner of
Sharman Networks and President of LEF Interactive, an agency based in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, responsible for promoting and developing
Kazaa, a
peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...
file sharing network, since 2002. As such, she has been a figure in the dispute between peer-to-peer networks and the music industry including a legal case between the
Australian Record Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing th ...
(ARIA) and the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA).
She is also suing Jon Newton, founder and editor of Canada's p2pnet, for alleged defamation.
Early career
She was born Nicola Anne Hemming in Northampton,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1967, and she emigrated to
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
in the early 1990s to work for
Virgin Interactive. Hemming had previously worked in setting up offices in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
as well as working for Virgin Interactive and
Grandslam Entertainment
Grandslam Interactive Ltd. (formerly Grandslam Entertainments Ltd. and later Grandslam Video Ltd.) was a video games software house based in Britain. It was formed in late 1987 from a management buy-out of Argus Press Software by former Argus Ma ...
in the
UK before relocating to
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
. By 1997, Hemming was the CEO of
Sega World, a now defunct theme park in the
Darling Harbour
Darling Harbour is a harbour adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central business district.
Origin ...
district of the city. Sega World cost A$70 million to build but failed to attract sufficient visitors even during the
Sydney Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug language, Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport ...
. After it closed in 2000, Hemming worked for
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to:
* Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate
* Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom
* Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
for a short while.
Sharman Networks
By 2002, Hemming had established LEF Interactive Pty Ltd, standing for
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, which would be responsible for managing Sharman Networks.
Sharman Networks was established in
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
, with the stated intention of investing in Internet companies.
In March 2002, Sharman licensed Kazaa and the associated Fasttrack software from company founder
Niklas Zennström
Niklas Zennström (; born 16 February 1966) is a Swedish entrepreneur and technology investor. Zennström is also the co-founder of the charity organization Zennström Philanthropies.
Education
Zennström has dual degrees in Business Administr ...
after Kazaa had been sued by every major record label and movie studio in the US.
As at March 2002, Sharman Networks had a decentralised structure which Hemming had set up. Hemming was the only public figure associated with the company and was widely believed to be the owner. The secretive nature of the new ownership arrangements meant that it took nearly a year for the record and movie industries to have enough information to take legal action against the company.
In the meantime, Kazaa had become popular, reaching an estimated 64 million downloads of the software with four million installations of the program running at any one time. By 2003, Kazaa was the ninth most popular website in the world.
In 2003, a judge in Los Angeles found that Kazaa was subject to US copyright rules. The US Supreme Court found in ''
MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.
''MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.'', 545 U.S. 913 (2005), is a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled unanimously that the defendants, peer-to-peer file sharing companies Grokster and Streamcast (maker of Morpheus), cou ...
'' decided during June 2005, that peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa could be sued for copyright infringement. Although the justices could not agree whether it changed a previous ruling in, what is known as the "Betamax case" ''
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.
''Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.'', 464 U.S. 417 (1984), also known as the “Betamax case”, is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that the making of individual copies of complete television s ...
'' that it is exempt if there are significant legitimate users of the technology.
Kazaa was originally a party but action was dropped against it because it was based in Vanuatu and Australia.
Hemming claims that she has offered to work with the recording industry to develop a secure system to download files. She signed a licensing deal with Altnet and
Streamwaves
Streamwaves was an online music service founded by Jeff Tribble and Daniel Hexter in Dallas, Texas. Founded during file sharing service Napster's legal troubles, Streamwaves was the first company to license major label masters for a subscription ...
to allow the distribution of 20,000 songs.
Kazaa settled all of its outstanding legal issues together with Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, the original founders of Kazaa, in August 2006 and all litigation ceased in Australia and the rest of the world.
Sources
About Sharman Networks page*
ttps://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.02/kazaa.html ''Wired'' article on Kazaa published February 2003* ''Biography Research Center Online'' Gale Group Farmington Hills Michigan Retrieved 13 August 2005
*
''Melbourne Age'' article on Nikki Hemming, 5 March 2003
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemming, Nikki
Australian businesspeople
1967 births
Living people