Kazaa will be paying record companies $100 million dollars in damages. "Kazaa was an international engine of copyright theft which damaged the whole music sector and hampered our industry's efforts to grow a legitimate digital business," said John Kennedy, head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), in a statement.

As those of us in the communications space know, Kazaa was developed by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the creators of Skype. These guys have to be some of the most press worthy people around -- everything they do seems to turn to gold -- and generate tons of free press.

They have recently set out to revolutionize the world of video distribution as well and one wonders what sort of empire they will build this time around.