Labels sue Vuze, Limewire, Morpheus, Shareaza
p2pnet news view Freedom | Music:- Vuze, Limewire, Morpheus, under Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, and SourceForge [Shareaza] are being sued by French music industry enforcer Société civile des Producteurs de Phonogrammes (SPPF).
“Although the companies (and applications) themselves have nothing to do with copyright infringement, SPFF believes it has a strong case,” says TorrentFreak, going on:
“If SPPF succeeds in their case against organizations running the four P2P applications, FTP software and Internet browsers might be next, if they [SPPF] don’t go after Ubuntu and other operating systems first.”
Shades of MGM vs Grokster, SPPF claims the four companies are are knowingly distributing software which allow unauthorized access to copyrighted works.
“In essence they are saying that everything, or every application which allows a user to share files, will be indeed used for illegal purposes,”says the story. “In contrast, in the US, companies that don’t encourage their users to commit copyright infringement with their applications, are not acting illegally.
“SPFF had already sued the various companies and organizations last year, but until now it has been unclear whether the US based companies behind the applications could be prosecuted under French law. A French court has now ruled that this is indeed possible, which means that they can proceed to court.
“Recent French legislation which inspired the labels to go after the P2P companies, suggests that all P2P applications must have a feature to block the transfer of unauthorized copyright works. The clients that are sued by SPFF obviously don’t have such a feature. In fact, it is questionable whether it would be technically possible to develop such a filter. Nevertheless, SPFF demands it, and is claiming millions of dollars in damages for lost revenue.”
Vuze is appealing the decision, says TorrentFreak, adding:
“Separately, the company is suing SPPF for defamation based upon several false and harmful statements made by SPPF about Vuze. A different French Court has denied SPPF’s attempt to derail those claims recently, and is allowing the defamation lawsuit to proceed.”
SPPF says it has more than 500 members, “uniting numerous independent producers such as Scorpio Music, Happy Music, Atoll Music, AB Disques Video, Francis Dreyfus Music, GM.MUSIPRO, Yearling Productions, Tréma, Sforzando , etc …”
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Morpheus – Morpheus throws in the towel, May 1, 2008
TorrentFreak – Record Labels to Sue Vuze, Limewire and SourceForge, November 14, 2008
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November 15th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
So can I sue the Car manufactors, Gun manufactors and Knife manufactors… plus the other stuff manufactors, because their products can kill, especially guns and knives are designed for it?
November 15th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
wait they forgot to sue themselves
for utorrent OH yah
its not about money its about control we remember
damn i like those egg signs the local farmer put up
/me eats some
…..
November 15th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
and yes list all the artists who now just ended there carreers DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM
EVER
November 15th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
This is exactly the right thing for them to do:
The more frivolous idiocy that surrounds the worthless legal fiction known as “Intellectual Property”, the less people will be willing to listen to apologists for it.
The best thing about patents is that they eventually expire.
The worst thing about copyright is that people still think it’s acceptable. The only “reform” that will fix this type of bullshit is the complete abandonment of “Intellectual Property” as an idea.
Barring that, they’ll — vainly — continue to scrabble desperately by doing shit like this, and only succeed in making themselves/their lobbyists/the whole notion of IP look even more virulently evil than it already is.
They’ve already alienated an entire generation of teends (interestingly, the demographic who formerly justified their expstence by buying shit like Milli Vanilli). It’s time for people to give up on the notion that State-backed monopolies are acceptable.
November 15th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Wow, believe it or not, it seems like the music industry really isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Look, even Justin from Muxtape says so:
“In May I had my first meeting with a major label, Universal Music Group. I went alone and prepared myself for the worst, having spent the last decade toeing the indie party line that the big labels were hopelessly obstinate luddites with no idea what was good for them. I’m here to tell you now that the labels understand their business a lot better than most people suspect, although they each have their own surprisingly distinct personality when it comes to how they approach the future. The gentlemen I met at Universal were incredibly receptive and tactful; I didn’t have to sell them on why Muxtape was good for them, they knew it was cool and just wanted to get paid. I sympathized with that. I told them I needed some time to get a proposal together and we left things in limbo.”
Isn’t that great? The music execs after all *do* understand their business and are very receptive to new ideas! Read the rest of it here: http://muxtape.com/
It looks like the all the controversy about file sharing, lawsuits and so on are just all be based on various misunderstandings from all sides. It’s gonna end well for all concerned, you wait and see. Stay tuned!
November 16th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
why dont they sue themselves for utorrent
November 16th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
” Isn’t that great? The music execs after all *do* understand their business and are very receptive to new ideas! Read the rest of it here: http://muxtape.com/
It looks like the all the controversy about file sharing, lawsuits and so on are just all be based on various misunderstandings from all sides. It’s gonna end well for all concerned, you wait and see. Stay tuned! ”
Bullshit.
If the ‘Proposal’ isn’t EXACTLY wht the labels want, they’ll sue.
If Justin doesn’t ‘obey’ them, they’ll sue.
They hold the Streaming radio stations in limbo too.
The ‘law’ the RIAA got pushed through allows them to take a ridiculous amount of
money from the station owners ( far more than radio will ever need to pay ), but , purely
out of the goodness of their hearts they are , heh, negotiating, deals with them, just like justin.
It is a lot closer to extortion that negotiation.
Things will turn out, as you say, but how is anybody’s guess as of yet.
PE Obama shutting the doors on the lobbyists is a step in the right direction,
Ted stevens being ousted is another.
We’ll see.
November 16th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
“A French court has now ruled that this is indeed possible, which means that they can proceed to court.”
These French judges are desilusional! And so is the SPFF.
Who do they think they are to believe that judges decision taken from a small corner of Europe will apply in USA?
Whahahahahahahahahaha! Go for it!
Whahahahahahaha!
November 16th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
“PE Obama shutting the doors on the lobbyists is a step in the right direction,
Ted stevens being ousted is another.”
Overwise all these recording industry parasites and their lawers might end up beein murdered.
If you keep puling on a rope eventually it will snap.
November 16th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
“Things will turn out, as you say, but how is anybody’s guess as of yet.”
It’s a foregone conclusion, and it has been since Napster: They’ve already lost in every way that counts:
1. For every one they shut down, ten or twenty spring up.
2. For every impediment to p2p technology they come up with, somebody cracks it in a week. Same goes for DRM.
3. They’ve already alienated an entire generation of teens (and a hell of a lot of other people besides.)
The Copyright extension act was first-hand evidence that the “laws” related to IP aren’t t here to protect creators. The (repeated) attempts to stamp out/sue any really innovative technology and/or compare it to the Boston Strangler proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that these laws are about “incentive to innovate.”
Somebody — probably a lot of somebodies — like the Piratebay, “Students for a free culture”, or even just our pal Jon Newton is gonna continue to stand up to these corporate worms, and grind them ever further into the dust of history.
Like that guy Fung from Isohunt said, it’s the LAWS that need to change — not anything the p2p advocates/users are doing.
The pigs tried (and thought they’d succeeded) killing the public domain with that “extension” act. p2p technology was just the thing that woke everybody the hell up, is all.
Copyright is shit, pure and simple, and the more they keep doing this, the more people wake up to that fact.
(And to think I actually agreed with these vultures at one point!)
November 16th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Correction: AREN’T about incentive to innovate.
November 17th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Where did my comment go?
I just want everyone to get along on all sides of the divide.
Maybe this one won’t disappear, eh?