Brilliant Digital sues the RIAA
p2pnet.net News:- Sharman Networks associate Brilliant Digital Entertainment and its Altnet subsidiary are getting desperate.
Sharman bought the Kazaa p2p application from Kazaa BV in 2002 and loaded it with BDE software, kicking off Kazaa’s continuing decline.
Financially troubled BDE and Altnet have been trying with a singular, and very marked, lack of success to convince the entertainment industry that when it comes to DRM, TrueNames is where it’s at.
Having failed, they’re now using their lame-duck ‘TrueNames’ patent to try to winkle money out of the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), among others.
“[...] efforts at cooperation have proven fruitless, ” says BDE. Thus, it’s filed a civil suit against a number of companies and organizations, including the RIAA, alleging the breach of the ‘TrueNames’ patent it licensed in 2002.
The suit names RIAA chief Mitch Bainwol, the RIAA’s former boss Hillary Rosen, president Cary Sherman and Loudeye’s Marc Morgenstern as defendants.
Also named are Overpeer, Loudeye itself, and Media Sentry.
“Altnet alleges some of the defendants infringe on its patents to ’spoof’ peer-to-peer (P2P) users with bogus or corrupted media files,” says BDE in a statement. “Altnet alleges this has inhibited the growth of P2P for legitimate file sharing that benefits copyright holders (which Altnet advocates) and thereby has injured its business.”
It goes on:. “Regrettably, our unique business proposition, backed by our exclusive patent rights, has been rejected continuously over the past three years, forcing us to seek injunctive relief.
“We’ve exhausted every means of trying to work with defendants and those they represent to patiently encourage and positively develop the P2P distribution channel,” says Altnet ceo Kevin Bermeister wistfully.
“Ironically, Altnet has built its business to directly address the modern moral dilemma of digital copyright infringement; yet their failure to establish – or embrace – legitimate, consistent and competitive business practices, delays the day when we will both see significant revenue from this incredible distribution stream that is already providing substantial benefit to many copyright owners and consumers.”
And ….
“Ironically, Overpeer “collects – and sells – information gathered from consumers’ computers,” says Bermeister. “While officially dubbed ‘data mining,’ the information gathering practice is more often compared to “adware” or “spyware,” which provides clients with information about computer users’ web habits – without informing users the data mining is going on. Others claim this kind of software slows down user computers.”
Ironically, BDE spyware and adware have led to the virtual demise of what used to be the Net’s most popular p2p application: Kazaa.
Be that as it may, “In the interim, we cannot stand by and allow them to erode our business opportunity by the wholesale infringement of our rights,” says Bermeister.
Indeed not.
He concludes, “We’re saddened to have had to take this kind of action and are confident we will prevail.”
Altnet recently issued notices to Big Champagne, BayTSP, Cyveillance, MediaDefender, MediaSentry, NetPD, Overpeer, Ranger Online and Vidius, “warning them to cease engaging in activities that Altnet believes constitute patent infringement.”
Altnet later admitted that Big Champagne shouldn’t have been on the list.
Interestingly, the RIAA wasn’t included.
On the RIAA’s absence from the list, “We have a good relationship with the RIAA, and we have lines of communication open with them,” a ZDNet story quoted Altnet as saying.
September 9th, 2004 at 3:59 pm
All the companies that Altnet threatened are really just tiny boiler-room operations – Let’s see them throw down the guantlet at RiAA
September 9th, 2004 at 5:07 pm
“yet their failure to establish – or embrace – legitimate, consistent and competitive business practices”
They mean their decision to actually read the closest calendar and realize “Hey this isn’t the 80s, we aren’t using an old out-dated and quickly becoming obselete business model”