Kazaa vs Morpheus
p2pnet.net News:- Michael Speck, once the Big Four record label cartel’s hit-man in Australia, is now leading an onslaught against StreamCast Networks, owner of the Morpheus p2p application, on behalf of Sharman Networks associate Altnet, purveyor of lame duck DRM.
Speck organized Organized Music’s MIPI (Music Industry Piracy Investigations) attack on Kazaa owner Sharman before it achieved its goal of many years, stepping over to the corporate side of the online fence, paying a reported $115 million for the privilege.
He’s now the front man for Altnet which says it’s “commenced patent infringement proceedings against StreamCast Networks, Inc and its chief executive, Michael Weiss”.
Altnet and other plaintiffs not named in the piece, “allege that StreamCast and its CEO, Michael Weiss, intentionally infringe Altnet’s ‘TrueNames’ patents as part of its music and movie file distribution business,” says Altnet, listing Sharman Networks as the source at the bottom of the statement.
StreamCast, which won’t comment on the Altnet lawsuit, is demanding US$4 billion in actual damages, US$12 billion in treble damages, along with various and sundry other damages and fines, in its own case against Sharman, which has been enlarged to include Sharman stalwarts Nikki Hemming,
Kevin Bermeister and Mark Dyne, as well as Kazaa creators Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, now part of the eBay operation, are also in the suit, of which Ars Technica said:
“The amended court filing details a labyrinthine story of alleged greed, backstabbing, and conspiracy that culminated in Morpheus being mysteriously booted from the FastTrack network in 2002, a move that StreamCast says cost it millions of customers. The shutdown was allegedly done by the original founders of Kazaa (who later founded Skype) with the goal of selling FastTrack technology exclusively to Sharman Networks. In the end, though, like most such cases, it’s about money.”
Morpheus is also demanding a world-wide injunction on the sale and marketing of eBay’s Skype VoIP products, as well as suing it under the RICO (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization) Act.
Also See:
Altnet – StreamCast to Face Court Over Patent Piracy, August 14, 2005
front man – Kazaa owner’s DRM plan, August 4, 2006
US$4 billion – Named in StreamCast vs eBay, May 27, 2006
Ars Technica – StreamCast sues eBay, May 26, 2006
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August 17th, 2006 at 3:36 am
The case has nothing to do with kazaa. Its a patent infringement case between altnet, streamCast and Michael Weiss. Hope the error wqasn’t part of your continueing campaign to libel sharman and its chief executive John? Although not likely that you’ll come up with any excuse as they’re marching y0u out of your home to pay damages
August 17th, 2006 at 4:52 am
IMO those patents should have never been granted. Go read them. Can you say ‘prior art?’
They think they can patent indexing a file by it’s hash value. Why not go ahead and try to enforce a patent on long division while you’re at it.
Scum like this know they are full of shit but they’ll go ahead and use the courts and lawyers in an attempt to DoS another business via legal costs and wasted time on bullshit litigation. And it’s the consumer that ends up getting fucked in the end because the flow of innovation is hampered by a bunch of assholes in suits that abuse the legal process.
August 17th, 2006 at 7:28 am
You may not like the legal system – I certainly don’t, but rather than ranting and raving about it why not write a letter and lobby your law makers to change it. Patent laws have been developed over a long period of time and generally favour big money and the cartels. We all know this. If as a consumer you feel that you are disadvantaged by (say) insufficient recognition regarding prior art than do something about it.
August 17th, 2006 at 7:40 am
Only a matter of time before some lunatic ranted the words prior art..it is the refuge of pirates and the intellectually corrupt. Probably not even a troll…something worse probably a recently fired record company lawyer or media chick
August 17th, 2006 at 7:44 am
might just be the streamcast lawyer thinking out aloud, no-one else even the content industries think so
August 17th, 2006 at 7:47 am
This is getting a little out of hand. Think about it people, StreamCast has gone all quite all of a sudden. They normally want to put their evidence in press releases, that’s how they got done by the mpaa. If they were any more exposed they be in burlesque. Surprisingly the publisher of this site has not issued a disclaimer re his commercial arrangements with StreamCast