p2pnet.net news:- Morpheus owner StreamCast Networks is suing eBay, Skype, Joost, Niklas Zenstromm, Janus Friis and seven others.
It claims Zennstrom and Friis, the founders of Kazaa, “profited handsomely from the sale of Skype to eBay only after they and others improperly and secretly transferred away the rights to the FastTrack technology in violation of a license agreement that provided StreamCast a right of first refusal to acquire the technology.”
Kazaa has been implicated in many, if not most, of RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) sue ‘em all cases launched against people who share music with each other. Because of this, it’s also the subject of a class action for, among other things, allegedly “deceptively” marketing its product as allowing “free downloads”.
“The sale of Skype to eBay was made possible through a scheme by many of the defendants to misappropriate the FastTrack peer-to-peer technology that rightfully belongs to StreamCast,” says StreamCast outside counsel Dan Woods. “Zennstrom and Friis may have been trying to mainstream themselves but they can hide from these claims no longer.”
The allegations arise from what StreamCast is calling the “improper transfer of rights to the FastTrack technology central to peer-to-peer search and sharing, and distributed computing and communication”. It says it’s, “seeking to stop the sale and marketing of eBay’s Skype Internet voice communication products and the new online P2P television venture Joost, and is seeking billions of dollars in unspecified damages.
The suit further seeks to stop Zennstromm and Friis from continuing with the launch of their new online P2P television venture Joost, “also based on the misappropriated FastTrack P2P technology”.
The complaint further alleges that Zennstrom and Friis, now billionaires, Kazaa, Sharman Networks and others used disabling technology to shutdown the network of Morpheus users, “consequently causing Morpheus’ entire user base of approximately 28 million to be ‘funneled’ to Sharman Networks, essentially evaporating StreamCast’s users and revenue overnight”.
[Via p2pnet.net]
Not sure if this is an update to the original filing found here and here.