STREAMCAST MORPHEUS SOFTWARE

Usually if it’s a copywritten work, companies aren’t going to steal it, but it happens,” attorney Jeffrey E. “Criminal copyright infringement is an act of racketeering that can serve as a basis for a Rico complaint. Civil plaintiffs today find it much more difficult to navigate the complicated law. With Rico cases running rampant, Congress attempted to limit the scope of Rico in the civil context in the 1990s. By the late 1980s, Rico became a popular claim in federal court, with attorneys extending the law to cover fraud, product defects and breaches of contracts. The Rico Act was used almost exclusively in this context until the 1980s, when civil lawyers began to explore section 1964(c), which allows civil claims to be brought by any person injured in their business or property by reason of a Rico violation.Īny plaintiff that proves his civil Rico case automatically receives judgment in the amount of three times their actual damages, along with costs and attorneys’ fees.

In essence, Rico was intended to destroy the Mafia. The Rico Act is a law enacted in 1970 to eradicate organized crime by establishing strong sanctions and forfeiture provisions. Neither Kazaa nor Skype responded to inquiries seeking comment. StreamCast looks forward to litigating this lawsuit,” he added. We will not be providing copies of the Complaint to the media. “I am unable to expand upon that at this time other than to say that the Complaint speaks for itself. “As has been reported, StreamCast Networks, the developer and distributor of Morpheus P2P file search and sharing software, has filed a lawsuit against Skype and the other named defendants alleging violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and other claims,” said Charles Baker, a partner at Houston-based Porter & Hedges, and StreamCast’s lead counsel on this case.

STREAMCAST MORPHEUS SOFTWARE

StreamCast and Kazaa have quarreled over software licensing fees in the past. Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, also the developers behind the Kazaa file-sharing software, are also named in the suit. StreamCast Networks, which developed and distributes the Morpheus file-sharing and search software that provides copyright holders with the ability to sell content to peer-to-peer users, is alleging that it owns the underlying software in use by Skype, the Voice over Internet Protocol provider eBay purchased last year. District Court in the Central District of California, claiming copyright infringement violations under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, otherwise known as the Rico Act. StreamCast Networks has filed suit against Skype and Kazaa in a U.S.

Streamcast morpheus