Madster Case Delayed Due To Bankruptcy Filings
from the everyone's-going-bankrupt dept
Madster, the company that used to be called Aimster, but gave up its name following a lawsuit by AOL, has now delayed some of the recording industry lawsuits against it, through random bankruptcy filings. The founder (and, as far as we can tell, only employee - if you exclude his daughter - who's job description seems to be "attract guys to our site") of Madster, Johnny Deep filed for personal bankruptcy last week, and this week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for Buddy USA and AbovePeer. The article does a horrible job explaining how these two companies are connected to Madster, but if I remember correctly - Madster is actually put out by AbovePeer. The recording industry has (not surprisingly) declared that these filings are simply delay tactics by Deep who doesn't want to face the charges that he's facilitating music piracy. They're probably right about his reasons. Of course, I hope (even in bankruptcy) Deep has some good lawyers, because it always seemed that Madster (even when they were Aimster) actually didn't violate any laws through the complex set up they had. Now, I haven't always been a huge fan of Madster/Aimster because of the overhyping they've done - but I do think they might actually have a pretty strong case against the recording industry.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
