Now Altnet Goes After File Sharing Spies For Patent Infringement
from the who-else-can-you-piss-off? dept
It looks like Altnet/Brilliant Digital is trying to piss off just about everyone no matter what side of the file sharing debate you're on. Earlier this year they claimed they owned a patent on the right to identify a file using a hash, and promptly threatened to sue every other file sharing network out there. Many thought it was amusing that the company that basically runs Kazaa was threatening people over intellectual property. Now, though, they've gone after folks on the other side of the debate and have sent threatening letters to all the companies that spy on file sharing networks - usually on behalf of the recording industry. There are any number of reasons why this is ridiculous, starting with the central point that this is yet another ridiculous software patent that never should have been granted. Meanwhile, at least one of the companies being threated, BigChampagne, claims that Altnet has no clue what they're talking about, since they don't use a hash to identify files.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
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
The fall of Google begins...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
no hits for Kazaa lite in Google?
[ link to this | view in thread ]