RIAA Sued For Violating P2P Patent
from the a-taste-of-their-own-medicine? dept
While some may consider it poetic justice to hear that the RIAA has been sued by a P2P company for patent infringement, the news really isn't that great. It's really not particularly unexpected either. Altnet made it clear last year that they would use their patent for identifying files via a hash to sue the music industry for spying on file sharers. Altnet is barely a typical file sharing company either. While it does seem to have a convoluted relationship with Kazaa, it's really a system for interjecting copy protected files into Kazaa's system. The patent, like so many these days, seems quite questionable (and fairly obvious). The RIAA, of course, will fail to see the irony of being hit up with an intellectual property charge, and it will do nothing to change their behavior. All we really end up with is yet another bad patent lawsuit that will do little to move the industry forward.
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