Judge Throws Out Streamcast Suit Claiming eBay & Skype Stole Their Technology

from the nice-try dept

Last year, the makers of the Morpheus file sharing program, StreamCast, initiated a bizarre lawsuit against Skype and its founders (and, later, eBay). The actual history behind the case is somewhat complex. Streamcast was an original partner of Kazaa, using Kazaa's FastTrack network to power Morpheus. Later on, after some sort of dispute, Kazaa blocked Morpheus from using FastTrack, and then sold itself off to Sharman Networks, a mysterious company that many believe was really a front for some other organization. The original founders of Kazaa then went on to found Skype, which was later sold to eBay for a few billion (you may have heard about it). However, the folks at Streamcast alleged that the founders didn't really sell off the core pieces of Kazaa and actually used it to power Skype. Even better, they allege that their original deal with Kazaa gave them a "right of first refusal" should Kazaa ever sell its technology. A pretty complex setup there, and apparently, a judge isn't buying it, as she's completely tossed out the lawsuit, saying that Streamcast didn't make much of a case against, well, anyone. Streamcast promises to appeal, but it certainly looks like a bit of an uphill battle.