[DMCA-Activists] Distributed Search Company Sues RIAA over Patent

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: pho: c|net: P2P company sues RIAA over patent
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 22:49:18 -0700
From: John Parres <address@hidden>
To: "address@hidden" <address@hidden>

P2P company sues RIAA over patent

By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5357332.html

Story last modified September 8, 2004, 5:45 PM PDT


Altnet, a company that sells music and other digital goods
through file-swapping services, sued the Recording Industry
Association of America on Wednesday for alleged patent
infringement.

The company, a subsidiary of Brilliant Digital Entertainment,
contends that the RIAA has been infringing on one of its patents
in the course of copyright enforcement efforts inside
peer-to-peer networks. Overpeer, a copyright company owned by
Loudeye, and MediaDefender, also are named in the lawsuit.

"We've exhausted every means of trying to work with these
defendants and those they represent to patiently encourage and
positively develop the P2P distribution channel," said Altnet
Chief Executive Officer Kevin Bermeister in a statement. "We
cannot stand by and allow them to erode our business opportunity
by the wholesale infringement of our rights."

The patent infringement suit comes as one of the sideshows in an
ongoing legal battle over peer-to-peer networks that has led to
piracy charges against technology companies and antitrust claims
against record companies, and that now appears to be headed
ultimately to Congress for resolution.

Altnet and Brilliant Digital Entertainment are joint venture
partners with Sharman Networks, the Australian company that owns
the Kazaa software. The company has been trying for several years
to persuade record labels and music studios to allow Altnet to
sell authorized versions of their products through the Kazaa
file-swapping network.

The big entertainment companies have unanimously said no,
however. They've lost recent court battles that aimed to put
companies like Sharman out of business, but are now seeking
legislation that would revive their claims against file-swapping
ventures.

Altnet has also been seeking other funding sources and ways to
strike back at the record labels' efforts to undermine
peer-to-peer networks.

In the summer of 2003, it announced that it had purchased patent
rights to the process of identifying files on a peer-to-peer
network using a "hash," or digital fingerprint based on the
contents of the file.

Initially, Bermeister indicated the company would approach other
file-swapping companies to sign them up for licenses. That proved
controversial, but Altnet did send cease-and-desist letters last
November to nine companies engaged in businesses related to
peer-to-peer networks.

Some of these, such as data collection company Big Champagne,
said they weren't using any technology that would infringe on the
Altnet patent. An attorney for Altnet said the disputes with most
of the nine had been resolved.

Altnet's lawsuit says that antipiracy companies Overpeer and
MediaDefender are still on the hook, however. Overpeer is a
"spoofing" company that posts millions of false or corrupted
files on networks such as Kazaa, trying to make real files harder
to find. Media Defender uses "interdiction" techniques, which
essentially clog networks with requests that block real download
efforts.

Both of these services use unauthorized versions of Kazaa and the
underlying FastTrack peer-to-peer technology, and so are using
Altnet's patent without permission, the company contends.

In its complaint, Altnet said that RIAA executives had been
notified several times in 2003 about the patent, but that the
trade group has continued to support Overpeer and to conduct its
own enforcement efforts on the Kazaa network without permission.

Overpeer said it did not believe it had infringed on Altnet's
patents.

"We vigorously deny these claims and find them to be completely
baseless and without merit," said Marc Morgenstern, who heads
Loudeye's Overpeer division, in a statement.

Representatives from the RIAA could not immediately be reached
for comment.

Altnet and Brilliant Digital Entertainment have been skating on
thin financial ice in recent years. In its last quarterly report
to federal regulators, Brilliant said it had just $509,000 in
cash on hand.

An attorney representing Altnet said that financial
considerations would not impede the company's attempt to enforce
the patent, however.

The lawsuit was filed in a Los Angeles federal court.

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