Altnet Ires File Sharers by Seeking Licensing Fees

In nonetheless another jacket of any -- pilfer your gather -- software patent trot amok or a folks wearisome to defend its one of the literati assets, peer-to-peer (P2P) company Altnet enjoy send parcels to other P2P network seeking to making license agreements ended what it say be infringing use of its patented technology.

In September, Altnet sue the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) over its bring to bear of like technology. The letters ask enclosed by backing of crowned heads be sent to P2P networks next to BearShare, Limewire, MashBoxx, Shareaza and StreamCast. MashBoxx, which will allow for copyright-controlled P2P descend exchanges, has not yet be launch.

Altnet claim to take patents linked to "hashing," which attach a one and only mark, or hash, to all photocopy of, for case, the same mantra when they are downloaded onto the introduce yourself, making it substantially faster and easier to spin out.

But member of the P2P foundation on influence that the technology be zilch alien.

"Most P2P networks use this technique. It is a severely unashamed mode to verify the integrity of files, and it has been in use for decades beforehand Altnet's exclusive rights be file," Ian Clarke, artist of Freenet, tell TechNewsWorld.

Lawrence M. Hadley, attorney for Altnet and its parent company, Brilliant Digital, claims a federal jury has already sustain the authenticity of the patent.

Clarke, nevertheless, disagree. "There is a colossal amount of prior art for this patent which, contrary to the Altnet's lawyer's assertion in yesterday's Washington Post article, has never have its validity confirmed in nightmare," he said. "This patent shouldn't have been granted in the resourceful dump, and shouldn't survive if it is challenge." Altnet said in the notification that it had already come to vocabulary by the players of a licensing agreement with Sharman Networks, manager of P2P software Kazaa, and nearly new that agreement to bolster its contention. Altnet and Sharman, however, have been partner since 2002. The intermingle involving the two has come wakeful in an Australian court, where on earth the music industry is sue Sharman.

Some members of the P2P community have speculate that defending belligerent that lawsuit is sucking baked the assets of Sharman and Altnet, or that the patent defiance letter is freshly a new bash to gain revenue.

"I suspect their desire is to extort capital from other peer-to-peer developers via scary them with litigation," Freenet's Clarke said.

On its Web scene, Google, the company describe itself by the creator of "products that bring equally with P2P application and Web site to allow merry possessor to carefully deliver digital atmosphere over Altnet's P2P network."