While Sharman Networks have been hit hard by accused copyright violations and even had its offices raided in Australia, it is now facing yet another legal copyright battle. It is not being sued by the music or movie industries this time but by a freelance Romanian programmer Fabian Toader that was involved in developing portions of the source code for Kazaa.
While Toader was hired by the Dutch Kazaa
BV firm, he never signed a contract with them. While Kazaa
BV then sold the rights of the software to Sharman Networks back in 2002, Toader still claims to own the copyright to Kazaa Media Desktop's source code. His contract Kazaa BV however clearly states that the code is not owned by Toader.
Now Toader is suing Sharman Networks for $ 25 million in damages in a US court. He claims that Sharman are making millions out of his software and he wants to be compensated for his work. Quakester2000 submitted the following news from BBC News via our news submit :
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Kazaa Media Desktop enables computer users to connect to a so-called peer-to-peer network online. Fabian Toader claims to have written the computer code in 2000 while working as a freelancer for Kazaa. He is seeking $ 25 million in compensation from Sharman Networks which bought the rights to the code. Twist to dispute Mr Toader worked in Romania at the time and has since moved to the US where he is a programmer with Microsoft. The legal battle is a twist for a company, more used to litigation from Hollywood studios and recording companies over the copyright of the files swapped on its network. "Sharman has made millions using my software. I just want to be fairly compensated for my contribution," Mr Toader said in a statement. The lawsuit, filed at the beginning of March, is part of a long line of litigation between Sharman and Mr Toader. Read the full news article here. |
It is bad enough to face the main problems associated with developing P2P software let alone being sued by a past employee. It will be interesting to see how Sharman networks get on with this issue let alone having its offices raided several weeks back for accused copyright infringement.
Source: BBC News - UK Edition
