Petteri Pyyny
17 Mar 2004 16:06
Romanian programmer Fabian Toader has sued Sharman Networks, the owner of popular file-sharing software Kazaa, over alleged copyright violations. The case doesn't relate to P2P network and files that are shared in it, but relates to the period back in year 2000 when Toader wrote parts of the Kazaa software for Kazaa BV (the original Dutch owner of the Kazaa software that later sold the software to Sharman).
Mr. Toader claims that he worked as a freelancer for Kazaa BV and helped to write the Kazaa Media Desktop software, but didn't sign any contract that would have automatically transferred the copyrights to Kazaa BV.
The fight between Toader and Sharman has been going on for quite a while now, even though it hasn't managed to get into headlines. Back in summer of 2003, Sharman sued Toader alleging him to blackmail the company. The recent lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles by Mr. Toader, is a second one filed by him against Sharman. Mr. Toader currently lives in the States and works for Microsoft. He wants Sharman to pay for his work that has been downloaded, including only the latest version, for over 335 million times according to Sharman Networks.
Source: BBC