Andre Yoskowitz
16 Jan 2008 23:23
Wayne Rosso, the founder of the P2P startup Mashboxx believes that Limewire's newfound initiatives aimed at combining file sharing with contextual ads violates a few of his company's patents and he has vowed to “go after anyone who comes near to it.”
Mashboxx was originally supposed to be licensed by the music industry but financing issues have so far almost killed off the company.
LimeWire CEO George Searle added some words about the company's upcoming initiatives. As Newteevee writes, "He talked about its upcoming music download store, as well as a new project called “LimeSpot,” which will offer bands and their fans forums, wikis and blogs. All of these web-based initiatives will tie into the LimeWire client in what Searle compared to Google’s Universal Search, whereby P2P search results are combined with context and contextual ads: “Soon, within LimeWire you’ll be able to connect with participating artists, and drill down or sideways to see photos, find tour dates, watch music videos, find lyrics and buy music, tickets and merchandise.”
If Rosso has his way, Limewire's road to becoming a "social media empire" will hit another bump. “We’ve got a broad umbrella of patents,”Rosso stated, “I’d be more than happy to get in line to sue [LimeWire Chairman] Mark Gorton,” he added.
It is not clear what patents are in question but we will keep you updated.