Skype Founders File Copyright Suit Against eBay
Skype and eBay are in the news again this week as a result of a copyright infringement suit filed by the founders of the VoIP company.
On the first of September eBay announced that it would be selling Skype in a deal that valued the company at $2.75 billion. Skype president Josh Silverman surprised the tech world by announcing that the company was not about to become a subsidiary of another company, rather it would operate as an independent company, just as it had done before being purchased by eBay in 2005.
This week the New York Times reports that Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are suing eBay for copyright infringement. According to NYT, the court filing alleges eBay violated the founders' copyright by altering and sharing the peer-to-peer source code behind Skype. Zennstrom and Friis maintained ownership of that source code after selling Skype to eBay in 2005 but licensed it to eBay.
NYT reports that Joltid, a company owned by the two founders, seeks an injunction on top of damages, which it alleges could total more than $75 million a day.
Read the full story here.
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Valid lawsuit, i hope they win. We need to make sure big conglomerates pay penalties when they do illegal shit.
I thought when you purchased something, you own the whole thing?
[itation][nom]ssalim[/nom]I thought when you purchased something, you own the whole thing?[/citation]
Who knows anymore. Hell copywrite law is so screwed up anymore. I will sell you the next ten pictures I take and you can resell them and we both make money off of them. but then when you quit selling them I am going to sue you for selling the meta data that shows what shutter speed and apeture setting I used.
I thought when you purchased something, you own the whole thing?
That will depend on the agreement over the purchase.
They didn't buy it, they rented it.
Ebay has always... ALWAYS treated their customer like crap... I really hope they pay the bill this time. I lost 3000$ in 2004 when a crook got me. Even if he were from the same country as me and even by asking the police, no criminal charges have been applied.
I don't buy anything on ebay anymore exceeding 50$.
They didn't buy it, they rented it.
No no, the correct term is "licensed". They licensed the skype software, just like we users license the OS we use, we license the software we run on our computers, we license the MP3s we download.
If its not a physical piece of hardware, you don't own it these days.
No no, the correct term is "licensed". They licensed the skype software, just like we users license the OS we use, we license the software we run on our computers, we license the MP3s we download.If its not a physical piece of hardware, you don't own it these days.
Just like I license the food I eat, I renew it for new food. I simply return it using the toilet
If they own the copyright to some key code then they are due reparation. $75M/day reparation? Good luck with that.
btw, if their copyright does exist, someone's head is probably rolling for not doing a thorough due-diligence research.
Just like I license the food I eat, I renew it for new food. I simply return it using the toilet
And the quality before you ate it, and after you returned it is no different.
Isn't fast food wonderous?
I don't like eBay, so fuck it, sue em.
If you have it sue for it but don't ask ridiculous sums.