James Delahunty
24 Jan 2007 18:54
A federal judge has dismissed the antitrust claims made by Morpheus owner StreamCast Networks against more than a dozen defendants. Among those listed is the eBay-owned Skype service. StreamCast claims that the founders of Skype (and original founders of Kazaa) broke an agreement to give StreamCast the right of first refusal for the technology behind Skype's VoIP service. StreamCast demanded over $4.1 billion and a court order to stop eBay from selling Skype services.
U.S. District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper concluded however, that StreamCast failed to make its case for relief under federal antitrust laws and dismissed all claims against Skype, eBay and the rest of the named defendants. Matthew A. Neco, StreamCast's general counsel, said the company will either appeal the ruling or seek to pursue claims in state court.
"This case is far from over," he said. StreamCast accuses the founders of Kazaa of taking the phone technology with them after they sold the P2P service, going on to "wrongfully profit from its use."
Source:
AP