WinMX and eDonkey: offline, doors closed

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: September 22, 2005 9:19:33 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] WinMX and eDonkey: offline, doors closed
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com


WinMX and eDonkey: offline, doors closed

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco (andrew.orlowski at  
theregister.co.uk)
Published Thursday 22nd September 2005 05:42 GMT
The "darknets" were looking a even darker today. WinMX spent the day  
offline and eDonkey has closed its New York office, Reuters reports.  
Both P2P file sharing networks WinMX and eDonkey are bearing the  
brunt of increased pressure on companies who encourage copyright  
infringement.

While the US Supreme Court's June Grokster ruling was widely  
misinterpreted in the popular inkies as signaling the death of P2P  
technology - it actually bounced the major issues back down to the  
lower courts - the Court nevertheless frowned on companies who  
encourage infringement.

"We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of  
promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by the clear  
expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement,  
is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties,"  
wrote Justice Souter.

Last week the RIAA sent seven letters (http://www.theregister.co.uk/ 
2005/09/16/riaa_targets_p2p_firms/) to the networks, reportedly  
including BearShare, LimeWire and WinMX. WinMX was offline most of  
Wednesday, and Reuters also reports that eDonkey's New York office is  
closed.

Earlier in the week Mashboxx was said to be in talks to acquire  
Grokster and turn into a non-infringing, legal network. Mashboxx's  
Wayne Rosso was briefly President at Grokster.

It's clearly too early to say if eDonkey is a dead donkey. But with  
Mashboxx and "MSPs" gearing up to offer walled garden file sharing,  
and Ian "Freenet" Clarke promising new, untraceable P2P by the end of  
the year, the stage is set for the next act.

Original URL: <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/22/ 
p2p_networks_darken/>

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/