Lawyers For ‘Imposter’ P2P Software Threaten Open-Source Team
Written by enigmax on February 25, 2008A company trying to pass itself off as vendors of the open-source file-sharing software Shareaza, has set the legal dogs on the real Shareaza forum. Discordia Ltd, who earlier turned Bearshare and iMesh into pay services, demanded action after a member of the real Shareaza forum suggested a DOS attack on the site.
When the news started to break in December last year, it looked bleak for the real Shareaza project. A company had somehow gained control of Shareaza.com, the domain name used previously for the real, open-source Shareaza P2P client, and was now passing its own pay service client off as the real thing. Something was seriously wrong, with many putting the pieces together into what could only be described as a conspiracy.
Now, lawyers for the “fake” or “imposter” Shareaza are threatening the real Shareaza team for a comment made by a user on their forum - things are getting out of hand. So how did this begin?
Last year a company associated with the French RIAA somehow obtained the Shareaza.com domain name from its owner, Mr Jonathan Nilson, who was given the domain in the belief he would keep it safe. Nilson would neither confirm nor deny that he had sold the domain, but speculation suggests that he may have sold it to avoid legal action. Others suggest the domain expired. Either way, the original owners of the domain (the Shareaza creators) don’t have it anymore.
Now the owners of the ‘fake’ Shareaza had control of the domain name previously associated with the real product (shareaza.com), it became easy to pretend to be them. There are two screenshots below - one is the ‘fake’ domain and one is the real thing. Can you spot the imposter?
The real, open source client is represented by the bottom graphic. The ‘fake‘ is at the top and according to Neglacio ;
ShareazaV4, is totally fake. It violates the open-source license, GPL (Version 2) in many ways. Also, it isn’t free nor open source. It requires a subscription and installs a suspicious toolbar. You can read what happened from this reference list: http://tinyurl.com/2cx7ff
Please, update your Shareaza version to Shareaza 2.3.1.0, and change the site from Shareaza.com to the new official site at Sourceforge: http://shareaza.sourceforge.net .
Understandably, the real Shareaza team and users are really upset that this outfit has effectively stolen their brand name from under their noses in a hostile takeover, and is actively ruining their reputation. It’s no surprise that emotions run high when people are ripped off so when a new signup to the real Shareaza forums suggested a small way to get back at the people doing this to them, it wasn’t anything so special. A user called Red Squirrel posted (quote courtesy of Google.com) :
Make it so the real shareaza program queries their site [shareaza.com] every couple of seconds. As an individual user this won’t take much personal bandwidth. But all shareaza users worldwide put together should be enough to kill their server and they won’t really be able to do much since it will be coming from so many different IPs.
Even though a moderator outlined that this behavior might be considered illegal, that wasn’t enough for Meister Seelig & Fein, lawyers representing the company that took over Shareaza.com. Despite now passing themselves off as the real Shareaza, the ‘imposter’ outfit clearly thinks they have the law on their side too. In correspondence sent to the ‘real’ Shareaza team:
This law firm represents Discordia, Ltd., the operator of the website Shareaza.com and owner of the rights in the Shareaza branded software distributed from that domain. Please be advised, that your forum contains a string of posts under the title: “suggestion to kill Shareaza.com.” Under the string, the poster, RedSquirrel offers directions for users of Shareaza software to implement a DoS that would have the effect of destroying or seriously impairing our client’s application and network. The poster OldDeath also offers a manner to illegally attack our client’s business.
Despite whatever complaints your forum’s users may have with our client’s proper and legal business activities, the type of activity promoted on your forum is illegal. Therefore, we request that you immediately remove this string of posts and any future strings of this nature. My client respects your users’ rights to express their points of view. However, the line is crossed when users begin to promote the destruction of a legitimate business (evidently based on out some misguided belief that artists and others who create music should not be fairly compensated for their efforts) via illegal or other predatory means.
If the above cited illegal activity on your site does not immediately cease and desist, our client will take all necessary action to vigorously and relentlessly protect its rights. To be clear, if this action is not immediately taken and, as result, our client’s business is harmed, we will not only pursue, locate and hold fully responsible each and every one of those who have implemented this, or any similar DoS, but also those responsible for maintaining your site and the forums.
Please confirm that the requested action is being taken immediately.
Jeffrey A. Kimmel
Meister Seelig & Fein, LLP
140 E. 45th St., 19th Fl.
New York, NY 10017
(212) 655-3578
Meister Seelig & Fein is the same law firm that struck the distribution deal between iMesh and SonyBMG, so their involvement in this issue is no surprise.
Shareaza.com is offering a pay client that no file sharer wants, for many reasons, including keeping all hashes, downloaded files and chat logs in a database. We certainly don’t recommend it.
Those who prefer the real, free, open-source Shareaza experience should get along to Sourceforge or to this thread where all the genuine domains point.
On the one hand, The Pirate Bay lose a domain they bought legitimately because the IFPI doesn’t like it, but when a music industry outfit attempts the destruction of a completely legal piece of open source software by passing itself off as the real thing, no-one blinks. Sign of the times?
Update: It appears that Shareaza.com has been marked as a web forgery, illustrated in the screenshot below.
Previously: Oscar Winners 2008 Popular on BitTorrent
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149 Responses
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[quote comment="298478"]
From their FAQ:
I thought the software was free. Why am I being asked to pay?
The software is free. You are paying for the online help and support and the online tutorials for the lifetime of the membership.
This is not a violation of the GPL, and is in fact consistent with common practices in the OSS world. (RedHat for example)[/quote]
It’s a violation if they don’t provide the source code for the software (not just Shareaza, but their modified version of it) on their site, or provide a link to the location where you can get the software. GPL requires you to distribute the source code if you’re distributing a program, anything less is a violation.
[quote comment="298478"]The software is free. You are paying for the online help and support and the online tutorials for the lifetime of the membership.
This is not a violation of the GPL, [/quote]
They are distributing a binary. If that’s compiled from GPL source, they’re obliged to offer you that source code, either for free or for a nominal fee.
Whether or not they’re charging for support or similar is nothing the GPL is concerned with.
- Peder
[quote comment="298524"]
They are distributing a binary. If that’s compiled from GPL source, they’re obliged to offer you that source code, either for free or for a nominal fee.
Whether or not they’re charging for support or similar is nothing the GPL is concerned with.
- Peder[/quote]
I may be wrong, but I believe the fee is only applicable in the cases where distribution is being performed on a physical media, that is, they can charge you for the cost of the disk, but not the source code itself.
You are using Firefox aren’t you?
Firefox 2 or later contains a built-in Phishing Protection feature that warns you of suspected Web forgeries, and offers to take you directly to a search page so you can find the real Web site you were looking for.
http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/phishing-protection/
Firefox now gives me a big warning message saying “Suspected Web Forgery”.
Yippee Firefox!
Maybe we could convince Pakistan to block shareaza?
I’m with the DDos thing .. if only i knew what it means. I hate to google.
Good luck to you master nerds though.
[quote comment="298530"]I’m with the DDos thing .. if only i knew what it means. I hate to google.
Good luck to you master nerds though.[/quote]
Distributed Denial of Service. Basically a fancy way of saying a whole bunch of people hammering the shit out of their server until it crashes under the load. At it’s simplest it’s as many people as you can get just visiting their website repeatedly.
Everyone can get sareaza source code if they wanto and modyfy it a little ;) (little hint for good programmers)
Then share it and i can bet a lot of users would use this modyfyied client :D
Since there seems to be no legal recourse, Perhaps a friendly serial killer can step in.
[quote comment="298478"]
This is not a violation of the GPL, and is in fact consistent with common practices in the OSS world. (RedHat for example)[/quote]
Fuck their weasel words. They are in violation of the GPL, period.
GPL Section 6:
You may convey a covered work in object code form under the terms of sections 4 and 5, provided that you also convey the machine-readable Corresponding Source under the terms of this License, in one of these ways:
….
GPL Subsection 6.d[the only subsection applicable to the imposters, since they are not offering Fakeaza through a physical medium or through P2P]: Convey the object code by offering access from a designated place (gratis or for a charge), and offer equivalent access to the Corresponding Source in the same way through the same place at no further charge. You need not require recipients to copy the Corresponding Source along with the object code. If the place to copy the object code is a network server, the Corresponding Source may be on a different server (operated by you or a third party) that supports equivalent copying facilities, provided you maintain clear directions next to the object code saying where to find the Corresponding Source. Regardless of what server hosts the Corresponding Source, you remain obligated to ensure that it is available for as long as needed to satisfy these requirements.
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
The fake Shareaza is advertised as free software, and is available for download free of charge. Under the above conditions, the GPL states that the imposters must offer the sourcecode for Fakeaza for download free of charge, just like Fakeaza itself. But, OMG… Where IS the sourcecode for Fakeaza?
Do you see it being offered anywhere on shareaza.com for free? Do you see clear directions pointing to a third-party server where it’s hosted as a free download?
Do you? No, you don’t.
That’s a GPL violation. Bitch.
[quote comment="298526"][quote comment="298524"]
they’re obliged to offer you that source code, either for free or for a nominal fee.
- Peder[/quote]
I may be wrong, but I believe the fee is only applicable in the cases where distribution is being performed on a physical media, that is, they can charge you for the cost of the disk, but not the source code itself.[/quote]
That’s what I meant by nominal fee.
Though I think, in theory, they could charge you for their bandwidth, but IANAL.
- Peder
i think RedSquirrel had a great idea,
Oh, and as an addendum to my last post, people should contact the GPL Violations Project:
http://gpl-violations.org/
at:
license-violation@gpl-violations.org
And notify them - in detail(or as they put it, “enable –verbose mode”) - about how the Fakeaza shitsuckers are in violation of the GPL.
So, a program used to steal intellectual property has had something stolen from themselves! Someone should give these guys a lesson in IRONY and KARMA.
[quote comment="298598"]So, a program used to steal intellectual property has had something stolen from themselves! Someone should give these guys a lesson in IRONY and KARMA.[/quote]
I’d say somebody should give you a lesson on removing the RIAA’s dick from your mouth, but I’m pretty sure it would take an army of paid surgeons.
Speaking of IRONY and KARMA, I’d love to see the look on the faces of the Fakeaza poseurs when a Cease & Desist lands in their inbox for shitting all over the GPL.
Shareaza.com is down for me. The domain name is being resolved as the loopback address 127.0.0.1. Anyone else seeing this?
j(87), stop wasting our oxygen.
Sweet, Google got the emails lol…
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shareaza.com%2F&ei=R2fER_vtEZKsgQKNg6CLDg&usg=AFQjCNF_ofrVsWALONE1TsptkN6tnVyAoA&sig2=i3QG17L0gOYde7IgQy0r5A
never used shareza before but Ill GLADLY run it for a while just to DDoS those asses into oblivion..
http://p2p-freebie.com
Woah. They’re doing it to Limewire too!
It might be possible to reply to the lawsuit with a trademark lawsuit. If they offer another p2p product under the same name, it’s a blatant trademark infringement.
i wouldn’t have gotten it from anywhere but Sourceforge so this is news to me.
So it seems there’s a lot of angry people.. I wonder if everyone in here who said “DoS” or “DDos” will now be sued as well?
just download the client to /dev/null
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