The Shareaza Conspiracy In a Nutshell
Written by enigmax on March 13, 2008The hijacking of Shareaza.com is a complex story with many twists and turns. Here is the story of Shareaza from its open source GPL roots, to the hostile takeover and where the project is today, directly from those at the heart of the news - the real Shareaza community. The fight for Shareaza has only just begun.
Beginnings Are a Good Place To Start
In mid 2002, a lone programmer by the name of Micheal Stokes released the first version of a Gnutella client he had written, dubbed “Shareaza”. Over the next two years Micheal added to his client and coded in support for the eDonkey 2000 network, BitTorrent and a rewritten Gnutella-based protocol which he named Gnutella2. Shareaza gradually became more and more popular and Mike started to receive several job offers based on the strength of his work on Shareaza. He eventually decided that continuing to work on a p2p application in an increasingly hostile legal climate was too risky, but he did the honorable thing and released the Shareaza source code under the GNU GPLv2 on June 1, 2004 (which coincided with the release of Shareaza V 2.0).
Mike stopped working on Shareaza and went on to develop a new p2p-based streaming radio project named Mercora. As part of distancing himself from Shareaza, he transfered the shareaza.com domain to one of his old alpha testers named Jon Nilson, who continued to administer the domain until late 2007.
The French (RIAA) Connection
In late 2007 the Shareaza website went down for several weeks, but eventually came back online. Not long after that, the Shareaza.com domain began pointing to a different website which several sharp-eyed community members recognized as identical to shareazaweb.com, a known scam site purporting to offer users “legal p2p downloads”. It emerged that Jon Nilson had been forced to relinquish control of the domain as part of a settlement with La Societe Des Producteurs De Phonogrammes En France (the French version of the RIAA). Jon’s name was the only one connected with Shareaza that the SPPF could find and due to Shareaza’s popularity in France he had been named in a lawsuit along with Azureus and Morpheus. See here for more.
A Dump for Ill-Gotten Gains
Members of the Shareaza community managed to track the new “owners” of the Shareaza.com domain to MusicLab LLC, based in New York. MusicLab now distribute the “new and legal” iMesh p2p client after the original Gnutella-based iMesh developers were sued by the RIAA, and forced to settle for $4.1 million with a promise to turn their app into a paid download service. A similar legal fate befell another popular Gnutella application called Bearshare which was then rolled into the RIAA-approved iMesh. Nobody has managed to ascertain whether the original iMesh developers are still involved, but the merging of Bearshare seems to indicate that MusicLab is a vehicle used by the recording industry to dump assets acquired through lawsuits into.
It would seem that since Shareaza is developed by anonymous group of individuals and organized via “ad-hocracy”, there was no company to sue, so stealth tactics were employed against the weakest link in the chain: Jon Nilson. iMesh, Bearshare and the fake Shareaza being distributed from Shareaza.com are all the same application with appropriate re-branding.
Threats of C&D
As you can imagine, the members of the Shareaza community were rather upset about all of this and set up a new website with user forums. After two users made some offhand remarks about a distributed denial of service attack against the servers in Israel where the hijacked Shareaza.com site is located, our forum administrator received an email from one Jeffrey A. Kimmel of Meister Seelig & Fein, in his capacity as a representative of Discordia Ltd, the new new “owners” of Shareaza.
Mr Kimmel stated that DDoS attacks are illegal and any further talk by “users [who] begin to promote the destruction of a legitimate business” would result in Discordia Ltd “tak[ing] all necessary action to vigorously and relentlessly protect its rights.” He went on to state that “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.”
The posts in question had actually been taken down by forum moderators already (as per forum rules on objectionable content), however this email was cause for great concern: not only were the domain hijackers starting to create a series of shell companies to avoid being identified, but they had engaged lawyers to monitor our forums and threaten anyone making disparaging statements about them.
(Full text here)
A Tangled Web
More research by community members revealed that Discordia Ltd is registered in Cyprus, possibly owned by MusicLab but at arm’s length to avoid as much fallout as possible. Meister Seelig & Fein’s Kimmel also appears to have a long history of dealings with the recording industry, notably in the participation of the iMesh and Bearshare lawsuits and an interesting Amicus Curiae brief in the MGM vs Grokster which details how the new iMesh software has all the answers to stopping piracy and creating a wonderful legal download service.
Making The Takeover Official
In what is possibly the most audacious step so far, Discordia Ltd filed for a trademark on “Shareaza” with the USPTO on January 10, 2008. (Link)
If granted, our use of the Shareaza name will immediately infringe upon Discordia Ltd’s official trademark and we will doubtless be subject to legal action until we stop any infringing action i.e. we rename the project, remove all references to “Shareaza” and forget about the whole thing.
The Danger Posed To Open Source Software
Unless we are able to prevent the trademark being granted and regain control of the domain, our project will die. It really is as simple as that. Seven-odd years worth of brand recognition as “Open Source, Spyware, Malware and Advertising Free” will disappear and although we can (and have) dealt with “clones” who take our OS code base, add some spyware and release a “new” client as their own (breaking the GPLv2 in the process by not releasing the source) there is no possible way that we can survive having our identity stolen like this. Unlike a run-of-the-mill copyright violation, we are going to be permanently deprived of something. Our code is open to whoever wants to see it, we charge no money for the use of the program; the only thing of value that we have is the name and recognition that goes with it. The worst of it all is that this “software identity theft” could signal the beginning of hostile corporate takeovers of common property - the fact that we are in this predicament proves it to some extent.
What we need to know is if the people who stood up for an open culture by hacking copyright law will help protect that culture where it comes to trademarks and halting the advancement of encroaching corporate interests. If “common law” trademarks can’t be protected there is a very real danger that what happened to us will happen again and again and again. Many of us who work on the Shareaza project can foresee things becoming so that people will stop bothering to work on OS projects: open source software is, by it’s nature, more useful that closed source software and the more useful something is, the more popular it becomes…and then someone with expensive lawyers will come along and take it all away from the people who actually created it.
We recently asked for donations from our users for a legal defense fund and (very) quickly raised $2000. In our public thank you letter we wrote the following:
“There is one fundamental right that should never be in dispute: the right to be recognized as a creator. This moral right transcends arguments on whether copyright should last for 50 years or a hundred, whether software should be patentable or not, or even what a fair price price for an MP3 file is. Being able to say to the world “I made this” and be acknowledged for it is, for many people, the only reward they receive for their work. To deny that right is an insult to the creative forces flowing through every writer, performer, musician, actor and programmer who brings their work to the world.”
We have a section dedicated to this whole situation on our new forums which includes full details of all the events that have taken place so far.
Any help you are able to provide would be very, very gratefully accepted. Any advice, introductions or referrals to others who may be able to help us will be a great help.
Kind regards,
Shareaza Community
Just in case you missed the earlier link, you can donate to the Shareaza fighting fund here
Previously: Pirate Bay to Hollywood: Open your Own Torrent Site
Next: MTV Uses P2P Data for Playlist Selection
104 Responses
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I wish shareaza good luck trying to get their domain back..
Yea, you really fucked up with the domain thing in the first place… should have never come down to losing that domain
Same here
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
I love p2p, but shit, you play the game and sometimes you’re gonna get burned. Do I feel sorry for Shareaza? Not really. They intentionally made a tool used to infringe on copyrights, now their shit got stolen.
Too bad, so sad…
I’m still appalled by what these people have done. It seems so very very wrong.
I’m sure that, if you can prove that you had the name first, you should be able to stop this from doing any kind of permanent damage.
Sourceforge should have a list of when you were formed.
Of course, the fact that they’re planning on copyrighting the name could lead to some difficulties. Try contacting the EFF.
Good luck to you.
[quote comment="310781"]Live by the sword, die by the sword.
I love p2p, but shit, you play the game and sometimes you’re gonna get burned. Do I feel sorry for Shareaza? Not really. They intentionally made a tool used to infringe on copyrights, now their shit got stolen.
Too bad, so sad…[/quote]
Shareaza’s efforts have always been to endorse people to download and upload free material!
There is this add-on for Shareaza (http://tinyurl.com/22dkku) which provides legal information about copyrighted files, for which are plans to integrate more deeply.
Anyway, what do you do on this blog if you dislike copyright infringement, which is seen legal by many people in here.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UA7vNVuPbn8
Fuck em both really who gives a shit. It’s all ruined now.
For the record there’s no need to worry since Shareaza is shit anyways…
Well, you have admit it’s kinda ironic that the guy/project who selfishly took advantage of the Gnutella “trademark” and the network itself by labelling an incompatible protocol “Gnutella 2″ that would bootstrap over Gnutella are now screwed by a company labelling their product ShareazaV4. Maybe it’s not so bad that they take a nip of their own poison. It’s all about a karma. What goes around, comes around.
Two Points:
1. Something similar is happening to utorrent. Check out http://www.youtorent.com/ (a mispelled version of youtorrent)
It also offers “legal p2p” …for a price.
2. Advice for software designers: if you want to keep the record labels for stealing your trademark, name your program something offensive like “FuckRIAA 2.0″
Anyways, I can’t believe the labels are going this far to stop p2p. They are thugs! Fuck em!
People give too much of a shit about this whole princable and moral thing, that DoS attack was the best idea they had.
Its open source, sombody release it silently, then it will get on a website like this (SOMBODY RELEASES DOS SHAREZA VERSION!) and then everybody downloads it, fucks them up the ass, we win, they loose, there lawyers run around and cicles and jack eachother off, the end.
it’s not a lawyer discordia have, it’s a lol-yer
Damn, this sucks. I hope this gets taken care of appopriately by the law.
And to the people saying “who cares, shareaza sucks”… Morons, that isn’t the point here. I haven’t used shareaza ever, and I doubt I ever will, but this still sucks!
[quote comment="310792"][quote comment="310781"]Live by the sword, die by the sword.
I love p2p, but shit, you play the game and sometimes you’re gonna get burned. Do I feel sorry for Shareaza? Not really. They intentionally made a tool used to infringe on copyrights, now their shit got stolen.
Too bad, so sad…[/quote]
Shareaza’s efforts have always been to endorse people to download and upload free material!
There is this add-on for Shareaza (http://tinyurl.com/22dkku) which provides legal information about copyrighted files, for which are plans to integrate more deeply.
Anyway, what do you do on this blog if you dislike copyright infringement, which is seen legal by many people in here.[/quote]
I never said I have anything against copyright infringment. What I am saying is, that file-sharing is a risky business. Hell, even I might get sued for sharing. But I accept that as a risk, and TBH, I wouldn’t bitch about it if I did get caught.
It’s a game we all play. Some of us win, some of us lose. Shareaza lost.
It goes deeper than the whole file sharing issue, as it’s only illegal if you’re transferring copyrighted materials. (You do the same thing every day looking at web pages.. just a different protocl)
It’s about an organization with a lot of money that’s able to take software that’s covered by the GPL or other similar licenses, and in effect, steal it and turn around and sue the creators.
If this kind of “legalized theft” is allowed by the courts, whats to stop, just for example, Microsoft stealing Linux, then turning around and suing everyone involved? Any company with a large enough bankroll that feels threatened by Open Source is pretty much getting the green light to do what they want, no matter who they hurt.
Want to know why the RIAA and MPAA hasn’t been investigated and charged for racketeering and extortion, among their other crimes? Lots of money. These guys make the Mafia look like amateurs. Instead of killing you, they crush you in court and give themselves a pat on the back for figuring out new ways to bypass the law in their advantage.
It is not just about Shareaza here anymore dumbass. This article shows how corporate could easily steal some open source software to gain profit nowadays..
ddos is weak, old, easy, pathetic, and very short lived.
hit them where it hurts, take their money.
since that’s locked away in vaults, take the next best thing; their data.
if data isnt worth anything, why is every company on the net scrambling to get every bit of info they can on you? and thats just for marketing, which is peanuts-data.
if data isnt worth anything, why do companies make it so hard for outsiders to access (read, not even write) their internal data?
ddos is childs play.
downloading their entire data banks is kicking them in the balls.
beating them to death is illegal.
be a good citizen.
kick them in the balls.
I’m surprised by the number of comments here that hint at being OK with the media companies forcefully taking control of legitimate works, especially given it revolves around the open-source Shareaza application that has done a lot for the file-sharing scene over the years.
You people really suck. Just whose side are you on?
I’ve little understanding of the legal aspects of Creative Commons and such, but I’d be surprised if an organisation like the EFF wern’t particularly interested in this.
I’m repeating myself, but again:
Sounds pretty much like a prime case for the EFF or the Software Freedom Law Center (http://www.softwarefreedom.org/).
The later recently supported the Busybox project successfully against GPL-infringing “High-Gain Antennas” company.
Tbe real Shareaza staff should contact them ASAP instead of betting on their legal defense fund, which probably won’t hold as much money as these asstunnels have at their disposal.
What exactly has Shareaza done for the file-sharing scene? Tell me just one thing. First they leeched of Gnutella, then eDonkey, then BitTorrent. The support for everything but their redundant G2 is lacking, outdated, half-assed. There are excellent alternatives for each network that do a much better job.
This has nothing to do with what Discordia is doing but if you feel the need to bring this up, you better your facts straight.
The smell of industry trolls is heavy in the air here, misleading comments designed to divide and cause apathy are all I,m reading.
A wise man would download Shareaza from old version.com or somewhere and get the fake upgrade made by this RIAA front company and then report them to the FCC for their misleading conduct and the shabby attempt to install spyware, those are reasons for a federal investigation last time I read the news.
http://www.news.com/Feds-stay-strong-on-spyware-case/2100-7348_3-6037277.html
The law is clear.
[quote comment="310847"][quote comment="310792"][quote comment="310781"]Live by the sword, die by the sword.
I love p2p, but shit, you play the game and sometimes you’re gonna get burned. Do I feel sorry for Shareaza? Not really. They intentionally made a tool used to infringe on copyrights, now their shit got stolen.
Too bad, so sad…[/quote]
Shareaza’s efforts have always been to endorse people to download and upload free material!
There is this add-on for Shareaza (http://tinyurl.com/22dkku) which provides legal information about copyrighted files, for which are plans to integrate more deeply.
Anyway, what do you do on this blog if you dislike copyright infringement, which is seen legal by many people in here.[/quote]
I never said I have anything against copyright infringment. What I am saying is, that file-sharing is a risky business. Hell, even I might get sued for sharing. But I accept that as a risk, and TBH, I wouldn’t bitch about it if I did get caught.
It’s a game we all play. Some of us win, some of us lose. Shareaza lost.[/quote]
good point
there is no honor among thieves
[quote comment="310806"]For the record there’s no need to worry since Shareaza is shit anyways…[/quote]
doesn’t matter. it’s the idea that companies are taking these kinds of actions. this is the kind of things - and attitudes - that ruin p2p.
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