original article at http://slyck.com/news.php?story=143
US Court: Sharman Operates FastTrack ‘Root Supernode’
April 26, 2003
Ciarán Tannam
| Back last September StreamCast Networks and Grokster Ltd sought a summary judgement in the FastTrack case. One of the reasons for the length of time in the delay in yesterday’s motion was that the US court was involved in an extensive worldwide investigation into how the FastTrack network works. |
As part of the investigation the US court filled suit in Estonia to try and get the underlining source code of FastTrack revealed. The full text of the FastTrack summary motion provides an insight into how this investigation is going.
Significantly, the court stated as part of the motion that “the primary root supernodes on the FastTrack network have been and are operated by Kazaa BV/Sharman Networks”. This primary root supernode is a server that lists the location of Supernodes and thus has substantial control over the network.
The court is clearly stating that it believes that the operation of the servers is done by Sharman Networks (owners of kazaa) and Janus Friis/Niklas Zennstrom (FastTrack creators) who go under the various company names such as Kazaa BV and Joltid.
Friss recently seemed to hint exclusively to Slyck that Grokster Ltd operates a root supernode on Nevis. The court has now seemingly found the opposite and that Friss (who is named in the suit) may be operating a supernode server in conjunction with his friends at Sharman Networks. Friss has denied that kazaa is dependent on a supernode server.
Sharman Networks are currently studying the verdict to see what implications it has for Kazaa. It is clear by some of the language used by the court that they are unlikely to issue a similar summary judgement to kazaa. Certainly their alleged involvement by the court in key aspects of the control of FastTrack is likely to help form any future ruling as the judge seems to be of the view that the level of control of the P2P network that an operator has is linked to their liability.
Some other interesting aspects that have emerged from the verdict include:
- StreamCast Networks is estimated to earn $6 million in revenue from Morphues this year.
- Grokster Ltd has substantial revenue from it’s software
- The motion refers to “other entities that can control the FastTrack process”
- The motion also states that a separate order against Kazaa BV will be issued.
