[IP] WinMX and eDonkey: offline, doors closed
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 22, 2005 9:19:33 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] WinMX and eDonkey: offline, doors closed
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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>
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