RICO Suit Filed Against Skype Founders

Stitch_Surfs writes "Defendant Skype Technologies S A, Niklas Zennstrom, Janus Friis, Kazaa, Bluemoon Ou and a slew of others have been named in a Rico Suit Filed by StreamCast Networks, of Houston, Texas. StreamCast is the company credited with the development of the Peer to Peer Technology called Morpheus. From the little information the courts have released, StreamCast is claiming that the group engaged in corrupt business practices."

Comments

Pacer

[Tester]

Can anyone with a Pacer account get the complaint full text ?

Re:Pacer

[evil agent]

Good question. And here's another one:

Can we please stop linking to these damn blogs. Especially ones that are nearly devoid of any useful info.

No way

[wkitchen]

From the little information the courts have released, StreamCast is claiming that the group engaged in corrupt business practices.

No way. The good folks at Skype would never engage in corrupt business practices

Re:RICO use and abuse

[aminorex]

> If...this country will be ruined.

You keep using that subjunctive mood. I do not think it means what you think it does. That horse already left the barn.

Re:RICO use and abuse - Or Not

[Brian_Ellenberger]

I'm not sure that qualifies as abuse of the act. An organized group of people (Operation Rescue) attempting to extort legal businesses (abortion clinics) into either changing or closing entirely through threats (see what is on some of their websites), intimidation (in-your-face confrontations directly in front of clinics), and violence (bombings and beatings tacitly accepted as part of the struggle), simply because their view isn't your view (First Amendment issue of everyone, including clinics have rights to free speech and association and freedom from religion)...

1) Violence is NOT tacitly accepted. That is a complete and utter distortion. There have been many more acts of violence committed by environmental groups for their cause. Yet noone is charging Greenpeace and PETA with RICO suits. Not to mention unions, who have a history of being linked with violence and ironically the mob.
2) If in-your-face confrontations were "illegal" you would pretty much ban most union strikes as well as any other demonstration outside of a company that attempted to get a company to "change". Martin Luther King Jr would have been arrested for Racketeering.
3) Clinics have the right to free speech and association, but they don't have the right to limit others' free speech and association rights. Of course, private property rights do exist and protesters should be arrested if they violate these.
4) Threats, if real and physical should lead to arrests. REAL arrests, not RICO suits. But telling someone they are evil and going to hell for supporting abortion is not a real threat.

I-K-RICO

[lohphat]

What's the point of the RICO statutes if it's randomly enforced?

The Catholic Church knowingly traffiked paedophiles interstate and internationally. Why wasn't it invoked then?

Re:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization

[Thing 1]

I swear, law and military op names have been getting more and more riduculous for years.

Ridiculous to the informed, yes. Unfortunately, however, rather functional on the uninformed. Thus, their use. Which saddens me; third-world countries keep their populace uneducated because it helps the leaders defraud them.

Holy shit, is that what the "No Child Left Behind" unfunded mandate was all about? Give props to education, but no financial support for it--so it looks like the government is doing something good, whereas they're really dumbing us down to be the next soldiers or oil field workers?