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RICO Suit Filed Against Skype Founders

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the jealous-of-success dept.

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."

10 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization by Short+Circuit · · Score: 4, Informative

    So that's what RICO stands for...

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    1. Re:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization by hey! · · Score: 4, Informative

      Can a private company file a RICO suit ? I thought that was a Govt charge ?

      RICO allows private companies that have been damaged by criminal enterprises to bring suit. It's kind of like the False Claims Act, which essentially allows private individuals who have knowledge of defrauding of the Federal Government to become, in essence, civil law vigilantes.

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  2. RICO is scary by tehpwn · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's quite scary that a group named Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization is allowed to fill suit against honest companies!

    1. Re:RICO is scary by corrosive_nf · · Score: 4, Funny

      I cant tell if that is sarcasm or stupidity.

  3. Pacer by Tester · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    1. Re:Pacer by evil+agent · · Score: 5, Insightful
      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.

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      End transmission.
  4. Query... by Illbay · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is it possible that SteamCast is a surrogate for a larger organization or consortium?

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    Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
  5. RICO use and abuse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    RICO was ostensibly passed to help prosecutors go after mobsters. Mafia organizations were set up so that the guys running them could avoid personal responsibility for the corrupt actiosn of the organization itself, so prosectutors ended up always going after low-level guys, which wasn't right and wasn't productive. So they got RICO which would let them bust the top guys, even if the top guys were not directly involved in the corruption. Prosecutors would just have to show that the organization itself is corrupt.

    But now RICO gets used and abused for many other things. It is used to go after political groups (anti-abortion groups is one case I'm aware of). In this case it sounds like it is being used in a business dispute.

    I swear, if Congress keeps on passing laws that inadvertently (or otherwise) lets law enforcement get involved in what are civil business disputes, this country will be ruined. I was talking with an attorney a while ago who said that these days anyone who is a business leader should have a crim. def. attorney retained or available. There's no way law enforcement can help achieve a fair resolution of a business dispute by getting involved in it.

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    Contact management, calendar mangement, multiple timezones, sales automation

  6. Re:RICO use and abuse - Or Not by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 4, Informative
    It is used to go after political groups (anti-abortion groups is one case I'm aware of).

    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)...

    Yeah, IANAL, but I'd call that a valid RICO case.

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    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  7. RICO in a nutshell by aws910 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's your better link. From info in TFA and here, it looks like Streamcast is alleging that Skype(and others) did one(or more) of many things:

    a. use an enterprise to launder money generated by a pattern of racketeering activity

    b. a victim business owner cannot make payments to a loan shark; upon default, the loan shark says: "you're either going to die or you're going to give me your business." Given the threat to this life, the victim transfers control of his business to the loan shark. Usually, the victim business owner remains the owner on paper but the loan shark controls the business and receives all income from the business. Thus, the loan shark has acquired and maintained interest or control over an enterprise (i.e. the business) through a pattern of racketeering (i.e., loan sharking and extortion).

    c. [Streamcast] has been injured by reason of the defendants' investment of the proceeds of racketeering activity / (1) a defendant person[Skype] (2) was employed by or associated with an enterprise (3) that engaged in or affected interstate commerce and that (4) the defendant person operated or managed the enterprise (5) through a pattern (6) of racketeering activity, and (7) the plaintiff[Streamcast] was injured in its business or property by reason of the pattern of racketeering activity.