Kazaa Sued By Romanian Developer

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

19 March 2004

It emerged this week that Romanian software developer, Fabian Toader has filed a lawsuit against the company which owns file sharing software application, Kazaa, arguing that he owns the copyright for the peer-to-peer file sharing program.

In a suit filed in Los Angeles seeking $25 million in compensation and confirmation of his ownership of the copyright, Mr Toader alleged that he developed the file sharing software whilst working on a freelance basis for Kazaa B.V., which sold the software to Sharman Networks in 2002.

However, Sharman has angrily refuted the developer's claims. In a statement released in response to the filing of the lawsuit, the company announced that:

"In August 2003, Sharman obtained an injunction against Fabian Toader in Washington State Superior Court because of his alleged extortion efforts. Mr Toader had threatened to release over the Internet Sharman's early version of the confidential Kazaa Media Desktop source code, unless he received a substantial cash payment from Sharman. Mr Toader is believed to be a Microsoft employee residing in Washington state."

The statement continued:

"Sharman Networks obtained all rights to Kazaa Media Desktop from Kazaa BV in early 2002. The work done by Fabian Toader on early versions of the Kazaa Media Desktop software was done under a work for hire agreement that expressly states that Kazaa BV owned all rights to any work related to the development of the software."

"The consulting agreement that dictated the rights and obligations of the parties required that any dispute be adjudicated in the courts of Amsterdam, pursuant to the laws of the Netherlands. Sharman regards this recently filed Los Angeles law suit as nothing more than Mr Toader's most recent shakedown effort."

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