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."

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization

[Short Circuit (52384)]

So that's what RICO [wikipedia.org] stands for...

Re:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization

[Nurseman (161297)]

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

Re:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization

[harmonica (29841)]

IIRC that guy who sued Google for his Usenet postings recently also included a RICO charge.

Re:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization

[hey! (33014)]

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.

Re:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization

[Tim C (15259)]

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.

Technically, every citizen has a duty to uphold the law and to report any wrongdoings to the relevant authorities. The difference between a private citizen and a police officer is that the police do it as their job and have greater powers of arrest, etc. (Here in the UK at least, private citizens can make an arrest under c

Re:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization

[Thing 1 (178996)]

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?

Yeah, right.

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

RICO is scary

[tehpwn (896928)]

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

Re:RICO is scary

[corrosive_nf (744601)]

I cant tell if that is sarcasm or stupidity.

Pacer

[Tester (591)]

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

Re:Pacer

[evil agent (918566)]

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.

RICO in a nutshell

[aws910 (671068)]

Here's your better link. From info in TFA and here [ricoact.com], 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.

Query...

[Illbay (700081)]

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

No way

[wkitchen (581276)]

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 [slashdot.org]

Re:No way

[MBCook (132727)]

I read a great piece on that whole debacle. I think it was in Forbes.

They made that software Intel only when it didn't need to be. This was found out (much to no-one's surprise) and they looked terrible.

But did it have to be that way?

The article posited it this way. They should have made that same software, but only bundled it with Intel computers. They wouldn't offer it for download. Other people would find it and put it up for download and it would be discovered that the limit was there and it worked j

Re:that's hard to believe.

[Karma Farmer (595141)]

I stopped reading it after the old man died and it turned into a mouthpiece for Steve's celebration of unearned wealth.

If it's been turned around again into a real magazine, that would be wonderful. It would have been a shame to see a great magazine run into the ground by a giant douchebag like Steve Forbes.

RICO use and abuse

[by Anonymous Coward]

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.

------------
Contact management, calendar mangement, multiple timezones, sales automation [contempo.biz]

Well said!

[bobalu (1921)]

Exactly right, it was originally intended to recover $$$ salted away in mob compounds on Long Island.

Now they'll use it against kids opening a lemonade stand if they feel like it.

Re:RICO use and abuse - Or Not

[Nom du Keyboard (633989)]

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.

Re:RICO use and abuse - Or Not

[Brian_Ellenberger (308720)]

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

Re:RICO use and abuse - Or Not

[Solandri (704621)]

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)

A good way to determine if your argument is logically sound is to replace the subject with something you per

Re:RICO use and abuse - Or Not - Wrong is Wrong!!!

[kthejoker (931838)]

To add to this, RICO is designed to go after organizations that have IRS filings, be they corporate or NPO. So the users of Slashdot would not constitute a RICO act, because we are merely a loose affiliation of (possible) confederates. And since Slashdot site owners are pretty much hands-off on any sort of endorsements of activity on the site, they will never be charged with RICO for encouraging piracy or civil disobedience or what have you.

If the PETA officially sanctioned or condoned civil disobedience (o

Re:RICO use and abuse

[aminorex (141494)]

> 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.

Rico?

[sootman (158191)]

Suave!

Re:Looking deeper

[jonbryce (703250)]

The founders of Skype previously set up Kazaa, and ran it until they sold it to Sharman Networks.

Streamcast started life as the largest alternative Napster network. When that was shut down by the courts, they launched a rebranded version of Kazaa.

Kazaa a bit later on released a non-compatible version of their software which had the effect of kicking them off the network. Apparently they hadn't paid their bills for the use of the software, but Streamcast deny this.

They then relaunched as a spyware infested