StreamCast to Face Court Over Patent Piracy

SYDNEY, Australia (Sharman Networks) - Altnet, Inc. today announced that it has commenced patent infringement proceedings against StreamCast Networks, Inc and its chief executive, Michael Weiss.
The case was launched today in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Altnet and the other plaintiffs allege that StreamCast and its CEO, Michael Weiss, intentionally infringe Altnet's "TrueNames" patents as part of its music and movie file distribution business.

The patents infringed are 5,978791 - 6,415,280 - 6,928,442. They are well established and recognized patents that are critical to efficient on-line "peer-to-peer" file distribution systems, which Altnet uses to sell licensed contented worldwide.

Michael Speck, manager of enforcement programs said, "StreamCast have been given ample opportunity by all to mend their ways. Their determination to continue distributing infringing material has left us with no choice but to prosecute them."

StreamCast, which claims to have distributed over 144,000,000 copies of the infringing software, already faces major copyright infringement allegations before the same California Federal District Court in Los Angeles. Their distribution continues unabated despite the defendant's being put on notice twice this year in relation to their infringing conduct.

Altnet is seeking judgment from the Court that includes: declarations, injunctions and a trebling of damages because of the willful and deliberate nature of the infringements.

"StreamCast's brazen patent piracy underpins its massive copyright infringement business. They are simply running out of opportunities to go legal," said Michael Speck.