This is excellent news, although it is not in relation to the Winmx network the same action could be launched against Macrovision who are the company currently flooding the WPN.
http://www.blackenterprise.com/yb/ybopen.asp?section=ybbf&story_id=93171569&ID=blackenterpriseIn 2004, Altnet, its parent company Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Inc., and Kinetech, Inc., a patent licensing company, launched a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court alleging patent infringements by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Loudeye Corp., Overpeer Inc., Media Sentry (now part of SafeNet) and a number of individuals.
Overpeer and Media Sentry were the companies that the music industry called upon to flood Kazaa and other peer to peer (P2P) systems with "spoofed," that is, fake files. It was alleged that these files were damaged or otherwise counterfeit and that the methods used to distribute them infringed two patents critical to P2P business.
The lawsuit was commenced after RIAA executives and other defendants were put on notice on a number of occasions in relation to the patents and their infringement.
In a significant turn of events, Overpeer has admitted that its P2P interdiction activities infringed the TrueName patents in question, as alleged by plaintiffs. Both companies have further undertaken not to engage in those activities in future.
The settlement was filed in the Los Angeles District Court, and the case against the remaining defendants will continue with a trial likely in 2007.
I hope this shows all users of P2P networks that the RIAA/MPAA and the companies they pay to flood networks are the real lawbreakers and can be brought to account legally, this case is not the first of its kind, nor will it be the last, but lets not let them forget that they are the ones clearly breaking the law and acting in a ruthless manner against competition to their current monopoly.
I have a message for the cretins at Macrovision, your days are numbered, there are more of us than there are of you, democracy will prevail, whether you like it or not.