Sorry i can't give you any information about the Texas company other than it is based in Southern Texas and it has a staff of 25 people ... and i'm not even sure if i'm really allowed to say that much.
As for what Exeat said about Kazaa's policy this is completely true, their License prevents them from actually being held accountable for piracy, and they have active means for destorying software which is reported as piracy. However it is down the members computers themselves to take the actual blame. I doubt anyone no matter how large they are can win against them - a good example would be that Microsoft took them to court 2years ago about the leak of XP and Microsoft lost BADLY.
However alot of attention was diverted from such news by the whole SunJava affair (the whole industry is like a bad soap opera).
Don't take what i said to be my views on piracy at all, trust me i'm very very very far from for it - but i'm saying that the bigger fish just don't bother going after individuals anymore unless they know it will result in not going to court. But even a Cease&Desist Order costs a good few bucks ($395 last time i had one written up and i have a pretty cheap laywer compared to most companies)
About 3-4months ago i hardly would believe that the larger companies would act in such a mannor either, however i have done alot of research and i have also been in contact recently with alot of companies that would be carrying the software protection.
Although yes means of preventing pirates is increasing everyday, the fact of the matter is that the cost of producing these compared to the timeframe of them being cracked is getting smaller and smaller ... alot of companies (Discreet a good example) decide to stick with old protection systems which they know have been cracked and there is a slight expectation of piracy - however as i said, these people oftenly can't afford the software anyways and as such it is let slip because at the end of the day this is ALL about money for the bigger companies.
you want another good example of this... Nintendo has such down almost everysingle Emulator Developer over the internet, as most encouraged the piracy of thier games and software making money from adverts, pay-as-you-go Sites, etc... however one Emulator which has stood the test of time is Project64, because they have made the emulator opensource GPL & they do not make any money in any fashion.
Nintendo COULD shut them down with a simple Cease&Desist and they do know about this emulator as it is one of the highest profile emulators around - yet they haven't. Because unlike the other companies they wouldn't make any money from doing such nor would they save any.
Mircosoft are another company who look at the bigger financial picture rather than personal claims, if your pirate Window / Office / Visual Studio they will come down on you like a tonne of bricks ... however if your simply tinkering with thier DDK they don't touch you - CXBX would be a good example of that. Everyone knows they have a pirated version of the DDK and Microsoft knows about what they're doing to, but they've not been shutdown yet.
unfortunately this is how the world works when your a corporation rather than a company - you only bite if you know you will get a meal out of it.
And unfortunately its this lack of example making which means that pirateers get an ever more better and better grasp.
Atleast one good think about Kazaa is the fact that the pirated software isn't Warez, no one profits from what is going on unlike someone on the street who sells you it or these warez sites that make you download a dialer or something.
So although yeah these people are nicking the software atleast no drug dealer / porn racket / terrorist group / etc... is making any money from it.
there is a definate lack of morals as soon as a company shifts up the food chain, sickening, but as long as they turn a profit.
you wanna see a sick use of this, Funimation will shut down everysingle project that involve any cartoons they serve within the US & Canada (DB/DBZ for example) because they're not making any profit from it ... anyone remember BidForPower being shutdown, they had to resdesign ALL of the media involved it was just stupid.
I know that they were breaking the license but i bet you that Funimation didn't even check it out ... Something i've come to admire about LucasArts is the way they will checkout a game and its development before they decide to either give i the official thumbs up or shut it down - they also give a reason, its not a case of waking up one morning to see you've been sent a letter telling you to pack it in or be sued.
Alot of companies now are just in it for pure profit and it makes me out&out sick ... so much is lost from everything and the shallowness of the industry is showing from poor movie related games, sequal after sequal as well as a barrage of just extremely piss poor titles on the market which are all over priced for what they are!
I pride myself that i don't kill...
well not without a good reason
