StreamCast Networks, Inc., was an American corporation, specializing in

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer ...

software. Formerly named MusicCity, it created

Morpheus Morpheus ('Fashioner', derived from the grc, μορφή meaning 'form, shape') is a god associated with sleep and dreams. In Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' he is the son of Somnus and appears in dreams in human form. From the Middle Ages, the name b ...

, which was one of the first major peer-to-peer Internet applications. StreamCast was a defendant in the '' MGM v. Grokster'' case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that StreamCast could be sued for inducing

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...

for acts taken in the course of marketing file sharing software. On May 22, 2006, StreamCast Networks filed a lawsuit against

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

in hopes of stopping the distribution of its

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

software. StreamCast claims that the rights for Skype as well as the

FastTrack FastTrack is a peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol that was used by the Kazaa, Grokster, iMesh and Morpheus file sharing programs. FastTrack was the most popular file sharing network in 2003, and used mainly for the exchange of music mp3 files. The ne ...

technology were unrightfully taken away from it. On April 22, 2008, StreamCast Networks filed for

Chapter 7 bankruptcy Chapter 7 of Title 11 of the United States Code (Bankruptcy Code) governs the process of liquidation under the bankruptcy laws of the United States, in contrast to Chapters 11 and 13, which govern the process of ''reorganization'' of a debto ...

; all employees were laid off and Morpheus became no longer available for download.

References

Defunct online companies of the United States Companies that have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy {{US-internet-company-stub