Morpheus (file sharing client)

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Morpheus
Basic data

developer StreamCast Networks
Publishing year 2001
Current  version 5.55.1
(November 15, 2007)
operating system Windows
programming language python
category peer to peer
License proprietary
www.morpheus.com (offline)

Morpheus is a file sharing program for Windows . It was operated by StreamCast Networks (formerly MusicCity ) and was originally based on the peer-to-peer platform OpenNap .

At www.morpheus.com there was a web-based search interface, just like Audiogalaxy had, but Morpheus could search for different file types. In 2001 Morpheus switched from the OpenNap protocol to FastTrack . On February 26th, 2002 all Morpheus clients suddenly stopped working when the FastTrack protocol was updated by its network operator, and all Morpheus users were suddenly locked out of the seemingly completely uncontrollable network and could no longer connect. As it turned out, this was due to unpaid invoices from StreamCast to the owners of FastTrack. On March 2, 2003, a new, less stable version of the Morpheus client was released, which was now based on the Gnutella network and had taken over the network core from Gnucleus . After some struggles with the GPL under which Gnucleus was released, Morpheus switched to a very outdated Jtella core. When the disputes were resolved, Morpheus switched back to the Gnucleus core. Since then, the network core has been updated again and again and now supports, in addition to Gnutella2 , ' NEOnet ', plugins for MLDonkey (which provide access to eDonkey2000 , Overnet and FastTrack ) and, most recently, support for BitTorrent .

In April 2003, a federal court in Los Angeles ruled against the lawsuits of the RIAA and MPAA that the file sharing software from Grokster and StreamCast (distributors of Morpheus P2P software) was illegal. On August 20, 2003, an appeal was lodged against this decision . On August 17, 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit passed a partial ruling which now asked the question of whether a manufacturer of file sharing software should answer for copyright infringements by end users. The court ruled in favor of Grokster and StreamCast, who cannot be held responsible for unlawful acts by their end users.

In December 2004, the United States Supreme Court agreed to a hearing. The oral hearing was set for March 29, 2005. A final decision was made in late July 2005. The judges ruled against the operators of the file sharing software manufacturers Grokster and StreamCast Networks by ruling that "whoever seduces his users into copyright infringements and benefits from them are also guilty". When the domains morpheus.com , www.streamcastnetworks.com and musiccity.com were no longer dissolved in January 2006 , the development of Morpheus seemed to have been stopped. From February 2006 the websites were online again. However, since April 22, 2008, when Streamcast Networks declared its Chapter 7, Title 11, United States Code bankruptcy and laid off all employees, the websites morpheus.com , www.streamcastnetworks.com and musiccity.com have been inaccessible , the domain morpheus.com is currently owned by PSINet . musiccity.com is for sale.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MGM against Grokster ( Memento from February 1, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  2. ↑ MGM versus Grokster - Protocol (English)
  3. ↑ zeit.de - On the supposed cessation of developments in January 2006
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ↑ [2]
  6. ↑ [3]