Skype Founders Sue eBay for Copyright Violations

The lawsuit cites eBay, Silver Lake Partners, and its investment partners, the current owners of Skype. They claim that eBay’s altering and misuse of their code could total to more than $75 million per day in damages, as each download of Skype is considered by them to be copyright infringement. It's not clear how they came up with that gargantuan number but it equates to $27 billion per year. That's a hefty number that must have been determined based on something other than a guess.

Skype filed the lawsuit against eBay in Northern California U.S. District Court this week. The lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction against Skype and damages.

Ebay licenses peer-to-peer technology from Joltid, the company owned by Friis and Zennstrom, for Skype. However, eBay has begun to develop its own alternative software in light of the lawsuit.

"Their allegations and claims are without merit and are founded on fundamental legal and factual errors," eBay said in a statement.

According to an article in the New York Times, Skype founders have a penchant for lawsuits. They filed three separate lawsuits against Pamela Colburn, an investment banker who represented them in the original sale of Skype, in the United States, the Netherlands and Britain.

The lawsuit against eBay is expected to take place in early 2010 in the United Kingdom. By then perhaps the Skype founders will also find someone else to sue as well.