Oracle hits Qtrax with $2m sueball

Emotions run high at P2P outfit

Database giant Oracle has filed a $2m copyright infringement and breach of contract lawsuit against P2P outfit Qtrax.

The company accused Qtrax of failing to pay a hefty bill owed to Oracle. It took legal action against the P2P site in the US District Court of the Northern District of California on 21 July.

Oracle claimed that a $1.8m cheque sent by Qtrax in November last year, to cover database software provision, had bounced. It alleged that repeated attempts to collect the money from Qtrax had failed, forcing the firm to take legal action.

A few days prior to the lawsuit landing on the doorstep of the Californian court, Qtrax's CEO Allan Klepfisz wrote a lengthy and emotional blog post, in which he confessed that the outfit had "battled to raise money," and was unable to "meet checks on their due dates."

Qtrax launched its ad-funded, DRM-wrapped music service in January 2008.

However, it was forced into a humiliating climb-down, after wrongly claiming that the Big Four record labels had thrown their weight behind the P2P start-up by agreeing licensing terms with the firm.

Qtrax later inked deals with the majors, but has since hit the buffers again by struggling to pay its bills on time. ®