Developer of peer-to-peer file sharing software GNUTELLA found shot dead.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020709/ap_on_hi_te/kan_profile_2 ^

[brat]

I'm glad you put that up there....yesterday it was an "accident." Either way, God rest his soul.

[eddie willers]

I went the drugs and alcohol route.
Then I sobered up and became a cynical freeper.

Hey...worked for me.

[PallMal]

I agree with your sentiments about money and success not translating into happiness.

Reminds me of another pioneer in the computer industry, Phil Katz (The "PK" in "PKZIP"). He was found dead a couple of years ago at age 39. The difference is that for several years, PK was leading a life of self-destruction which was obvious to those closest to him.

[bonesmccoy]

One wonders why this news has appeared on the front page of Yahoo! Sounds like Yahoo! has reasons. That also means we should have "reasons" to consider the implications if this is not suicide.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Sure, there are a lot of things that could have happened. But its probably worth keeping in mind the quote from the article "there is no head to this dragon". Let's say this guy *was* hit. OK. What has been accomplished? The genie is already out of the bottle. Peer to peer will go on just as it did a week ago or a month ago. What really has changed? You might say "it serves as a warning to others" but even that is a stretch, as there will always be some 20 year old programmer working on Doritos and Jolt cola who will write the next killer app, for fame, for fortune or just to be the one to do it. They always say you need means, motive and opportunity. I don't really see how anyone is helped by this death, so I don't really think you have motive. Compare and contrast to Vince Foster, who had, presumably, many tales to tell.

[socal_parrot]

Anybody know the whereabouts of Lars Ulrich?

[WyldKard]

Oh yes eddie, THUGS!! There is a book out about Death Row Records( the name escapes me at this moment, which records the doings of Suge Knight, let's just say this guy is no Col. Tom Parker or Brian Epstein, give you a hint, there were times when Knight and his friends in the Bloods, would get some poor soul, and have him beaten up, right in the middle of the offices of Death Row Records. Very entertaining and scary reading.

This is a very old and long on-going thing, as well. When the lead members, the actual songwriters that were part of the group "Chic" found out that the Sugar Hill Gang had stolen the instrumentals from "Good Times" to use for their "Rappers Delight" (back in 1979), they naturally asked them to stop stealing their work. The Sugar Hill Gangs response was to send armed thungs out and threaten the poor guys. Fortunately, Chic's lawyer had Mafia connections, and enough pressure was brought to bear on the Sugar Hill Gang; a compromise was reached, and the two songwriters got half a mill in cash on the QT.....

[NerdDad]

he may have brought this upon himself.

Yeah, the doctor said the same thing about all the hickeys on my butt. I brought it on myself by mooning the gay pride parade. Seriously, as often as we have heard this cop out used to justify everything from rape and murder on down, I would not be surprised to hear someone from the industry actually say it. But then, I'm a born Texan. When I left the great state in 1990, I think we still had a law on the books called, "Because he just needed killing."

[ctonious]

It's time to use RICO on RIAA.

[rdb3]

P2P is here to stay, that's for sure.

True. This is one genie that has broken its bottle. There's no way it will return.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Get some help.

[Timesink]

The guy had everything going for him. Just goes to shot that money and success does not necessarily translate into happiness.

He certainly had success, in that he made a big name for himself in his field, but did he really have a lot of money? Gnutella is just an open-source transfer protocol/engine. There's no Gnutella, Inc. I'm sure he was making a very nice salary at Sun, but he was hardly building $10 million houses and pricing yachts in his spare time. Even worse, Sun bought his little InfraSearch company with stock, not cash, and they never disclosed how much stock. However many shares it was, though, it's only worth about 1/4 of what it was when he got it.

Maybe that's got something to do with it. Perhaps he got in over his head financially when his portfolio started to meltdown? It certainly wasn't the RIAA putting a hit out on him. That's just silly.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Agreed.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Don't laugh. Does the word "Payola" mean anything to you?