Altnet announced that Loudeye and Overpeer settled a patent infringement lawsuit. Terms were not made public. Altnet distributes secured and open files primarily through the Fast Track network and kazaa software.

The merits of the case are unclear as the case has not yet gone to trial with other defendants. Loudeye agreed to refrain from the infringing activity. That's easy to comply with as it's no longer in that business. Business realities have fully eclipsed legal sloth as Loudeye has bought and closed Overpeer since the lawsuit was started.

More from the press release:

Altnet, its parent company Brilliant Digital Entertainment, Inc., and Kinetech, Inc., a patent licensing company, launched a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court alleging patent infringements by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Loudeye Corp., Overpeer Inc., Media Sentry (now part of SafeNet) and a number of individuals.

Overpeer and Media Sentry were the companies that the music industry called upon to flood Kazaa and other peer to peer (P2P) systems with "spoofed," that is, fake files. It was alleged that these files were damaged or otherwise counterfeit and that the methods used to distribute them infringed two patents critical to P2P business.

The lawsuit was commenced after RIAA executives and other defendants were put on notice on a number of occasions in relation to the patents and their infringement.