First, you got to read the link to BDE a bit more.

Nikki Hemming wasn't just "associated" with SEGA World at Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia. She was the CEO of SEGA World Sydney, Australia. Before that, she used to work at Virgin Interactive.

Brilliant Digital Entertainment was founded from the merger of a development team at SEGA Enterprises and a production studio specializing in multimedia development. Kevin Bermeister was the CEO of SEGA Enterprises Australia and Mark Dyne the Joint Managing Director of SEGA Ozisoft. Kevin Bermeister and Mark Dyne each have an 8% stake in the company. As you can understand now, Kevin Bermeister didn't just "help close the deal that brought SEGA world to Australia"; he was the former CEO of SEGA Enterprises Australia.

Mark Dyne is still the Joint Managing Director of SEGA Ozisoft Pty., Ltd, now Ozisoft Pty., Ltd., since 1982. SEGA Ozisoft was a majority owned subsidary of SEGA Enterprises Japan until Mark Dyne and Kevin Burmeister negotiated a management buyout with SEGA Enterprises Japan in 1988. SEGA Enterprises Japan remain as shareholders.

Ozisoft is the leading distributor of entertainment software in Australia and New Zealand and represents publishers such as Virgin Interactive, Eidos, etc.

Mark Dyne is also a Director of SEGA Enterprises Australia (since 1995), a Director of Monto Holdings Pty., Ltd. ("Monto"), co-owner of Packard Bell/NEC Australia and Chairman of Tag-it Pacific, Inc.

Furthermore, BDE is backed by big money from Hollywood power-brokers such as Walt Disney, Time Warner and Dreamworks SKG and part of Intel Capital's portfolio. SEGA Corporation has a 5% stake in Brilliant Digital Entertainment. e-New Media Company Ltd. owns 11%.

I hope that by now you see a pattern referencing "SEGA", and thus an association between the companies. Additionally, you probably have seen the advertisement of Earth Action Center at Kazaa's Website, featureing Brlliant Digital Media's top Internet product B3D (3D Cameron Diaz animation).

Perhaps noteworthy to mention, is that in August 2001, Russel Simmons, founder of Def Jam records, Phat Farm Clothing & Hip-Hop Empire was named to Board of Directors at BDE. BDE always had a link with the music industry, but this reinforces that link even more.

Now, ZP's use of the title "Morhpeus under attack" doesn't fit the content, where they "research" Sharman Networks association with Brilliant Digital Entertainment. That association is obvious given the above known facts. To think that Sharman networks would be behind this is far sought, especially since Grokster remains "untouched" by the recent events.

Sharman Networks purchased the Kazaa software and associated assets, a product made by FastTrack that incorporates the FastTrack P2P stack. However, FastTrack seems to remain a seperate entity focusing on their FastTrack P2P stack; the sale to Sharman Networks included the license to use the stack, but not the proprietary rights. There have been no indications that FastTrack has cancelled the licenses with either StreamCast/MusicCity or Grokster.

It would have been more appropriate if ZP spent more time in researching the actual cause for the upgrade message to be send over the MusicCity network to Morpheus clients. As the CEO Steve Griffin explains it, StreamCast has decided to drop the FastTrack P2P stack (license) in favor of Gnutella, as they believe that FastTrack contains an unknown backdoor or flaw which would compromise the security of its user's computers.

Sources:

BDE Capsule by Hoover's Online:
http://www.hoovers.com/co/capsule/9/...,52409,00.html

Sega Enterprises Japan
http://www.sega.com

www.enewmedia.net, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (SEHK: 0128 ADR-NYSE :ENEWY).

Russel Simmons named Board of Directors
http://www.brilliantdigital.com/cont...in=BDE1&ID=730

Intel Capital, BDE portfolio
http://www.intel.com/capital/portfol.../brilliant.htm

Red Herring Insider:
http://www.redherring.com/insider/19...brilliant.html

Kazaa:
http://www.kazaa.com

FastTrack:
http://www.fasttrack.nu

MusicCity/Morpheus:
http://www.musiccity.com

O'reily 'Copyright Industries: Don't sqeeze the Sharman!' by Gordon Mohr, CEO of Bitzi, Inc.:
http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/weblog/view/wlg/1077