Scour in the Hot Seat

Controversy arose today over the ability of Scour Exchange file-sharing Web software to access almost any kind of multimedia files from private users' hard drives, after a newspaper report detailed the software's ability to permit that activity.

Software produced by Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Scour Inc., works somewhat like the more famous Napster software, but rather than limiting retrievable data only to MP3 music files, Scour allows exchange of everything from video and audio to still images from fellow Scour users' hard drives.

In some cases, the Los Angeles Times report today stated, the software not only looks through public sections of the Internet, but can find and retrieve unsecured information in home computers.

Craig Grossman, Scour's general counsel, called the report "totally misleading." He told Newsbytes that before any file residing on a computer's hard drive could be accessed by Scour's file-sharing technology, the computer's owner must not only agree to share files with other computer users, but must also designate which specific files could be shared.

Grossman did confirm that Scour's existing file-sharing technology will be replaced before the end of next month with a new, more reliable search engine. However, Scour members would still be able to designate which files can be shared with other users.

Scour, which says it is a search engine that specializes in finding multimedia on the Internet, has escaped much of the attention being directed at other file-sharing sites like Napster and Gnutella, yet Scour functions in a similar way. Scour permits users to search for, download and share, music videos, full-length movies and radio station programming, in addition to music files.

Scour says, as does Napster, that the files accessible from the Scour Web site are not under its control, and acknowledges that some of the content may have been posted without the permission of the copyright owner. Scour says that while it will, "as a courtesy," remove files that are available in violation of copyright law, it won't assume responsibility for such violations by agreeing to do so.

Asked how Scour has escaped the anger and litigation directed at Napster by the music industry, Grossman said, "Because we offer a legal service." Napster also has maintained its service is legal.

Grossman said the difference is Scour has positioned itself not only to engage in legal activity, but is working with entertainment businesses, at the highest levels.

Although the founders of Scour are barely out of their teens, they're backed by some heavy entrepreneurial talent, including grocery-store billionaire, Ron Burkle and Hollywood super-agent-turned-producer- turned-artist-manager, Michael Ovitz.

More information about Scour Inc. is available at http://www.scour.com.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com