NEW YORK, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Two Internet entrepreneurs say their rebel and lawsuit-tinged past led to development of Joost, partnering with New York-based Viacom.
"The reason we're doing this is because of our history," Janus Friis told The New York Times. "We know how these things work. And above all, we know that we don't want to be in a long, multiyear litigation battle."
Joost has reached agreements to download programs from Viacom networks such as MTV, Comedy Central and VH1. While the deal's terms were not disclosed, Viacom and Joost will share advertising revenue.
One of Friis' and Niklas Zennstrom's former Internet services, the file-sharing service, Kazaa, pushed legal boundaries and resulted in the music and movie industries aggressively suing the company.
Selling Kazaa didn't end troubles for Friis, a Dane, and Zennstrom, a Swede, who didn't enter the United States for years because of the lawsuits filed against them.
In November, Kazaa's new owners settled the last of the suits agreeing to pay at least $125 million to the record industry and movie studios.
