Smule CEO defends lawsuit against former employees

Music app company Smule, Inc. sued former employees for allegedly stealing one of the firm’s intellectual properties and using it in another product. On the other hand, ex-employees Mark Godfrey and Mike Allen said they’re being bullied via litigation.

Allen told his side of the story. He said that Smule CEO Jeff Smith’s accusation they stole the company's proprietary code and repurposed it to create Shred Video is completely false.

Shred Video, the product allegedly built with Smule’s proprietary code, is an app that creates a short movie clip. It analyzes a song’s parts and matches it with an imported video from a user’s GoPro or other action cameras. The match is achieved by the app’s analysis of video action footage and the speed of the music the user feeds it.

“His intent is a classic siege strategy: use Smule’s money and the legal process to make it hard for us to fundraise, and bleed us until we surrender,” said Allen in his blog post . He further said that Smith and Smule are using their power to exploit the legal system, which doesn’t offer much protection in forestalling harassing lawsuits.

Allen argued Smule’s claim is absurd because none of Smule’s apps does the same thing Shred Video can do. The app they created uses music information retrieval (MIR) technology, which Smule’s app isn’t capable of.

Prior to Smule’s lawsuit, the opposing parties offered to resolve the conflict by inspecting Shred’s code. The accused former employees suggested a third-party investigation. On the other hand, Smule insisted on an investigation by one of its own experts. Smith claims there are only very few people that understand the code, TechCrunch reported.

Allen said Smith’s approach is preposterous. He said it’s tantamount to asking them (him and Godfrey) to let Smith and Smule play judge and jury and trust a fair judgment will come out.

Although both parties accuse each other of bad faith, Allen stated he’s more than willing to give Smith an assurance that Smule’s proprietary code is safe.

Shred Video App Store preview (Credit: YouTube/Shred Video)

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