Pilot Network Services, for instance, went out of business in April 2001--and is the subject of several securities fraud suits.

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"You wouldn't build a swimming pool in the center of town and not put a fence around it, and I think that's what the software companies are doing, " Glenn Tenney, a director with Pilot Network Services in Alameda, California, said during the luncheon.

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Though the failed pilot never received a network pickup, it leaked onto file-sharing service BitTorrent and, thousands of downloads later, it proved there clearly was an audience for it.

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