Limewire Going Byebye

Music Industry Sues LimeWire
Aug 04 2:53 PM US/Eastern
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By ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writer

LOS ANGELES

A coalition of major recording companies sued the operators of the file-sharing program LimeWire for copyright infringement Friday, claiming the firm encourages users to trade music without permission.

New York-based Lime Group LLC, its subsidiaries who designed and distribute LimeWire, and the corporation's top executives, are named in the federal court lawsuit, which was filed in the Southern District of New York, the Recording Industry Association of America said in a statement.

Record labels owned by Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Britain's EMI Music are behind the complaint, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages, including at least $150,000 for each instance in which a copyright song was distributed without permission.

The case is the first piracy lawsuit brought against a distributor of file-sharing software since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that technology companies could be sued for copyright infringement on the grounds that they encouraged customers to steal music and movies over the Internet.

In the complaint, the record companies contend LimeWire's operators are "actively facilitating, encouraging and enticing" computer users to steal music by failing to block access to copyright works and building a business model that allows them to profit directly from piracy.

"Defendants not only have known of the infringement, but have promoted and relied upon it to build their business," the complaint states.

Like similar programs, LimeWire allows computer users to make files on their PCs available to a multitude of other people all connected to each other, a method known as peer-to-peer file-sharing.

The original Napster software first popularized such swapping of files online before it was forced to shut down in 2001 after record companies sued.

In the LimeWire complaint, the record companies contend that LimeWire, which began operating in 2000, has since grown into the leading file- sharing software for stealing music as other Napster clones have shut down or gone legitimate in recent years.

A LimeWire spokeswoman, Katie Catillaz, declined comment Friday.

Last fall, LimeWire was among several file-sharing services to receive letters from the Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major record labels, warning them to shut down or face litigation.

The RIAA said LimeWire's operators did not show sufficient interest in developing a licensed business model or agree to shut down.

"While other services have come productively to the table, LimeWire has sat back and continued to reap profits on the backs of the music community," the trade group said. "That is unfortunate and has left us no choice but to file a lawsuit to protect the rights and livelihoods of artists, songwriters and record label employees, as well as those companies building legitimate businesses based on music."



http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/08/04/D8J9PFS00.html



$150,000 per illegal mp3 ouch thats going to dig into the pocketbook

 

that sux

 

Eh... I never used it much, so I don't feel anything much about this .

 

That does suck. Major blow to the p2p community.

 

I don't recall limewire encouraging people to steal music, but whatever.

If Limewire shuts down theres bunches of other downloading services.

 

Doesnt matter to me, i never use limewire.

 

noes, time to switch from my limewire pro

 

Me either.
:mellow:

 

limewire was the worst of those programs. TONS of spyware.

 

Yeah I also did not use limewire because of the many accounts of spyware...

 

never used limewire heard it sux but like wtf why wud they encourage to steal music.. i don't think they wud or do

 

how ----in gay is that
i use limewire pro, works perfectly

here u can dl lw pro from the limewire website
Removed

hehe

 

i have never used limewire once, its the bigger load of ----. i got my "special" sites for my needs of music.

 

who really uses limewire anyways... everyone uses torrents or irc....... .....least they should.. everything else is slow especially limewire.. one of my friends was convinced limewire was the best, till i forwarded his ports on his torrent client... now he downloads at max speeds and he has never downloaded a torrent that was something it shouldn't have been.... limewire, people falsely name files all the time.

 

torrents are slower than limewire ^^


i currently use Bearshare, its not that good, but it does the job if you want single tracks or movies.

i always use torrents etc for full albums or compiltations, and also good quality dvd rate movies