[Infowarrior] - Music industry sues P2P firm LimeWire

[Richard Forno]

Music industry sues P2P firm LimeWire

By Greg Sandoval
http://news.com.com/Music+industry+sues+P2P+firm+LimeWire/2100-1025_3-610250
9.html

Story last modified Fri Aug 04 15:53:36 PDT 2006

After months of issuing warnings, the music industry finally made good on
its threat to file suit against peer-to-peer software company LimeWire.

A group of music companies, including Sony BMG, Virgin Records and Warner
Bros. Records, have accused LimeWire and the company's officers of copyright
infringement, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District
Court in New York. LimeWire produces software that's often used to create
copies of music recordings and then distribute them over the Web.

The recording industry is asking for compensatory and punitive damages, such
as $150,000 for every song distributed without permission.

LimeWire is "devoted essentially to the Internet piracy of plaintiffs' sound
recordings," the record companies charge in their suit. "The scope of
infringement caused by defendants is staggering."

The recording industry continues to pressure file-sharing companies that
refuse to do one of two things: either adopt a business model that
compensates record companies, or shut down.

Last week, the makers of the Kazaa file-sharing system agreed to pay the
record industry $115 million and use a filtering technology to prevent users
from distributing files that infringe on copyrights. Other companies that
have either gone out of business or altered their business models are
Grokster, WinMx and BearShare.

"Despite numerous efforts to engage LimeWire, the site's corporate owners
have shown insufficient interest in developing a legal business model," the
Recording Industry Association of America said in a statement. "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. 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."

LimeWire representatives could not be reached for comment.


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