Music industry sues P2P firm LimeWire

By Greg Sandoval on 07 August 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 US$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 US$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.

Topics: kazaa, music industry, file-sharing, lawsuit, peer-to-peer, p2p, limewire, peer, infringe, recording

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Comments (10)

  • Ethan commented on 05/06/2009 14:02

    While Limewire is a great idea, I personally prefer a tangiable, hard-copy of my purchase, namely a CD or other device that holds music. What if a computer crashes and I have no way of getting my songs back? Easy, I still have the CD. And, I've done nothing illegal.

  • doug commented on 04/11/2007 02:10

    Yea limewire doesnt work for me either

  • Mr Lemonwire commented on 28/04/2007 01:03

    i just used limewire now (note date). Search brings up nothing anymore. Have they folded in? Knrider, lol, you like your free songs! But at what cost? Less profits for music makers means they'll give you garbage. That's if limewire was legalised. As for viruses, you'd be hard pressed if you couldn't find one. All those 817kb files, you know who you are. Everyone that's supporting limewire here are just thinking for themselves. If you had to pay 0.99c a file you'd see how everyones support for limewire will fade as quickly as it began. Just for some background the first thing i downloaded on limewire was a program you have to pay to get called limewire pro, hehe.

  • Knrider commented on 04/01/2007 22:56

    Dear Friends, I really agree with you also, Recording companies are NUTS! It is better to use P2P than go shopping with record bars, all record bars does'nt have my "hard to find music" but Limewire do YES! Limewire really do, how about record bars? they dont, and waste of time and money. Also Limewire is just a tool for us good people who wants to bring and share the music that we like. I mean for me as experience, in the first place I dont have the music that i am playing in my mp4 today if that music was not shared via limewire, and by the person who had this music, so I am very thankful to that person (i dont know him) and thanks to Limewire, without them I dont have this music, How about you record companies do you have my music??? by the way guys, the music im telling about is the music background from the movie The Transporter starring Jason Statham. SO GO LIMEWIRE, guys let us support Limewire, it dont have any malwares or viruses. I love Limewire

  • bob commented on 03/09/2006 00:13

    GO LIMEWIRE!!!

  • John commented on 08/08/2006 12:50

    What is the difference between downloading a song or ripping it from a friend's cd, or recording it from radio? Who wants to pay $15.oo for a cd that has maybe only two good songs on it?

  • Luke commented on 07/08/2006 21:35

    All the record companies are thinking "when is this all gonna' stop?". Well its not, no matter what comes out and how good the security or how many legal battles you fight its just not going to happen. When the Sony Rootkit came out, people found a way around it. So why are record companies wasting money on legal battles? they should just hire a person that knows computers and hack into P2P systems and destroy it with a virus or something. Sometimes you have to play dirty.

  • Alchemist commented on 07/08/2006 15:48

    lol, look at the sponsered links below, nice bit of advertising there...
    (all are ads for Limewire)

  • bleach commented on 07/08/2006 15:07

    I agree with the previous comment... when will the record companies learn? I personally like music mainly from Japan and China and in Australia you cant buy them so P2P is the only way to download it. If they want to get rid of P2P they have to make legit options for people who are willing to buy them, one being me i would buy them. Downloading RHCP's new single off P2P is bad because you can buy it at the shops locally but downloading Utada Hikaru's new single is the only way since record companies don't sell it at the shops...

  • drewberry commented on 07/08/2006 13:23

    When will the recording industry catch-on and quit wasting millions of dollars on legal fees trying to defeat file sharing software providers? Wouldn't the money be better spent adopting and promoting the sale of legal downloads at a reasonable price rather than clinging to an antiquated business model?

    Each and every time one file sharing application is shut down, another 2-3 appear to replace it because there is a huge global demand for it while the recording industry continues to charge exorbitant prices for highly distributed intellectual property.

    It's laughable to think that the recording industry would have gone on a lawsuit rampage against the manufacturers of tape recorders, VCRS, computers, DVD burners and the relevant recordable media in the past? These technologies achieve exactly the same outcome as file sharing technology, they're just less efficient.

    Get with the program you old fuddies and accept that the gravy train you once rode doesn't run on modern day railroad tracks!

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