The Future of P2P Sharing in Jepodardy?

[big_j_ny]

The Future of Free P2P Sharing in Jepodardy?

Record Labels Win LimeWire Case

Yesterday (May 12) a court hearing ruled in favor of 13 record companies that sued Lime Group for infringement and engaging in unfair competition.

Justice David Souter ruled that someone who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use for copyright infringement, "as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps," is liable for third-party infringement, even if the device is also used lawfully.

LimeWire, a peer-to-peer file-sharing service, allowed its 50 million monthly users to share digital recordings protected by copyright. A win for consumers, but a loss for record labels who have taken a huge hit in the pocket since the file-sharing boom kicked off in the Napster days.

"The evidence demonstrates that Lime Wire optimized LimeWire's features to ensure that users can download digital recordings, the majority of which are protected by copyright, and that Lime Wire assisted users in committing infringement," Wood wrote in her 59-page ruling.

She added that Gorton "directed and benefited from many of the activities that gave rise to Lime Wire's liability," and knew about the copyright infringement.

The lawsuit was filed in August 2006.


Record labels take the victorious feat as a step towards regaining control of the industry, ultimately sending a warning to other web properties who share music illegally.

Mitch Bainwol, chief executive of The Recording Industry of Association of America, a trade group representing the labels, in a statement praised Wood's ruling.

"The court's decision is an important milestone in the creative community's fight to reclaim the Internet as a platform for legitimate commerce," he said. "The court has sent a clear signal to those who think they can devise and profit from a piracy scheme that will escape accountability."

LimeWire CEO George Searle is committed to working with the recording industry and develop products that comply with the ruling. I'm sure Arista, Atlantic, BMG Music, Capital, Elektra, Interscope, LaFace, Motown, Priority, Sony BMG, UMG, Virgin and Warner Brothers are happy about that.


Now what's going to happen with Torrents? BitTorrent is similar to LimeWire but on a larger scale. Instead of sharing songs, you share entire albums, movies, DVDs, programs, etc. You can download the whole collection of The Who and the latest version of Rosetta Stone while keeping the $1,000 you would pay for those products in your pocket. It's all peer-to-peer and it's also illegal.

I have a feeling they're next to get sued.


-Monique "Marvelous Mo" Balcarran | Email: [email protected]

Source: http://www.roc4life.com/profiles/blogs/record-labels-win-limewire

So Limewire's future is now jepodardy........and it seems BitTorrent could be the next target.

 

[Sage Shinigami]

Uhm. I'm confused. ...Who are they going to sue, again? A whole bunch of Open Source programmers?

 

[KingRanger]

Uhm. I'm confused. ...Who are they going to sue, again? A whole bunch of Open Source programmers?

Wouldn't be the first time.

 

[Sage Shinigami]

Yes but lawsuits are incredibly pricey and time-consuming. I...don't see this working the way they want to, attempting to sue BitTorrent.

 

[big_j_ny]

Yes but lawsuits are incredibly pricey and time-consuming. I...don't see this working the way they want to, attempting to sue BitTorrent.

They just took care of Limewire, didn't they?

 

[Sage Shinigami]

They just took care of Limewire, didn't they?

Limewire ≠ BitTorrent.

 

[SaikoDragon]

Uhm. I'm confused. ...Who are they going to sue, again? A whole bunch of Open Source programmers?

these are the same people who sued a little girl and a grandmother. I dont think they give a **** who they get their money from.

If the music industry wants to survive, they will roll with the internet thing and go digital. And they'll also stop charging 15 dollars a cd.

I mean, it's possible now to produce your own songs, publish them onto CDs, and sell them yourself. There's no reason to put your CDs in stores and thus no reason to get behind a record label.

You can call up a radio station and promote yourself by sending them your song. You can pimp yourself out by publishing your songs on thousands of websites.

There's no fucking point to the record industry. They are just siphoning money away from the actual artists. Artists dont even make money off the CDs they make money off the concerts and memorabilia.

 

[Tom Constantine]

It's something like 80p for a £10 album.

 

[Algo Fonix]

these are the same people who sued a little girl and a grandmother. I dont think they give a **** who they get their money from.

If the music industry wants to survive, they will roll with the internet thing and go digital. And they'll also stop charging 15 dollars a cd.

I mean, it's possible now to produce your own songs, publish them onto CDs, and sell them yourself. There's no reason to put your CDs in stores and thus no reason to get behind a record label.

You can call up a radio station and promote yourself by sending them your song. You can pimp yourself out by publishing your songs on thousands of websites.

There's no fucking point to the record industry. They are just siphoning money away from the actual artists. Artists dont even make money off the CDs they make money off the concerts and memorabilia.

Well, they do need industry backing for a tour. It costs a ton of money to do a full tour, what with having to pay for travel, staff, hotels, etc. Without the industry's backing no one would be able to make a career out of it. And no label is going to fund a tour for songs they didn't pay for... so yeah.

But I do agree they need to get with the times. It's almost like the RIAA is scared of the internet, or innovation. I don't know which it is at this point, but it's pretty ass backwards.

Also this suit ended quickly enough, seeing as how, like, no one uses limewire now!

 

[Synch]

Yeah they may as well just start sueing internet companies & PC & mac companies :S