Just to help clear the air here -
RIAA Sues LimeWire Over Piracy
By Ed Oswald, BetaNews
August 4, 2006, 4:10 PM
The company behind the file sharing program LimeWire was sued by the RIAA in federal court Friday, which is accusing the New York-based Lime Group LLC of facilitating the trade of illegal music files between its users. The labels are seeking damages, including $150,000 per occurrence of an illegally traded file.
RIAA claims that LimeWire's business model allows it to profit from the piracy trade, and its failure to block copyright content is a sign that the company is actively encouraging its users to pirate music. "Defendants not only have known of the infringement, but have promoted and relied upon it to build their business," it said in the complaint.
LimeWire has declined to comment on the situation.
The recording industry's latest move comes just days after it settled with Kazaa for $115 million, and dropped all pending litigation. Filtering technologies will be introduced on the service that will make it impossible to share illicit files. However, it is unclear if users will respond to the new format.
After other P2P sites either closed their doors or went legal, LimeWire continued to profit from staying in its current form, the RIAA alleges. The service has been around since 2000, and has grown into one of the most popular peer-to-peer sharing services.
Limewire has had time to go legal - it was one of several P2P services to receive a letter last September threatening legal action if they did not either shut down, or transfer to a licensed business model. Most, including WinMX and BearShare, decided to exit the business.
"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 RIAA said in a statement.
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On a related note:
BearShare bites the dust, settles with RIAA for $30 million
May 5th 2006 4:30PM
Free Peers Incorporated, a company that distributed the BearShare Gnutella application, has reached a settlement with the music industry. According to court records, FreePeers, Inc. will pay a $30 million dollars to the plaintiffs of this case (Capitol Records, Sony-BMG, UMG Recordings, and Warner Music.)
On May 3rd, the plaintiffs filed a complaint against Free Peers, Inc., Vincent Falco (CEO and developer) and Louis Tatta (developer.) The plaintiffs contend that "...massive copyright infringement is the very purpose of the BearShare System and software...Defendants know it; they encourage and contribute to it; and they readily could prevent it - but choose not to."
Faced with the near impossible task of battling on the music industry in the P2P-hostile US courts, Free Peers, Inc. instead opted to negotiate. Free Peers, Inc. could theoretically challenge the complaint; however the current political climate is unlikely to benefit this P2P firm.
On June 26, 2005, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled, “We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties."
With a firm pro-music industry victory now in place, Free Peers, Inc. and several other P2P firms were the recipient of a September 13, 2005, cease and desist notification from the RIAA. The letter stated,
"We demand that you immediately cease-and-desist from enabling and inducing the infringement of RIAA member sound recordings. If you wish to discuss pre-litigation resolution of these claims against you, please contact us immediately."
It’s not clear whether the $30 million settlement was part of the above proposed negotiation, especially considering the music industry filed a complaint regardless. It’s possible the May 3rd filing was a means to force Free Peers, Inc. into negotiations and a settlement. As part of the settlement reached on May 4th, FreePeers, Inc. will give up all intellectual property rights to the BearShare name. This includes the BearShare source code, all associated domains (over 100), and its massive user base. Who benefits from this blockbuster deal?
The music industry, as it's now $30 million richer. Who else you ask?
P2P old timer, iMesh. Although the assets technically go to a purely administrative subsidiary, iMesh inherits everything related to BearShare; with the exception of its employees. It’s an amazing coup for iMesh, who benefit from being the only authorized P2P service. The P2P company has so far received the best settlement deal from the music industry. iMesh managed to settle at a comparatively low price ($4.1 million), while also being granted the right to continue its existence.
Perhaps comforting to some, the BearShare product shouldn't be considered completely dead. BearShare will still be distributed on BearShare.com, however the source code will not be released. Future development (albeit not from Mr. Falco or Mr. Tatta) is entirely conceivable as part of the growing iMesh consortium.
$30 million is a tremendous amount of money - even if the bill is split between three entities. However BearShare was, and still is, one of the best examples of file-sharing software ever developed. This kind of achievement doesn't go unnoticed, and neither will Mr. Falco or Mr. Tatta when they venture off into the IT world.
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