at 23:23 on May 12, 2010, EDT.
By Ryan Nakashima, The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - File-sharing software company LimeWire has lost a long-running court battle to the major recording companies.

A judge with the U.S. District Court in New York ruled this week that the company and its chairman, Mark Gorton, were liable for inducing copyright infringement.

The decision in the case, which began in 2006, doesn't mean the site will shut down right away. The record labels and LimeWire are to meet with Judge Kimba Wood on June 1 to determine the next steps, such as a possible deal to work together going forward and a potential award for damages.

Recording Industry Association of America Chairman Mitch Bainwol said in a statement Wednesday that the ruling was "an extraordinary victory" against one of the largest remaining file-sharing services in the United States.

The RIAA said more than 200 million copies of LimeWire's file-sharing software have been downloaded so far, including 340,000 in the last week alone.

The ruling could pave the way for a deal, similar to the way Napster was sued out of existence in 2000 but was reborn and is now under the ownership of Best Buy Inc. with licensing deals with all the major recording companies.

"This isn't about getting something shut down, it's about getting something licensed and legal," said Steve Marks, general counsel for the RIAA.

LimeWire CEO George Searle said in a statement that while it "strongly opposes" the court's decision, the company held out hope for a deal. The company sells an "Extended Pro" version of its free software for $34.95 a year, leaving open the possibility that a new business model could emerge in co-operation with the music industry.

"LimeWire remains committed to developing innovative products and services for the end-user and to working with the entire music industry, including the major labels, to achieve this mission," Searle said.


©The Canadian Press, 2010

why is it that rec companies can cry and stuff when they lose money but they give no money or partial copright to the artist and bitc* when they do?

missmad said:

Because they're some sneaky, hypocritical bastards.

missmad said:

cuz they are a bunch of cunts?


wtf uses limewire these days? it's not the 90s anymore

unique said:

I asked that question in the back of my head.

Even if LimeWire is out of action, there are still FrostWire, the eDonkey Network-related eMule/iMule/AMule, & Bittorrent clones available.

RIAA can win battles. But they're still losing the war.

unique said:

Better yet, how exactly are people getting their music?

Timmy84 said:

:NOD:

unique said:

:NOD:

TonyVanDam said:

Pretty much. They need to wake the fuck up and realize that they're never gonna stop illegal downloading. I can't even remember the last album I actually paid money for.

TonyVanDam said:

personally, i'm an old skool kinda guy, so i shoplift from record stores. only the chains, so the indie stores don't suffer. i like to stick it to the man and support the people. i saw an ad on a dvd i downloaded from the internet that said that downloading and shoplifting were the same, so i thought i may as well shoplift instead, as i get proper artwork and shit

unique said:

Actually a lot of people still use limewire.

not surprised lol.

Timmy84 said:

LimeWire was nothing but a Virus Magnet anyway - there are way better ways of acquiring files, faster and more accurately. I haven't bothered with LimeWire in nearly 10 years, and I have more music, movies & software now than I even have time to listen to, watch, or run.

unique said:

...that's what I'm sayin.

What's wrong with limewire? I use it for individual file, obviously for a complete album you look for torrent.

I hate limewire the last time I used it was like early 00's it brings a lot of viruses too. I find 4share more convenient.

Thieves in the temple.

RodeoSchro said:

Limewire and its ilk engage in online piracy/thievery. I hope the court metes out severe fines to these bums.

Never used LimeWire, and rarely download anything I don't pay for. Usually it's items that are long out of print that I'll d/load, but it's usually from blogs and things like that. New releases I either get from iTunes, amazon.com or emusic - and sometimes, depending on the artist, i'll actually buy the physical CD.

Timmy84 said:

But there is also double standard on this forum, just recently in the "daria" post we spoke about removing music from a dvd, and people were chiming in well thats "business" and now its the other way around we they cant download shit for cheap, at the end of the day its all business, and if someone was taking your shit, whether you created it, or were the holder of the rights and paid for it to begin with, you would all be wanting what you could get. What if on your paycheck a new deduction popped up all of a sudden and it was something you were aware of, would you bitch and sue? True labels make billions, but thats its business, and the artists dont, well again, thats the business if these artists didnt want to be in the industry there are ways around it. If you dont wanna pay, dont sign with them

unique said:

Hello, Robin Hood!

PDogz said:

Indeed. Same with Kazaa.

Who uses p2p networks in 2010?

If this had happened five years ago, I would have been absolutely furious over this decision. But these days I don't pay much attention because the file-sharing war is already over, and the RIAA lost big time. Between all of the torrent sites and the fact that much of this music is being posted on YouTube and MySpace, and the fact that people can download stuff off Rapidshare, Megaupload, and such means the RIAA can't stop all of the file transfers.

PDogz said:

That's what I heard

WaterInYourBath said:

And Frostwire.

Layzie said:

...as well as eDonkey, BearShare, iMesh, Morpheus, Shareaza, WinMX, and a few dozen others on the Gnutella network.

PDogz said:

I guess Linux users are good as screwed. It's most the Gnutella network as their primary option. The only other option is Bittorrent.

EDIT: Then again, 95% of the virus out there are only attacking Windows OS systems. So maybe Linux OS systems are immune to those problems.
[Edited 5/13/10 20:40pm]