27 October 2010 | Author: J. Morton News Editor
Peer-to-peer file sharing stalwart LimeWire has been forced to shutter its operations by a federal court in New York, after ruling the service facilitated a "massive scale of infringement" by allowing users to swap copyrighted works with its software.
The conclusion of the four-year-old battle between honchos of the US music industry and the New York City-based start-up, which marred nearly half of the software's ten-year existence, closes off file sharing services to a reported 50 million monthly users.
In his ruling, US federal judge Kimba Wood stated that RIAA members "have suffered - and will continue to suffer - irreparable harm from LimeWire's inducement of widespread infringement of their works."
The RIAA claimed over the course of the lawsuit that its industry's sales had been halved, mostly due to the advent of easy peer-to-peer file sharing services such as LimeWire. It cited sales of $7.7 billion in 2009 compared to $14.5 billion in 1999, at the dawn of Napster and related programmes.
According to CEO George Searle, LimeWire has been "disappointed" by the ruling, but is "deeply committed to working with the music industry and making the act of loving music more fulfilling for everyone."
Legal procedures against the company by the RIAA have not finished, however, as the case will kick into high gear in January 2011, when the amount of damages the company will be ordered to pay will be set.
The company's founder, Mark Gorton, has been found personally liable as well, and could face similar financial penalties.
Officials for the RIAA said the decision will "unwind the massive piracy machine that LimeWire and Gorton used to enrich themselves immensely."
RIAA laughs last as LimeWire waylaid by legal injunction
Peer-to-peer file sharing stalwart LimeWire has been forced to shutter its operations by a federal court in New York, after ruling the service facilitated a "massive scale of infringement" by allowing users to swap copyrighted works with its software.The conclusion of the four-year-old battle between honchos of the US music industry and the New York City-based start-up, which marred nearly half of the software's ten-year existence, closes off file sharing services to a reported 50 million monthly users.
In his ruling, US federal judge Kimba Wood stated that RIAA members "have suffered - and will continue to suffer - irreparable harm from LimeWire's inducement of widespread infringement of their works."
The RIAA claimed over the course of the lawsuit that its industry's sales had been halved, mostly due to the advent of easy peer-to-peer file sharing services such as LimeWire. It cited sales of $7.7 billion in 2009 compared to $14.5 billion in 1999, at the dawn of Napster and related programmes.
According to CEO George Searle, LimeWire has been "disappointed" by the ruling, but is "deeply committed to working with the music industry and making the act of loving music more fulfilling for everyone."
Legal procedures against the company by the RIAA have not finished, however, as the case will kick into high gear in January 2011, when the amount of damages the company will be ordered to pay will be set.
The company's founder, Mark Gorton, has been found personally liable as well, and could face similar financial penalties.
Officials for the RIAA said the decision will "unwind the massive piracy machine that LimeWire and Gorton used to enrich themselves immensely."
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