LimeWire reaches settlement with music publishers

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104

The music industry has reached a settlement with LimeWire, concluding a nine-month legal battle. Eight music publishers including EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner joined forces last June to accuse the peer-to-peer filesharing service of knowingly and deliberately infringing copyrighted material.

The National Music Publishers Association originally sought $150,000 for each song shared illegally on LimeWire, which would have easily racked up to hundreds of millions of dollars or more. It's unclear how much, if any cash will trade hands in the settlement as the terms haven't been made public.


A spokeswoman for the publishers has simply said that both sides have "worked hard to achieve a settlement that is a good result for all involved." The court filing also revealed that each party will pay for its own legal fees, so perhaps things haven't ended too poorly on LimeWire's end.

LimeWire founder Mark Gorton was found guilty of copyright infringement, induced copyright infringement, and unfair competition last May in a suit against the recording industry. The service was shut down in October and is still defending itself from more than $1 billion in claimed damages.

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Yeah if the Gun retailer made it really easy to search for weapons that would be best for murder in different situations.
 
$150,000 for each song? come on, first it was $200 than $2000 now $150,000! please music companies, be serious, the future is not in stopping sharing it's with promoting open platforms and ideas. Clients will come and pay for what you have to offer when the service fits the price, no the other way around. Provide a quality product and people will rush to you!
 
Im still waiting for an explanation as to how a $0.99 song costs $150,000.
 
Hummm it never died. You can still use Frostwire. Also people who say it's full of viruses aren't downloading just MP3's...I was able to get 320 VBR High quality songs of most music I wanted. So just setting the record straight for people not in the know. To bad there wasn't a legal Limewire for say $10 a month. People want unlimited MP3's cheap...not $1+ per song...lol....and the sooner these companies get it through their head the sooner they can make profits.
 
shadeslayor said:
it seems kind of like punishing the Gun retailer for what the murderer did.

Guess the Gun industry has better lobbyists to prevent something like that ;) .
 
too bad limewire pirate edition still works and prolly always will, suck on that sony and everyone else. seriously, it really annoys me when rich people cry, if i was an accomplished music artist who had millions if not more figures in my bank account and someone told me all these kids downloaded my stuff for free id say oh well im rich and keep walking.
 
The music industry is going to put a dent in my profits by killing off Limewire, and all of the viruses that I make money on by cleaning them off of customer pc's.
 
The so-called artistic community turned out to be a bunch of capitalistic pigs afterall. They sell their anti-capitalism like a tele-evangalis,t but in reality they dont believe their message either. It's all about the money period.
 
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