LimeWire suffers defeat in lengthy RIAA suit

[Matthew DeCarlo]

The RIAA has succeeded in its four-year-long suit against LimeWire, with the latter found guilty of copyright infringement, induced copyright infringement, and unfair competition. Influenced by a previous Supreme Court case involving Grokster, an extinct P2P operation, US District Judge Kimba Wood determined that LimeWire optimized its features to ensure users could download illegal content.

It's said that the company purchased Google AdWords for queries such as "replacement napster," "napster mp3," "napster download," "kazaa morpheus," "mp3 free download," and dozens of other phrases containing the words "napster," "kazaa," and "morpheus." Furthermore, LimeWire's efforts to mitigate infringement were deemed insufficient.

As it stands, users have to agree not to use the software for copyrighted media and are alerted when doing so – and that message can be configured to never show again. Despite those measures, it's believed that 93% of the music available and 98.8% of content downloaded on LimeWire is protected by copyright. You can read Wood's 59-page ruling after the break.

What exactly this means for LimeWire's future isn't clear. If the service were to shut down, it would seriously dent the amount of P2P traffic – at least temporarily. NPD estimates that in 2009, LimeWire users accounted for 58% of folks who downloaded music via P2P software. In a statement, LimeWire said it opposed the verdict and it looks forward to its June 1 meeting with Judge Wood.

Arista Records Summary Judgment Opinion

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/38936-limewire-suffers-defeat-in-lengthy-riaa-suit.html

 

[Tekkaraiden]

I wasn't even aware that they still existed.

 

[tipstir]

Yes they're around still, I never used them because of all the pest that get on your system using them. Anyway there goes the freedom to leech!

 

[oldikes]

if limewire goes down, ill go to frostwire. no biggy.

 

[oldikes]

i mean other people, not me. my bad. I wont go to frostwire, the piraters will. how embarrasing.

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

Honestly, if anything were to happen to limewire were it even made it slightly harder or more inconvenient for people to download music for free everyone would just go to Frostwire...Until they go after that and then everyone would move to something else.

 

[Emin3nce]

Haters gonna hate, and pirates gonna pirate. GG.

 

[Relic]

Tekkaraiden said:
I wasn't even aware that they still existed.

Me either lol.

ikesmasher said:
if limewire goes down, ill go to frostwire. no biggy.

And here I thought you were making a joke...but no Frostwire is real! =X

 

[Guest]

Lol people still use limeware? I wonder have much spyware and spam mail will go down for that short period where uses shift from limeware to whatever is next.

 

[PanicX]

I'm gonna have to call bullsh!t on those statistics. 98.8% of content is copyrighted? Unless they're including malware, virus's, trojans and rogueware as copyrighted, they're way off.

 

[strategic]

I hope this puts an end to Limewire and all other P2P and Torrent sites.
There's no reason people can't buy a 10-15$ CD.

 

[Guest]

Things are so expensive music isn't worth the price tag! Ppl wouldn't pay for gas if you could download it

 

[matrix86]

strategic said:
I hope this puts an end to Limewire and all other P2P and Torrent sites.
There's no reason people can't buy a 10-15$ CD.

Sure there is:

A.) you can put that money to something better
B.) you don't have to give your money to greedy corporations
C you won't waste money on a crappy movie, CD, or piece of software that you expected to be good

See, that wasn't so hard, lol.

 

[avoidz]

strategic said:
I hope this puts an end to Limewire and all other P2P and Torrent sites.
There's no reason people can't buy a 10-15$ CD.

That's so 1980s...

 

[w1n74mas0ch1sm]

byte me, thought police

long live usenet! hooray SSL...... mix in high grade encryption for added fun

There's no reason people can't buy a 10-15$ CD.

Except perhaps lack of disposable income? Pesky logic always getting in the way of your wrong opinion preference!

 

[Headspin]

Wow....Seriously, I have not used Limewire for, at least, four years. I thought they had been brought down in a lawsuit a long time ago.

 

[DAOWAce]

I used to use Limewire over 6 years ago after I found Kazaa to be quite bad. (malicious)

After I learned what torrents were, I never looked back.

I really do hope Limewire and apps like it get shutdown. My sister uses it despite how much I tell her it's a huge security risk. Preventing piracy through these apps will heighten security of computer illiterate users, something we really need in today's age.

 

[Guest]

They've just got to pick on somone. What about the other ways to download stuff? youotube stuff is downloadable, so is others. They just picked out limewire because of money grubbing performers who have the "bighead".

 

[Guest]

you sucky people will never understand the damage you are causing to musicians lives! you suck! and you are a thief!

 

[captaincranky]

Did you really dig up a 5 month old thread to spout this crap? That's not "Guest" behaviour. That's like a salesman on the porch, who simply won't leave, no matter how rude you are to him.

"Wulll, you suck"! Bravo! That was well thought out and articulate, stop by again real soon, I eagerly anticipate your next bout with Ritalin withdrawal.

 

[Guest]

Seriously, you really believe that musicians and movie stars should make that much money??
I mean sure, they should be compensated for their talents, but they make plenty off their cd sales and live shows... If I truly like their music then I will buy their cd, but how many times have you bought a cd in the past and only liked one or two tracks and that was it???
I don't feel for downloading music at all... Besides, between taxes and the cost of gas, food, our military, healthcare and everything else needed to survive in this country we too are getting robbed... Welcome to America!!!

 

[AnonymousSurfer]

Damn, I guess it's time to go to Frostwire