Now that Kazaa looks like it’s going legit, the music industry is putting the thumbscrews on LimeWire.
LimeWire is one of the most popular file sharing applications using the Gnutella network.
A group of music companies, including Sony BMG, Virgin Records and Warner Bros Records, are accusing LimeWire and the company’s officers of copyright infringement, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Friday in US District Court in New York. The companies are asking for compensatory and punitive damages, such as $150,000 for every song distributed without permission.
LimeWire is “devoted essentially to the internet piracy of plaintiffs’ sound recordings,” the record companies charge in their suit. “The scope of infringement caused by defendants is staggering.”
The case will be an interesting test of whether companies can develop commercial applications that are used primarily for sharing copyrighted material, and could potentially guide future development of future commercial P2P applications.
Last week, the makers of the Kazaa file-sharing system agreed to pay the record industry $115m and to use filtering technology to prevent users from distributing traditionally copyrighted files.
According to the RIAA, “Despite numerous efforts to engage LimeWire, the site’s corporate owners have shown insufficient interest in developing a legal business model. 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. That is unfortunate and has left us no choice but to file a lawsuit to protect the rights and livelihoods of artists, songwriters and record label employees.”
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