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LimeWire sued by the RIAA

5 August 2006 12:49 by Ben "Lethal_B" Reid | 64 comments

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed a lawsuit against Lime Group, LLC., LimeWire, LLC, Mark Gorton (CEO), and Greg Bildson (CTO). Lime Group is the umbrella company which owns the LimeWire development firm.

Back last September, LimeWire, along with other P2P developers, were the recipients of RIAA cease and desist letters. The letters instructed P2P developers to "...immediately cease-and-desist from enabling and inducing the infringement of RIAA member sound recordings. If you wish to discuss pre-litigation Resolution of these claims against you, please contact us immediately."

BearShare, eDonkey, and WinMX, all ceased operations as a result of the RIAA letter, however, LimeWire's operations continued.

At one stage, LimeWire was expected to introduce a "copyright filter" into it's software, but months have passed, and the filter has yet to materialize. The RIAA claims that by failing to implement a filter for unauthorized works and by profiting from an infringing business model, LimeWire actively induces copyright infringement

"Since the Supreme Court's unanimous Grokster decision last year, we have extended our hand to the major illegal file sharing networks and encouraged them to become legitimate players in the online music marketplace. We have been patient as a number of services � WinMX, Bearshare, Grokster, i2hub, Kazaa � have ultimately decided to close down or transform themselves into legal music services," the RIAA said in a statement.

"Despite numerous efforts to engage LimeWire, the site's corporate owners have shown insufficient interest in developing a legal business model that adequately respects copyrights. 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, as well as those companies building legitimate businesses based on music."

The lawsuit, filed in New York's southern district, cites Mark Gorton and Greg Bildon as both exerting substantial influence over LimeWire development whilst making a handsome profit from the commercialized "LimeWire Pro."

"Defendant Mark Gorton is a principal and the Chief Executive Officer of defendant Lime Wire LLC. He is also a member and the Chief Executive Officer of defendant Lime Group LLC. Mr. Gorton is the dominant influence in Lime Group LLC, and, along with Defendant Greg Bildson, in Lime Wire LLC. Mr. Gorton has been personally and substantially involved in and profits greatly from the design, promotion, marketing and distribution of LimeWire."

In mounting their piracy case, the RIAA lawsuit also states that LimeWire encourages the distribution of illegal files, and punishes those who "freeload" (leech):

"Defendants have taken steps to ensure that LimeWire users "share" a large number of files on LimeWire, thereby maintaining the draw and reputation of LimeWire as a vast, unauthorized repository of commercial sound recordings...Indeed, Defendants further designed LimeWire to punish those users - called "freeloaders" by LimeWire - who do not "share" enough files with other LimeWire users."

LimeWire was also accused of more traditional "Contributory Copyright Infringement", "Vicarious Copyright Infringement", and also "Common Law Copyright Infringement." It is worth noting that no other P2P developer has been sued for common law copyright infringement.

Source:
Slyck

Permalink to this article

Limeware can be found on 36 percent of all PCs worldwide (13 December 2007)

Limewire to start authorized music download store (15 August 2007)

LimeWire Counter Sues RIAA (28 September 2006)

Federal court throws the book at file swapper (25 August 2006)

Consumers privacy at risk with ISPs (24 August 2006)

BearShare settles for $30M, then bought by iMesh (7 May 2006)

RIAA sends letters to P2P services (15 September 2005)

Study: iTunes more popular in U.S. than most P2P tools (7 June 2005)

RIAA sues another 744 people (25 August 2004)

Music downloads increase, says study (27 April 2004)

Sony and Universal ready to commercially compete with P2P softwares? (6 January 2003)

Kazaa, BearShare, Morpheus and LimeWire are stealing from websites (30 September 2002)

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Discuss this article!	There are more user comments available, read them here
svtstang (AfterDawn Addict) 11 August 2006 14:51
Thats a crock of crap if I ever heard it. Downloading is just as illegal as uploading, and you can get busted either way. If you are so confident, log onto a public tracker (thepiratebay, i dare ya), find the newest movie that hasnt even hit theaters yet, turn of peer guardian, and see if what you said holds true. I only use private trackers, and still see P2P agencies scanning my IP at times. You think just because you dont have a public share folder you are safe? I recall when Half Life 2 was released, the publisher created a torrent on a public tracker. Didnt matter if you just dl'd a small portion of it, were sedding...., fact is people got caught DOWNLOADING. Just because you havent got caught doesnt mean you wont. Keeping the mentality that only uploading or having a public share folder will get busted is wrong. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 11 August 2006 15:01
svtstang speaking of whitch I need to get p2garuain when I get dsl.L I have a brain...I think...... Windows Vister I dub thee vister untill thee can prove thyself. I aint the brightest bulb around but I can feel my way in the dark... I fuzzy braind mew =0_o= FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A. "Music And Film Industry Association of America.." "Hollywood the 4kids of comic moives." anyone know of a DVD palyer that will auto paly a moive? skip or play thru all the stuff it cant skip and jsut auto play the darn moive? I have a 80 soemthign grandmother and her sis that want to wath moives and cant figure out the DVD remote... [ + quote]
scorpNZ (Senior Member) 11 August 2006 15:10
@mofomac In regards to be a copy of OS ,you need to do a little more digging of both windows and OS ,a little hint to help you along, they copy each other and everyone else winks [ + quote]
solargame (Senior Member) 14 August 2006 17:03
are private torrent trackers like torrentleech safe, or is there a possiblility they will get busted too, and if they do, will you get taken down with them. [ + quote]
svtstang (AfterDawn Addict) 14 August 2006 17:37
Private trackers are safer, but they dont gurantee anything. And im pretty sure if they get shut down your safe...just look at thepiratebay....never saw news that the users got busted with the host. sig requests taken at http://www.xtreme-source.com [ + quote]
solargame (Senior Member) 14 August 2006 17:44
why, did the piratebay get busted? because i know torrentleech has members(so you must register)so that means they will probably take you down too Revenge Is A Meal Best Served Cold Dont hate the player, hate the game. PSP HELP---> http://www.pspcrack.net Top Movies 1.Crash 2.Man On Fire 3.Ladder 49 4.Fight Club 5.Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy 6.Independence Day 7.The 40 Year Old Virgin [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 14 August 2006 17:45
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 14 August 2006 17:54
solargame becsue the mafiaa suporting politions overlooked soem laws to to try and bust them. [ + quote]
svtstang (AfterDawn Addict) 14 August 2006 19:06
Im a member at TL, and im pretty sure its not going to happen. Why are you so worried.......? sig requests taken at http://www.xtreme-source.com [ + quote]
solargame (Senior Member) 14 August 2006 20:03
i dont know, with all this stuff going down, its just like a disaster waiting to happen, ive stopped using TL (sober 2 weeks by Downloaders Anonamous) and im waiting for a couple of more days so it will get delted for disconectivity. Revenge Is A Meal Best Served Cold Dont hate the player, hate the game. PSP HELP---> http://www.pspcrack.net Top Movies 1.Crash 2.Man On Fire 3.Ladder 49 4.Fight Club 5.Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy 6.Independence Day 7.The 40 Year Old Virgin [ + quote]
Bigperm88 (Inactive) 22 August 2006 11:59
Unless you are using an Private FTP, or a premium usenet provider to download; you can be tracked, and every thing you download can be logged. The reason you are not logged, caught etc, is becasue they done care about you, your a small fish in a huge pond. Private torrent trackers are safer but not immune. P2P programs are the worst. Heck, if you really want to download; drop all the P2P garbage, leave your stupid torrents, and learn how to use usenet; or get access to a private FTP. [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 22 August 2006 13:16
I dont want to go back to the FTP days!!!dailup was hell then. :P plus with ISPs squahing the FTP ablities of the comment users finding such thigns is harder >< [ + quote]
svtstang (AfterDawn Addict) 22 August 2006 13:33
Not really....if you want to be really dirty, you can FTP pharm....I dont condone that so I wont say anymore than that. sig requests taken at http://www.xtreme-source.com [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 22 August 2006 13:41
svtstang to bad I am in dailup vil >< L I have a brain...I think...... Windows Vister I dub thee vister untill thee can prove thyself. I aint the brightest bulb around but I can feel my way in the dark... I fuzzy braind mew =0_o= FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A. "Music And Film Industry Association of America.." "Hollywood the 4kids of comic moives." anyone know of a DVD palyer that will auto paly a moive? skip or play thru all the stuff it cant skip and jsut auto play the darn moive? I have a 80 soemthign grandmother and her sis that want to wath moives and cant figure out the DVD remote... [ + quote]
sandisk (Senior Member) 25 August 2006 14:24
Hi all, can I just ask, I've been using torrent programs for a good while now and all the protection I used was norton antivirus. I just saw peer guardian been mentioned here so I installed it on my pc. So I just checked some of the blocked history and Wow, it say's "time warner comunications" and "nec incorp" and a whole host of others blocked. I just want to know really when it says it's "blocked" and address? Whatever it's blocking, what is it actually trying to access from your pc and can these guys actually know for sure that your downloading film files ect? I never used peer guardian but now I have it installed and running at all times!! Sandisk [ + quote]
svtstang (AfterDawn Addict) 25 August 2006 14:54
If you want to know the details about how ir works, visit Phoenix Lab's site and browse there forums. When the IP is blocked, its bascially showing dead to the IP scanner (Time Warner for you). Since your IP is not showing as valid, nothing to worry about. Recently, I had a block of warenet-MPAA.org, and I wasnt even dl'ing anything. Contacted Fox at Phoenix Labs, and he explained the process. I would ihgly recommend visiting the site also. sig requests taken at http://www.xtreme-source.com [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 25 August 2006 14:55
@sandisk What peer gurdian is trying to block or is blocking is your computers I.P address from all the co-operation that are trying to track down pirated material or things of that nature. Thats how peer gurdian works. [ + quote]
sandisk (Senior Member) 25 August 2006 15:05
Thanks guys, I'll have a look at the forums on those sites now. Sandisk [ + quote]
ZippyDSM (AfterDawn Addict) 25 August 2006 15:06
svtstang THEY drag the net and have all kinds of stuff looking into free ports and such 0-o just only have net on and peergaurdain on and see soem of the IPs that tag you now and then 0-o I have a brain...I think...... Windows Vister I dub thee vister untill thee can prove thyself. I aint the brightest bulb around but I can feel my way in the dark... I fuzzy braind mew =0_o= FIGHT THE M.A.F.I.A.A. "Music And Film Industry Association of America.." "Hollywood the 4kids of comic moives." anyone know of a DVD palyer that will auto paly a moive? skip or play thru all the stuff it cant skip and jsut auto play the darn moive? I have a 80 soemthign grandmother and her sis that want to wath moives and cant figure out the DVD remote... [ + quote]
svtstang (AfterDawn Addict) 25 August 2006 18:18
Peer Guardian is also misleading if you dont understand it. It only blocks known IP's, so you wont know you is scanning you untill you get busted one day. BTW, thats how PG updates....it takes all the reported IPs and adds them to the block list sig requests taken at http://www.xtreme-source.com [ + quote]
hotspur4 (Inactive) 26 August 2006 13:09
now my friend used limewire then stoped will he get sued [ + quote]
svtstang (AfterDawn Addict) 26 August 2006 14:40
highly doubt it sig requests taken at http://www.xtreme-source.com [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 26 August 2006 14:45
jAmEsTn (Junior Member) 26 August 2006 16:33
Quote: Heck, if you really want to download; drop all the P2P garbage, leave your stupid torrents, and learn how to use usenet; or get access to a private FTP. ... this guy couldnt be more correct!! Long Live Usenet!!! [ + quote]
solargame (Senior Member) 28 August 2006 18:07
i agreee with you guys, FTP rocks, heres an awesome way to implement google as a safe quick FTP search. http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/25491/Google_Proxy_Find_Almost_Any_MP3_Album Revenge Is A Meal Best Served Cold Dont hate the player, hate the game. PSP HELP---> http://www.pspcrack.net Top Movies 1.Crash 2.Man On Fire 3.Ladder 49 4.Fight Club 5.Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy 6.Independence Day 7.The 40 Year Old Virgin 8.Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children 9.Ong-Bak: Warrior 10.Kung-Fu Hustle [ + quote]
neking (Newbie) 12 November 2006 16:17
well guys, downloading is illegal but we live in 2006 we use and live from internet services . thats why i believe all things in nowdays is legal and illegal . its the same thing. now i have a problem: i use limewire and frostwire and i cant download movies with greek subtitles. any suggestions? nek [ + quote]
Marielmx3 (Newbie) 12 May 2007 16:18
im gonna miss limewire Its starting to suck and itz hard to find my anime there anymore I think i will stick with mIRC [ + quote]
Cman (Member) 12 May 2007 17:50
Why don't they simply move their operation offshore to a nice, neutral country that couldn't give a sh!t about the RIAA or its paid for politicians. [ + quote]