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RIAA Goes after LimeWire
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Aug 04, 2006 06:57 PM
from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.
from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.
PCM2 writes "A coalition of major recording companies sued the operators of the file-sharing program LimeWire for copyright infringement Friday, claiming the firm encourages users to trade music without permission." From thge article: " The case is the first piracy lawsuit brought against a distributor of file-sharing software since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that technology companies could be sued for copyright infringement on the grounds that they encouraged customers to steal music and movies over the Internet. In the complaint, the record companies contend LimeWire's operators are "actively facilitating, encouraging and enticing" computer users to steal music by failing to block access to copyright works and building a business model that allows them to profit directly from piracy. "
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LimeWire Sues RIAA for Antitrust Violations 406 comments
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes to tell us that in a recent court battle, Arista v. LimeWire, LimeWire has filed counterclaims against the RIAA for 'antitrust violations, consumer fraud, and other misconduct.' From the article: "LimeWire alleged that the RIAA's 'goal was simple: to destroy any online music distribution service they did not own or control, or force such services to do business with them on exclusive and/or other anticompetitive terms so as to limit and ultimately control the distribution and pricing of digital music, all to the detriment of consumers.'"
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OMG! The only ones left to sue... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:OMG! The only ones left to sue... (Score:5, Funny)
The first rule of UseNet is we don't talk about UseNet.
Re:OMG! The only ones left to sue... (Score:5, Funny)
-
Re:OMG! The only ones left to sue... (Score:3, Insightful)
Usenet? Nothing to see here RIAA/MPAA, please move along.
I almost hate to talk about this subject, not because I feel seasoned or elite but only because I do fear a potential radar sighting. At a very slow but steady pace, the brontosaurus that is U
Re:OMG! The only ones left to sue... (Score:3, Interesting)
Most ISP servers are worse than shit. How many people pay for a decent Use*cough*Net provider? How many of us have been paying for years and years? Paying for content is not new to us. Isn't that what the me
Re:OMG! The only ones left to sue... (Score:4, Interesting)
Hence, the RIAA will systematically sue every gnutella-capable software package they can track down. They can't sue things that are produced in countries outside their jurisdiction, but, that won't stop them from: (a) spying on you so they can sue people who download said programs [this is one advantage to freenet: some anonymity], (b) passing legislation to make it illegal to possess or write software that can be used to violate copyrights (DMCA et al)
Where do I write a complaint letter? I use programs like limewire to share my creative-commons music (and other artists' similarly-licensed music) with both friends and strangers. Are they trying to deny me the opportunity to use a different distribution model for my music? P2P is great, because I don't have to shell out big bucks for bandwidth.
That sounds like CD-distribution music companies trying to destroy non-CD-distribution music companies... it looks a lot like monopolistic behavior to me.
in related news... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:in related news... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh wait, I'm giving them ideas.........
Re:in related news... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:in related news... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:in related news... (Score:5, Informative)
Click listen now and you can get either a mp3 stream or wma of the live on the air station. This station is positively amazing, it is a minneapolis station operated by minnesota public radio. It is different though in that public radio is almost always focused on news and classical music, this station plays a HUGE selection of modern non-classical music. A lot of local and independant artists as well as highly tallented artists that can be heard elsewhere (but usually not the "hit single" that you might here)...if you request it, they can play it even if its not in their typical type. They also do a lot of in-studio preformances which are all archived and available for play from their site. An added bonus is that they employ two of the most talented dj's I have ever heard (one was a long time music expert dj at the U of M's college station and the other is just a great dj who got bounced around a lot as non-cc stations got taken over by clearchannel). The two are usually back to back weeknights from around 3:00-10:00 IIRC (thier names would be Mary Lucia and Mark Wheat).
Give it a shot, and try it at a few different times because sometimes you can pick up on djs in a wierd mood (doing a themed set or something) or shows you might not be into: for example, I believe late saturday nights get deep into underground hip-hop and rap which may not be everyones cup of tea or right now as I post this they are playing a DJ Sasha set recorded sometime this week in california.
Re:in related news... (Score:3, Informative)
COPYING IS NOT STEALING.
COPYING IS NOT STEALING.
COPYING IS NOT STEALING.
Re:in related news... (Score:5, Insightful)
However, the cost to manufacture a CD is less than a dollar, yet their product goes for around twenty. Corporate robber barons, the de facto government today, bring to mind the attitude, espoused by Thomas Jefferson, that rebellion, every now and then, is a healthy thing.
I will neither endorse nor support these robber barons by voting for them with my dollars, and do not mind chipping a bit at their cornerstone as well, along with millions of other people, from the looks of it.
Re:in related news... (Score:3, Informative)
The programming for any given show depends on the DJ, his tastes and moods. One show is industrial noise, another is children's singalongs, another is antique 78s from
Re:in related news... (Score:4, Funny)
as well as making it much more difficult for him to download his favorite Britney spears' albums.
Re:in related news... (Score:3, Informative)
Anyone else remember Scour [wikipedia.org]? When it first launched, it was basica
Re:in related news... (Score:5, Insightful)
So what? Grokster did not destroy the Sony rule. So it doesn't matter whether most people use LimeWire illegally.
Now they make be going after the wrong people, targeting the makers of LimeWire instead of the file-sharers,
Not at all. First, it's entirely possible to go after them and win. See e.g. the Napster and Grokster cases. The law allows indirect infringers to be sued just as easily as direct infringers. Second, plaintiffs would prefer to go after LimeWire. They have a policy of going after the deep pocket (i.e. a defendant that can actually pay the damages awarded). But more importantly, they have a policy of going after the head of the snake. If LimeWire shuts down, then all of their users will have to find new networks or stop sharing. Some will likely stop sharing. Others will go to new networks, but those will be shut down too, in turn. The idea is to stop P2P filesharing by shutting down the networks and software developers. Then it doesn't matter whether the users want to infringe in this fashion; they lack the ready ability to do so. Going after direct infringers is less useful to plaintiffs since it achieves less. Why go after one infringer, or a handful, when you can essentially go after them all by targeting the network?
Get the picture?
but a nice crackdown on illegal file-sharing sure beats some new, twisted form of DRM.
That is absolutely not how that works. They'll do both. What you're suggesting is appeasement, but I guarantee you that it won't work.
Works as well as our "War on Drugs"! (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, wait....
I get the logic, but there's a fundamental flaw. You can't effectively stop the masses from breaking an arbitrary restriction placed on an activity if the masses feel what they're doing is justified.
If LimeWire shuts down tomorrow, a programmer will be out there coding the next replacement for it - only with additional protections to make it harder than before to track the source of the traffic.
Shut that down, and another will pop up, and another, and.....
If it finally proves not too effective to do p2p sharing at all, due to the "law" constantly putting a stop to it - people will resort to more "guerrila" tactics (as they've already done many times before). Things can be uploaded with non-obvious filenames and folder names, to random servers (or even web or ftp sites that passwords were hacked on in advance) - and private message forums can provide the short-lived and always rotating links to them.
VPN tunnels can be set up from point to point between trusted parties and files interchanged on their makeshift WANs.
Individuals can offer files through their IM clients.
Of course, Usenet is utilized too, and it doesn't seem practical to successfully put a stop to it.
People might even wish to set up email list servers that distribute attached files to those who know the secret commands to email to get signed up and request them.
Don't forget all the other alternatives, such as running telnet-based BBS software. (Kind of a "retro" solution, but like opting to run Windows 3.1 to use the Internet on your PC and thereby dodging almost all the trojan horse spyware, might be effective through obscurity, at least for a while.)
Re:Works as well as our "War on Drugs"! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:in related news... (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think it can be, or should be. I'm simply explaining what the law is currently. I never said I liked it. Would you prefer to be misinformed or uninformed, living in a fantasy world?
Re:in related news... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:in related news... (Score:4, Informative)
BS (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:BS (Score:4, Insightful)
You do realize this has been done (unsuccessfully) by dozens of city governments against a variety of gun manufacturers and importers?
Re:BS (Score:5, Insightful)
Nah, people are not copywrited, you can do whatever you what with them, anything is fair use.
Which is why... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Which is why... (Score:3, Funny)
And why stop there? Since blood can technically b
Re:Which is why... (Score:5, Funny)
Why aren't ISPs being sued instead? (Score:4, Insightful)
Time to sue Sony... (Score:4, Funny)
Sun's java.com website still has LimeWire (Score:3, Interesting)
The RIAA has no case (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The RIAA has no case (Score:3, Interesting)
It sounds as though RIAA is using the new inducement theory of indirect infringement. The rule there is:
They're still going after the wrong people... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They're still going after the wrong people... (Score:3, Funny)
The RIAA needs to sue that bastard Ogg. I don't care that tha
Missing the point (Score:5, Interesting)
This claim is not unlike an accusation of slander. It's very difficult to truly prove that the intent of the accused was to cause harm to the accuser, yet this is the burden that the RIAA must now bear. I'm sure they have some sort of "proof" up their sleeves of LimeWire's misdeeds.
I'm in no way condoning the anti-consumer practices of the *AA as of late, but I suspect that the RIAA will win this one by precedent, sad though that may be.
Re:Missing the point (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Missing the point (Score:3, Informative)
That is a misi
Re:Missing the point (Score:3, Insightful)
That is completely wrong. The Grokster case did not remove the Sony rule. It added a new, independent theory of infringement t
RIAA needs to learn English (Score:5, Insightful)
Based on that complaint, it sounds more like they're passively encouraging people, at best.
Either that or the fact that I've never held up a stop sign in the middle of the street means that I'm actively encouraging people to run red lights.
Re:RIAA needs to learn English (Score:3, Informative)
Re:RIAA needs to learn English (Score:4, Informative)
Re:RIAA needs to learn English (Score:5, Informative)
--
Important Information about Using P2P Software Safely
Lime Wire LLC does not distribute LimeWire Basic to people who intend to use it for purposes of copyright infringement.
Thank you for your interest; however, we cannot complete this download.
Re:RIAA needs to learn English (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a factor. Take it seriously.
From the Grokster case:
Quite the Contrary (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess the RIAA couldn't go very long without finding another way to annoy the crap out of everyone...
FTP, IETF, IP, ISPs and copper mining... (Score:3, Insightful)
comparable case (Score:4, Funny)
so this means microsoft must be accountable for any damage that any worm, virus, trojan etc. does to any windows pc on this planet...
Lack of interest much? (Score:5, Informative)
Remember kids, Limewire is just a Gnutella client. If they shut down Limewire, we still have a dozen more clients [wikipedia.org] we can use just as well.
Hooray for Open Source fully distributed networks!
Earth to RIAA: LimeWire isn't responsible (Score:3, Insightful)
Did the Supreme Court ever actually say "steal" ?! (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, the word "encouraged" suggests that may have been a rather extended nap which stretched into the class on aiding and abetting as well...