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Image via WikipediaRuling that the defendant commercial P2P music downloading service "intentionally encouraged direct [copyright] infringement," U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Kimba Wood has ordered LimeWire to cease distribution of its file-sharing software.
Although its owner claims the entity is still in business, LimeWire shut its Web site Wednesday, posting the following message: "This is an official notice that LimeWire is under a court-ordered injunction to stop distributing and supporting its file-sharing software. Downloading or sharing copyrighted content without authorization is illegal."
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued LimeWire in 2006 on behalf of a dozen plaintiffs, including Sony Music Entertainment, Capitol Records and Arista Records, alleging copyright infringement, unfair competition and inducing others to commit copyright infringement (Arista Records LLC et al. v. Lime Group, LLC, Case No. 1:06-cv-05936 ) [see "TUOL" post 5/13/10].
Judge Wood found that LimeWire affirmatively marketed itself to Napster users, whom she characterized as "known copyright infringers." Although the freeze on distributing its software essentially squeezes LimeWire, networks such as Bit Torrent and Gnutella are still up and running.
A trial is slated for January 2011, to determine the damages sustained by the RIAA.
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The French government will subsidize half the cost of online purchases of music by young people (12-25) as of tomorrow with the introduction of a "carte musique"--the Ministry of Culture will allot a maximum of 25 million euros per year,which works out to a million users getting 50 euros worth of songs for 25 euros each. The plan accompanies a more punitive approach to repress copyright infringement that has recently gone into effect (Hadopi measures)
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