Torrentfreak. After LimeWire was ordered to cease its operations, the legal troubles continued for the file-sharing company. Dozens of record labels still demanded hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to compensate for their claimed losses. One of these lawsuits involving all the major music publishers has now been settled, reducing the potential damages to just a billion dollars the record labels are claiming in another case. After LimeWire shut down its file-sharing business in October last year, the trouble for the company was far from over.
Record labels and music publishers kept chasing LimeWire demanding compensation for the losses they claim the file-sharing service operator had caused. One of these lawsuits has now been concluded with EMI, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony and several other major music publishers reaching a settlement agreement with LimeWire. This case is where the permanent injunction which forced LimeWire to shut down was issued last October. Copyright 2.0 Show – Episode 195 – Lime Time. It is Friday again and that means that it is time for another episode of the Copyright 2.0 Show. It was a busy week for the Copyright 2.0 Show with, quite possibly, one of the most important settlements in recent copyright history and a possibly history-making copyright proposal in the U.K. There was also some news from France as its “Three Strikes” system gets put on hold due to hacking and we even hear some from Righthaven, who appears to be on the run from yet another counter-offensive. That being said, we (meaning I) made one mistake on this week’s podcast.
In our discussion of the Hargreaves report I said that it included a U.S. -style fair use provision when in truth it does not. But despite the misstep, we still have a lot of great copyright news including the following stories: You can download the MP3 file here (direct download). Show Notes About the Hosts Jonathan Bailey Patrick O’Keefe Related. Limes are not the only fruit. I’ve been pondering over the weekend who the real winners and losers in the LimeWire saga were – and where the recorded music industry goes from here - and for that matter where film companies and other content owners go from here. Despite a court victory for the record labels, and an agreed settlement, I just can’t find any real winners, but I can find lots of losers, including (of course) LimeWire which has been shuttered and forced to pay over $105 million.
What we had was a widely popular internet service that was admittedly used by many to download illegal content – but LimeWire’s own figure showed that 30% of consumers used the service to find new music – and another 25% were “morally persuadable” – in that they could have been encouraged to pay for content. In a “can pay, won’t pay” era, not a bad market at all – and that’s gone.
So a potential business has been lost, the consumer has lost out – and consumers have been lost too. But am I being to negative? Indie Record Labels Claim Being Cut Out of LimeWire Settlement. Last May, LimeWire settled a massive copyright infringement lawsuit brought by major record labels by agreeing to pay $105 million to settle claims. But what about smaller record labels? Will they see any money? On Wednesday, Merlin BV, a Netherlands-based firm that represents the interests of more than 12,000 indie record companies including those that manage the music of such bands as Vampire Weekend, Arcade Fire and The National, filed a federal lawsuit in New York against LimeWire. According to the complaint, Merlin and its members originally agreed not to pursue legal action against LimeWire. After LimeWire agreed to pay $105 million to the majors, Merlin wanted a $105 million offer too. "When confonted with their obligation to make such an Offer, the Lime Entitites simply refused, positing untenable arguments that find no support in the parties' agreement," says Merlin in its beach-of-contract lawsuit against LimeWire.
E-mail: eriqgarrdner@yahoo.com. Hollywood Studios Follow RIAA's Lead By Suing LimeWire. Here is why it probably wasn't the best idea in the world for LimeWire to settle up with record companies. Last year, the once-popular, now-dead file-sharing company paid $105 million to put an end to five years of heated litigation. So case closed, right? Not exactly. Now, big Hollywood studios are demanding compensation for their troubles as well in a new federal copyright lawsuit that claims massive infringements of such works as Harry Potter, South Park, Desperate Housewives, and more. If you'll remember, LimeWire didn't bend easily to copyright allegations.
At least, not at first. Then, last May, on the eve of a trial, LimeWire struck a surprising settlement with the record industry, agreeing to put an end to the fight in a $105 million deal. Was Hollywood jealous? U.S. federal judge Kimba Wood followed up that decision the following October with an injunction that pretty much became the death penalty for LimeWire. E-mail: eriqgardner@yahoo.com. Limewire bites the dust ..... The international music industry has responded with delight at a court ruling that has found against Limewire, one of the oldest file-sharing networks on the Internet.
In a 59-page decision issued Tuesday (May 12th) in New York, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood has ruled in a summary judgment that the peer-to-peer company is guilty of inducing copyright infringement, committed copyright infringement and practiced unfair competition. Reuters report that the judge leaned heavily on one of the plaintiff's expert witnesses, Dr. Richard Waterman of the Wharton School, who testified that a random sample of 1800 files turned up copyright infringement in 93% of them, including 43.6 percent of copyrighted files owned by the plaintiff record labels.
Based on the results, Dr. Waterman concluded that "98.8 percent of the files requested for download through LimeWire are copyright protected or highly likely copyright protected, and thus not authorized for free distribution. " Limewire bites the dust .....