RIAA Wins Big in LimeWire Case; Peer-to-Peer Site Induced Infringement, Judge Rules
A recording industry trade group has scored a significant victory in the battle against illegal downloading of copyrighted material, winning a summary judgment in federal court in New York yesterday against the LimeWire peer-to-peer file-sharing service.
Lime Group and founder Mark Gorton committed copyright infringement, engaged in unfair competition and induced copyright infringement by others, ruled U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood in the Southern District of New York case. A damages award in the Recording Industry Association of America suit is expected to come later, according to CNET’s Media Maverick blog.
The defendants “optimized LimeWire’s features to ensure that users can download digital recordings, the majority of which are protected by copyright,” and “assisted users in committing infringement,” Wood states in a written opinion (PDF). She also found that that those in charge of LimeWire hadn’t done enough to mitigate the infringement.
A copy of the ruling is provided by Wire’d’s Threat Level blog, which says the RIAA is seeking $150,000 per violation in a case that could financially devastate LimeWire.
Additional coverage:
Law and Disorder (Ars Technica): “LimeWire sliced by RIAA, guilty of massive infringement”
