The LimeWire Death Knell?
A Judge’s ruling in a New York court means that the RIAA have struck what may be a fatal blow to LimeWire, the popular filesharing service. With it, filesharing services everywhere will be wondering what is going to happen next.
The judge ruled that LimeWire was engaging in illegal activity and promoting the copyright infringement of a large number of copyrighted works. Interestingly for filesharing entrepreneurs, the Judge has decided that LimeWire’s owner, Mark Gorton, should take at least some of the blame. The RIAA have announced that they feel they are owed the maximum damages in this case, which would amount to $150,000 per copyrighted work that has been infringed. The math behind the total figure that could be owed by LimeWire is staggering.
The RIAA’s next logical step is to seek an injunction from the courts preventing LimeWire from continuing its filesharing activities. LimeWire are likely to battle this all the way, but it looks like the beginning of the end for them unless they can pursuade a higher court to overturn the decision.
Does this mean the immediate end of filesharing with services like LimeWire and Ares? Unlikely. For a start, Ares is a huge open-source project, and pinning the blame on any one person would be impossible. Stopping development of Ares is also likely going to be unfeasible. Hopefully Ares will get out of this relatively unscathed. Watch this space.
More Ares Posts
- Limewire case dismissed by US judge
- Limewire installed on one third of world’s PCs
- Limewire files for dismissal
- Limewire set for prosperous year in 2008
- US judge rules in favor of filesharing
Posted on 23 May 2010 by Alan in Filesharing