RIAA Finally Wins a Lawsuit
posted Sunday Nov 7, 2010 by Scott Ertz

On our off week, the Recording Industry Association of America (or RIAA) won a lawsuit filed long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. The defendant was file-sharing service LimeWire and their parent company, annoyingly named Lime Wire.
In 2007, RIAA filed suit against Lime Wire for copyright infringement by way of facilitating access to copyrighted material through their network. Last week, a US court agreed and ordered the LimeWire service shut down.
For more on the lawsuit and what it means for users, hit the break.
LimeWire launched in 2000 to compete against Morpheus and quickly became the most popular file sharing service, despite being riddled with spyware. Anytime a centralized file sharing service becomes popular, RIAA jumps onboard with a lawsuit. Anytime the service is intended entirely to distribute copyrighted material, RIAA wins their battle (ie. Morpheus, Napster). About this win, a RIAA spokesperson said,
For the better part of the last decade, LimeWire and Gorton have violated the law. The court has now signed an injunction that will start to unwind the massive piracy machine that LimeWire and Gorton used to enrich themselves immensely.
In January, the court will conduct a trial to determine the appropriate level of damages necessary to compensate the record companies for the billions and billions of illegal downloads that occurred through the LimeWire system.
CEO George Searle responded, that the company was "disappointed" but that they "deeply committed to working with the music industry and making the act of loving music more fulfilling for everyone." Sounds like Napster to me.