The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed a lawsuit against Lime Group, LLC., LimeWire, LLC, Mark Gorton (CEO), and Greg Bildson (CTO). Lime Group is the umbrella company which owns the LimeWire development firm.
Back last September, LimeWire, along with other P2P developers, were the recipients of RIAA cease and desist letters. The letters instructed P2P developers to "...immediately cease-and-desist from enabling and inducing the infringement of RIAA member sound recordings. If you wish to discuss pre-litigation Resolution of these claims against you, please contact us immediately."
BearShare, eDonkey, and WinMX, all ceased operations as a result of the RIAA letter, however, LimeWire's operations continued.
At one stage, LimeWire was expected to introduce a "copyright filter" into it's software, but months have passed, and the filter has yet to materialize. The RIAA claims that by failing to implement a filter for unauthorized works and by profiting from an infringing business model, LimeWire actively induces copyright infringement
"Since the Supreme Court's unanimous Grokster decision last year, we have extended our hand to the major illegal file sharing networks and encouraged them to become legitimate players in the online music marketplace. We have been patient as a number of services – WinMX, Bearshare, Grokster, i2hub, Kazaa – have ultimately decided to close down or transform themselves into legal music services," the RIAA said in a statement.
"Despite numerous efforts to engage LimeWire, the site's corporate owners have shown insufficient interest in developing a legal business model that adequately respects copyrights. While other services have come productively to the table, LimeWire has sat back and continued to reap profits on the backs of the music community. That is unfortunate and has left us no choice but to file a lawsuit to protect the rights and livelihoods of artists, songwriters and record label employees, as well as those companies building legitimate businesses based on music."
The lawsuit, filed in New York's southern district, cites Mark Gorton and Greg Bildon as both exerting substantial influence over LimeWire development whilst making a handsome profit from the commercialized "LimeWire Pro."
"Defendant Mark Gorton is a principal and the Chief Executive Officer of defendant Lime Wire LLC. He is also a member and the Chief Executive Officer of defendant Lime Group LLC. Mr. Gorton is the dominant influence in Lime Group LLC, and, along with Defendant Greg Bildson, in Lime Wire LLC. Mr. Gorton has been personally and substantially involved in and profits greatly from the design, promotion, marketing and distribution of LimeWire."
In mounting their piracy case, the RIAA lawsuit also states that LimeWire encourages the distribution of illegal files, and punishes those who "freeload" (leech):
"Defendants have taken steps to ensure that LimeWire users "share" a large number of files on LimeWire, thereby maintaining the draw and reputation of LimeWire as a vast, unauthorized repository of commercial sound recordings...Indeed, Defendants further designed LimeWire to punish those users - called "freeloaders" by LimeWire - who do not "share" enough files with other LimeWire users."
LimeWire was also accused of more traditional "Contributory Copyright Infringement", "Vicarious Copyright Infringement", and also "Common Law Copyright Infringement." It is worth noting that no other P2P developer has been sued for common law copyright infringement.
Source:
Slyck
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