LimeWire

Lime Wire: Labels hurt by mismanagement, not piracy

NEW YORK--Edgar Bronfman Jr., CEO of Warner Music Group and heir to a huge beverage fortune, received more than $17 million in total compensation for the year 2008, even as he and his managers were laying off hundreds of employees and claiming that online piracy was to blame for much of the music industry's financial woes.

This was one of the facts that a jury was shown in federal court here today, as lawyers for Mark Gorton, the man behind the LimeWire file-sharing system, attempted to show that the file-sharing service he founded was not solely to blame for declining music sales and the industry's shrinking number of jobs. Joseph Baio, Gorton's lawyer, tried to influence the jury by painting a picture of record labels led by fat cat executives who in some cases paid themselves huge sums and were too slow to react to major technological shifts in their industry. Some of the trouble, Baio suggested, was caused by the record companies' own poor stewardship.

As a result of a lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2006, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood found Gorton and Lime Wire, the company behind the popular file-sharing service of the same name, liable last year for willful copyright infringement. A jury is now deciding how much Gorton will pay in damages. The amount could be as high as $1.4 billion.

In an attempt to convince the jury that Gorton deserves to pay a huge financial penalty, RIAA lawyers have tried to prove that Gorton and his service--which was used to obtain songs without paying for them--cost the music industry billions in revenues as well as thousands of jobs. … Read more

Lime Wire founder on copyright law: 'I was wrong'

NEW YORK--Lawyers representing the four largest music labels tried to convey a message in court here today: Lime Wire founder Mark Gorton was so determined to help people pirate songs that he disregarded copyright law, artists' rights, and even the Supreme Court.

And eventually, Gorton conceded.

The best that he could offer for an excuse was that he misread the law. "I was wrong," Gorton told the court. "I didn't think our behavior was inducing [copyright infringement]. I understand that a court has found otherwise."

In numerous exchanges with Glenn Pomerantz, the labels' lead attorney, … Read more

Lime Wire strikes back in court against RIAA

NEW YORK--Free music is here to stay and punishing Lime Wire founder Mark Gorton for that fact is unjust and won't change a thing, Gorton's lawyers said in court today.

A trial to determine the amount of damages Gorton must pay the top four record companies for infringing their copyrights got under way in a Manhattan federal courtroom. Gorton has a possible $1 billion judgment hanging over his head after the major music labels accused him in a 2006 copyright suit of encouraging music fans to use his company's LimeWire software to illegally swap music files.

Lime … Read more

Lime Wire's day of reckoning is here

Mark Gorton and Lime Wire pocketed millions by enabling people to obtain songs online without paying for them. Now, Gorton and his company could end up paying damages of over $1 billion.

In a New York federal court this week, the four largest record companies will try to prove that it was Gorton's own greed that drove him to continue operating Lime Wire, the company behind the highly popular file-sharing service LimeWire, though they warned him years ago to stop and fellow peer-to-peer operators advised him to cut a deal. Gorton continued to defy the top labels even after … Read more

Study: LimeWire demise slows music piracy

In what will surely be music to the ears of the major record labels, research firm NPD Group says that illegal file sharing of songs via peer-to-peer services has dramatically dropped off since Lime Wire shut down.

Lime Wire, the company that operated the popular peer-to-peer network LimeWire, was forced to shut down in October after a federal court found the company liable for copyright infringement. The Recording Industry Association of America had file a copyright suit against Lime Wire and CEO Mark Gorton in 2007, claiming the company encouraged the pirating of billions of songs.

NPD said today that … Read more

Lime Wire settles copyright suit with publishers

Lime Wire has settled a copyright lawsuit brought against it by several music publishers.

Yesterday's settlement puts to rest the copyright infringement suit filed in June against Lime Wire by more than 30 different music publishers, including the publishing arms of EMI Group, Sony, and Vivendi SA.

The former file-sharing site and its founder Mark Gorton were sued last year by a bevy of music publishers and record companies over charges that the LimeWire service enabled its users to illegally download copyrighted songs. That suit followed a previous court ruling in a case involving the Recording Industry Association of … Read more

MPAA, RIAA: Lawsuits won't protect content

Lawyers representing independent filmmakers, including the studio that produced Oscar-winner "The Hurt Locker," might learn something from a document filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce today by music, television, and film industry trade groups.

The Commerce Department recently sent out a request for information, known as a "Notice of Information," on "copyright policy, creativity, and innovation in the Internet economy." What the Commerce Department intends to do with the information it obtains was unclear this afternoon, but it did receive a response from nine trade groups representing the entertainment sector. In that … Read more

Little juice left in Lime Wire

The long saga of the Lime Wire company appears to be close to an ending.

The maker of the popular LimeWire file-sharing software--a peer-to-peer setup along the lines of the original Napster--has announced that at the beginning of next year, it will cease business, as originally reported by Peter Kafka at All Things Digital.

Owing to a copyright complaint filed against it in 2006 by the Recording Industry Association of America, Lime Wire had already been ordered in October of this year to shut down its peer-to-peer service. But, following Napster's example, it had previously opened a legitimate online music subscription service, … Read more

RIAA wants revived LimeWire dead and buried

The four largest recording companies claim in court papers that Lime Wire, the company behind the LimeWire file-sharing service, has thumbed its nose at a court injunction that requires the peer-to-peer network be shut down, CNET has learned.

"Defendants have demonstrated in no uncertain terms that they either will not or cannot do what the injunction commands," wrote lawyers working for the Recording Industry Association of America.

The RIAA, the trade group for the major labels, asked the court yesterday in a 20-page document to appoint a "receiver" to ensure that Lime Wire complies with the … Read more

Did Lime Wire betray users?

NEW YORK--Last summer, Lime Wire began installing a secret upgrade to its software that enabled the company to shut down the peer-to-peer network whenever it wanted, music industry sources have confirmed.

The revelation was first reported Tuesday by PC Mag. According to the Web tech publication, reporters there were tipped off by a source on Monday night.

"LimeWire added the ability to send out messages to clients updating them with the location of their local peers via start-up scripts," PC Mag wrote, citing the anonymous source. "It will be these start-up scripts that will be disabled...largely … Read more