Major Record Labels Settle Suit With LimeWire
Posted in: Online TV/Music at 13/05/2011 19:05
Ending a five-year court battle over music piracy, the major record companies on Thursday settled a copyright infringement lawsuit with LimeWire, a popular file-sharing network, for $105 million, the Recording Industry Association of America announced.
In the suit, filed in 2006, the labels and the R.I.A.A., their trade group, accused LimeWire of running a Web service "devoted essentially" to piracy by allowing users to upload and download songs without permission. LimeWire began in 2000, and the labels contend that Mark Gorton, 44, the site's creator and a defendant in the case, continued to operate it even after the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that a similar service, Grokster, could be held liable for infringement.
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/major-record-labels-settle-suit-with-limewire/
Also see:
RIAA, Lime Wire close to settling copyright suit
Lime Wire, the company that helped people obtain perhaps billions of songs illegally, is close to forking over a "significant" amount of money to settle a copyright suit filed against it by the Recording Industry Association of America, sources close to the discussions told CNET.
The two sides were still negotiating this morning, but a deal could be finalized as soon as today, the sources said. They didn't specify the exact settlement figure and cautioned that the talks could still break down.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20062284-261.html
Lime Wire: Labels hurt by mismanagement, not piracy
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. Baio 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.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20062020-261.html
http://www.zdnetasia.com/lime-wire-labels-hurt-by-mismanagement-not-piracy-62300319.htm
Lime Wire to pay record labels $105 million, ends suit
The operators of LimeWire agreed to pay record companies $105 million (64.5 million pounds), ending a federal trial over copyright infringement damages owed by the once popular but now defunct file-sharing service.
The settlement with 13 record companies, including labels owned by Sony Corp, Vivendi SA, Warner Music Group Corp and Citigroup Inc's EMI Group, followed mediation, and ends nearly five years of litigation.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/oukin-uk-limewire-idUKTRE74B78N20110512
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/05/12/idINIndia-56980820110512
