File-sharing program LimeWire has been permanently shut down after a federal judge found it guilty of assisting users in committing copyright infringement "on a massive scale."
The shut-down is the final chapter in a case brought against LimeWire LLC by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) over four years ago.
The suit, filed by the RIAA on behalf of eight major music publishers in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charged LimeWire with facilitating "pervasive online infringement." It also accused LimeWire of allowing and actively encouraging users to participate in music piracy.
During the court proceedings, the plaintiffs claimed that over 93 percent of the software's traffic was made up of infringing content.
In May 2010, federal Judge Kimba Wood found LimeWire LLC liable for copyright infringement. She also found LimeWire founder Mark Gordon to be personally liable. The RIAA then made two separate motions--one for permanent shut down of the company, and the other for freezing of the company's assets.
File-sharing program LimeWire has been permanently shut down after a federal judge found it guilty of assisting users in committing copyright infringement "on a massive scale."
Hmmm... I wonder what this means for the bittorrent protocol.-Renegade (October 27, 2010, 07:25 PM)
File-sharing program LimeWire has been permanently shut down after a federal judge found it guilty of assisting users in committing copyright infringement "on a massive scale."Hmmm... I wonder what this means for the bittorrent protocol.-Renegade (October 27, 2010, 07:25 PM)
And the HTTP Download protocol
And the FTP download protocol
And any protocol that allows files to be shared to other users
And any website that allows this (RapidShare, MediaFire, MassiveUpload)
All youtube videos containing homemade music vids to popular music
Etc, Etc...-Stephen66515 (October 27, 2010, 07:28 PM)
* debian-506-i386-DVD-1.iso
* done 4459.2 MB Rate: 82.3 / 0.0 KB Uploaded: 182964.1 MB [T R: 41.03 low]
* Tracker: [Tried all trackers.]-rtorrent
Sad to see limewire going down.-mahesh2k (October 28, 2010, 10:10 AM)
<snip />
The fact the RIAA has won 1 case doesnt say much
<snip />-Stephen66515 (October 28, 2010, 09:07 AM)
<snip />
The fact the RIAA has won 1 case doesnt say much
<snip />-Stephen66515 (October 28, 2010, 09:07 AM)
Actually, it does, and it's one thing that people seem to ignore/be ignorant of. A long view approach to such things is to build up a mountain of prior rulings. In judicial environments, prior rulings hold a *lot* of weight, making your case stronger/eroding your opponent's position. Any defeats/successes are relevant to the larger picture going forward.-wraith808 (October 28, 2010, 10:49 AM)
Countless defeats + 1 win ... The math is the key.-Stephen66515 (October 28, 2010, 01:09 PM)
Stephen, if one case shuts down a service which, while not ADVERTISED to support piracy but information is found which demonstrates the service is intended to be used for such or that over half of the users are using it for such activities, then this could be groundbreaking. Other services would not stand a chance once a case has been won.-Josh (October 28, 2010, 02:25 PM)
I agree that Lime wire had a lot of viruses, garbage, etc., but with some worthwhile downloads. I also know that our legal system is based on case law, which gives heavy emphasis on past judicial opinions/rulings. This is a chilling ruling.-complearning123 (October 28, 2010, 03:15 PM)
That to me is tantamount to closing all banks and punishing all customers because some customers are using that institution to illegally launder money from illegal ventures/activities.
Just clarify this a bit - Limewire is a P2P program AFAIK, not a network. It uses the gnutella, (and BitTorrent), network for information dissemination/retrieval.
The gnutella/BitTorrent networks will still continue to be used, there are other P2P programs that use the same networks, (eg. Cabos, FrostWire, Shareaza).I agree that Lime wire had a lot of viruses, garbage, etc., but with some worthwhile downloads. I also know that our legal system is based on case law, which gives heavy emphasis on past judicial opinions/rulings. This is a chilling ruling.-complearning123 (October 28, 2010, 03:15 PM)
It's already been done before - think Napster.That to me is tantamount to closing all banks and punishing all customers because some customers are using that institution to illegally launder money from illegal ventures/activities.
No it isn't, the correct analogy would be if they closed all banks in one town, (or even a state), because one bank was laundering money. Yes, it's inconvenient for the townspeople but it doesn't stop them from getting their money from the banking network.
They made the injunction against Limewire because its use was predominantly synonymous with pirating. As soon as some other program is stupid enough to do the same thing and they're within the grasp of the RIAA/MPAA then it'll happen again.-4wd (October 28, 2010, 04:30 PM)
I find the situation oddly analogous to guns... I know... Somebody is sighing out there, but just hear it out...-Renegade (October 28, 2010, 06:38 PM)
I find the situation oddly analogous to guns... I know... Somebody is sighing out there, but just hear it out...-Renegade (October 28, 2010, 06:38 PM)
Yes, that would be me....
It would have been better if you had based your analogy on the knife - this is much closer to the mark.
A knife is a tool whose use is mostly benign as opposed to a firearm, (not gun, they are a subset of firearms), as you have pointed out, whose purpose isn't.
By making the comparison to a firearm you are immediately saying that the software was created intentionally to be malignant, ie. for pirating. As such, you should have no problem with it being put down.-4wd (October 28, 2010, 07:13 PM)
An important fact frequently overlooked: The RIAA only sues if the network or software is run by, developed by, or supported by a for profit company.-app103 (October 28, 2010, 08:35 PM)
The McMillan analogy nicely points out the contradiction in the court ruling though, which is where I wanted to go. i.e. If you accept things at face value (the RIAA case/perspective), then why should McMillan be allowed to produce weapons with obvious malign intent? It's ok for these fellows over here, but not these other fellows?-Renegade (October 28, 2010, 08:09 PM)
However, sniping has filtered into the general language and now encompasses the hunting of game animals and as such your comment "sniper rifles are for killing people" is not strictly valid.-4wd (October 31, 2010, 11:03 PM)
I love how folks find the necessity to defend this crap. Here is the truth:
It isn't the protocol or program, it is what is done with said protocol or program.
If I am using the protocol or program to share my family photos, content I own or created, no issues. Using the program or protocol to share other people's copyrighted works: issues. There is no defense or excuse for sharing the property of others without permission, profit or no profit. It lowers us to the level of the money-grubbing companies who screw us and that need to get with the times. Personally, I have pride and PAY for everything I own or want. If I cannot afford it, then I don't need it. Guess I had better get to work and save some money. I am not going to be a lemming and try to be cool, get free stuff, and defend something that is wrong even over being illegal.-y0himba (October 29, 2010, 08:07 AM)
I wholeheartedly agree y0himba. I love the argument that companies should "Go after the user not the software" when the software, like it or not, is primarily used for piracy. Bit Torrent has many legit uses and is used by corporations across the world to help ease their bandwidth usage. Blizzard uses it for patch and game distribution, Microsoft for product distribution, quite a few movie companies use it for digital distribution of their products to the movie theaters, etc. Limewire, over the entire history of which I have seen the product, has not had a single legit use. Every person I've ever heard mention the product has referenced it in terms of piracy.There are some genres of music which get little to no airplay on mainstream commercial radio. If you happen to come across a song or two somewhere and want a starting place as to what to investigate, you may have a difficult time coming up with a list of artist names, and an even harder time knowing if any of the names you do come up with are worth bothering to investigate further. Any P2P network that includes chat is probably one of the best research tools you will ever find. What better way to explore what is available in these genres than by talking to the fans of the genres directly.
As the old saying goes, "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck...it almost certainly is not a horse". The whole "Hey, there is a linux distribution being shared on there so this service is legit" argument is tired and old. If I place a Linux distribution on an ftp server along with every current Microsoft product (including keys), that does not make the ftp server legit even if I start the ftp server only hosting said Linux distribution. The primary purpose of said FTP server is for piracy of MS products, not linux distribution.-Josh (October 29, 2010, 08:40 AM)
"If I prevail, consumers will never have to worry about a format change ever again," Robertson said. "If they win, your media will be locked up and you're going to be forced to re-buy it and re-buy it. Once your media is in the cloud, you take it with you forever. I'm of the mind it's your content. It should work everywhere."
Holy crap! I'm with Robertson on his perspective. WTF? We used to be able to buy Vinyl, audio cassettes, or CD hard copies and were thus able to convert them as we saw fit (vinyl to cassette, cd to mp3, etc.)... Of course, from a strictly (and ultra-) capitalist perspective, what the copyright/intellectual property owners are doing makes perfect sense - protecting and ensuring a revenue stream.
I suppose we have to consider as well that the copying technology that is readily available to Joe Q public has improved exponentially, along with the ease of sharing media. To make a good copy of, say, a book even 15 years ago took A LOT of effort and, to do it right, VERY expensive equipment that few mortals had access to... Today unless the media is DRM protected endless, perfect, copies of media are possible, along with the ability for individuals to share them.
Waffling... I'll stop now :-[-Darwin (November 03, 2010, 11:26 AM)
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that would give the Attorney General the right to shut down websites with a court order if copyright infringement is deemed “central to the activity” of the site — regardless if the website has actually committed a crime. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) is among the most draconian laws ever considered to combat digital piracy, and contains what some have called the “nuclear option,” which would essentially allow the Attorney General to turn suspected websites “off.”-http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/coica-web-censorship-bill/
Fortunately then this happened:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/oregon-senator-vows-block-internet-censorship-bill/
- Oshyan-JavaJones (November 20, 2010, 09:35 PM)
"Deploying this statute to combat online copyright infringement seems almost like using a bunker-busting cluster bomb, when what you need is a precision-guided missile,"