Limewire owes the RIAA 1.5 trillion dollars (Keyword: trillion)

[t3h d00d]

Saw this on Facepunch.

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/40481

“The corks were popping over in LaLa land”, said p2pnet in the middle of May.

That was because judge Kimba Wood had ruled LimeWire infringes copyright.

Now it looks as though one Kelly M. Klaus (right) of Munger, Tolles & Olson, yet another RIAA posse, wants Wood to order LimeWire owner Mark Gorton to pay $1,500,000,000,000 for 200,000,000 alleged downloads, at $750 per.

To whom? To Arista Records, Atlantic Recording, BMG Music, Capitol records, Electra Entertaiment, Interscope Records, Motown Recording, Priority Records, LaFace Records, Sony BMG (?), UMG Recordings and Warner Bros Records.

That’s one point five trillion dollars.

If you think that’s ridiculous, bear in mind the labels were once awarded almost $2 million because Jammie Thomas-Rasset allegedly downloaded 24 copyrighted songs.

That’s not all. Klaus also wants Wood to issue an order permanently shutting LimeWire down.

“As in Grokster and Aimster, Plaintiffs have been and will be irreparably harmed because Lime Wire will most likely be liable for more in damages than it will ever be able to pay”, says Klaus in a legal document going on:

“Plaintiffs seek statutory damages under the Copyright Act as a remedy for Lime Wire’s unlawful conduct. (First Amended Complaint ¶¶ 74, 87, 99). Where the defendant’s conduct is willful, the range of statutory damages runs from $750 to $150,000. See 17 U.S.C. § 504(a)(2)-(c).”

And that’s not all either.

The RIAA aka Klaus also wants LimeWire’s assets frozen.

“By this motion, Plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction imposing an immediate freeze on all of Defendants’ assets to prevent them from any further attempts to insulate their ill-gotten gains from a future judgment. The Court has found Defendants Lime Wire LLC (’Lime Wire’), Mark Gorton (’Gorton’), and Lime Group LLC (’Lime Group’) liable for inducing infringement of Plaintiffs’ copyrights (and related state law claims). (May 25, 2010 Amended Opinion & Order (“Order”).) Plaintiffs will be entitled to substantial damages, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, or even billions, because of the massive infringing conduct for which these Defendants are liable.”

But as a post on Ray Beckerman’s Recording Industry vs The People says, Klaus’ efforts do little more than show “the lawyers have no clue as to the technology they seek to stop”, going on >>>

Unlike Kazaa, grokster, and napster, there is nothing that can or will be shut down. They may try to stop the distribution of the limewire client. But the client is so widespread on the internet that they have no real chance of it disappearing.

The same thing happened when AOL tried to stop the original gnutella client.

Speaking on the technology side, I think they have no idea of what they are trying to stop, this is the gnutella network. There is no server to be shut down that will kill the network like with napster and grokster. Each client is a part of the network and can function without a server in some warehouse. It will be impossible to close it down.

All clients will still function even if Limeware as a group/company ceases to exist.

Which adequately sums it up.

Apart from the fact Gorton doesn’t have a trillion, or even a billion, dollars, the RIAA’s demand is exactly like demanding an order to plug one hole in a hose chock full of holes, and that’s permanently left On.

“In the nearly two years since the parties filed their respective summary judgment motions, LimeWire has continued to be a tool of choice for rampant infringement of Plaintiffs’ works”, Klaus tells Wood, adding:

“Since July 2008, the LimeWire client software has been downloaded from the website more than 50 million times, bringing the total downloads of the client from just that one website – i.e., exclusive of downloads from Lime Wire’s own website – to more than 200 million (and counting).”

[Ad Bot]

[Madmitten]

i believe they have enough money to pay them
being a free program and all

[Chriz]

i believe they have enough money to pay them
being a free program and all

<33

[dkamm65]

They should just pay it.

[Chriz]

They should just pay it.

With monopoly money?

[Oasis]

Have 'em pay it and go to jail for 20 years. Don't pass Go and do not collect $200.

[Awasp]

but limewire says dling music and stuff is illegal when you first download it last I knew. at least it did it to me when I first got the program and deleated it since it bogged down my computer.

[CC]

With monopoly money?

THEY'LL NEVER KNOW

[Madmitten]

but limewire says dling music and stuff is illegal when you first download it last I knew. at least it did it to me when I first got the program and deleated it since it bogged down my computer.

wat

[zackin5]

I'm sure they are over exaggerating it, although it's probably still a good amount of money.

[D3ATH]

Copyright people are bigger robbers than pirates.

[Sandvich]

1.5 trillion? the forget?

[Aphtonites]

It's funny how these companies are probably making more money than Limewire does, and probably just wants a huge chunk of money to add to their collection.
I see the reason, but again..
WMG.
That group is known for raping youtube and disabling audio on many videos.

[CC]

It's funny how these companies are probably making more money than Limewire does, and probably just wants a huge chunk of money to add to their collection.
I see the reason, but again..
WMG.
That group is known for raping youtube and disabling audio on many videos.

Every company nowadays just wants a stuffload of money, spare non-profit ones and a few others.

[D3ATH]

It's funny how these companies are probably making more money than Limewire does, and probably just wants a huge chunk of money to add to their collection.
I see the reason, but again..
WMG.
That group is known for raping youtube and disabling audio on many videos.

Exactly, they actually want stuff get pirated and stolen, so they could make money out of it.