The IT Nerd

Remember Limewire? It was is a very popular way to illegally acquire and share music and movies. I say “was” because it is apparently very dead based on this statement on their website:

As of today, we are required to stop distribution and support of LimeWire’s P2P file-sharing service as a result of a court-ordered injunction.

Naturally, we’re disappointed with this turn of events. We are extremely proud of our pioneering history and have, for years, worked hard to bridge the gap between technology and content rights holders. However, at this time, we have no option but to cease further distribution and support of our software.

The injunction [Warning: PDF] was handed down by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. It permanently enjoins and restrains LimeWire from distributing its client software. But somehow the future is bright for Limewire as far as they are concerned:

We remain deeply committed to working with the music industry and making the act of loving music more fulfilling for everyone – including artists, songwriters, publishers, labels, and of course music fans.

Our team of technologists and music enthusiasts is creating a completely new music service that puts you back at the center of your digital music experience.

We’ll be sharing more details about our new service and look forward to bringing it to you in the future.

I seem to recall that Napster tried this route to go legit and failed miserably. Perhaps Limewire will do better. I doubt it, but perhaps they have some brilliant plan that I don’t know about that will save them.

All I have to say is good luck with that.

You might recall that the filesharing service known as LimeWire recently lost in court when the RIAA proved that they were making music available illegally. Well, their problems just got worse according to news .com:

A group of music publishers on Wednesday filed a copyright complaint in federal court against LimeWire’s parent company and founder Mark Gorton, according to documents obtained by CNET.

Eight members of the National Music Publishers’ Association, including the publishing arms of the four largest recording companies, were named as plaintiffs in the suit. They accuse Lime Group, parent of software maker Lime Wire, and Gorton with “copyright infringement on a massive scale.”

So if the original lawsuit didn’t kill them, this one might. Although Limewire does have hopes of becoming something that the music industry would like:

A Lime Wire spokesman said, “We have had many promising meetings with labels, publishers, and artists alike about our new music service and a business model that will compensate the entire industry.”

Good luck with that. I don’t expect them to be around much longer. Besides, all the cool kiddies use BitTorrent.

If you’ve “acquired” music or movies over the Internet using less than legal means, then you’ve likely used Limewire at some point. It’s been the target of of the music and movie industry for some time. Now news.com is reporting that the Recording Industry Association of America has won a major victory in court by proving that Limewire is liable for copyright infringement.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, for the Southern District of New York, on Tuesday granted summary judgment in favor of the music industry’s claims that Lime Group, parent of LimeWire software maker Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton committed copyright infringement, engaged in unfair competition, and induced copyright infringement.

“The evidence demonstrates that [Lime Wire] optimized LimeWire’s features to ensure that users can download digital recordings, the majority of which are protected by copyright,” Wood said in her 59-page decision. “And that [Lime Wire] assisted users in committing infringement.”

This will likely cripple the service, if not kill the service outright. Now this won’t kill piracy services, but it will send a message of some sort to those who run these services.

At least that’s the theory.