Court Shuts Down LimeWire

I found this article interesting in the Rolling Stone because it really related to the topics that we discuss in class. In 2006, thirteen record companies sued Lime Wire for hosting as many as 11,000 of their copyrighted sound recordings. Last year, the labels scored their first major win in the case when the judge agreed that Lime Wire indirectly infringed on their copyrights by inducing users to download pirated content. The network was ultimately shut down on October 26, 2010.

A quote that drew my attention was from the Lime Wire CEO, George Searle, “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. It’s a sad occasion for our team, and for you – the hundreds of millions of people who have used Lime Wire to discover new things.” This just shows how these various peer-to-peer networks have really pioneered a new way of accessing information.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/court-shuts-down-limewire-20101027