Limewire Forced To Pay Record Labels $105 Million
This have not really anything to do with guitars. But it does have something to do with music. Well for you that don't know of Limewire or what it is I can tell you this. Limewire is a peer-to-peer file sharing service. It allows people to connect their computers to other computers. And then share files with each other. You can share just about anything, documents, pictures, software, videos, movies and of course MP3 music. Well the record labels don't like this. When I was a kid I used to tape songs from the radio. And I am pretty sure that some of you did the same. So Limewire is now forced to pay for what they have done when they finally settled with the major labels at $105 million.
If that sounds like a lot of money, you should think the Limewire owners lucky - the labels originally wanted more than $1.4 billion in damages.
A judge ordered the closure of the service last year after the US record industry blamed Limewire for a 52% slump in music sales. May I just add a LOL here. However, CMU report that critics said this was misleading, arguing that CD ripping and the labels missing an opportunity with Napster was also to blame. There is also suggestive evidence that the ability to buy single tracks rather than full albums affected overall music revenue.
Despite this, the labels consider the death of Limewire a huge victory.
"We are pleased to have reached a large monetary settlement following the court?s finding that both LimeWire and its founder Mark Gorton personally liable for copyright infringement," said RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol in a statement.
He continued: "LimeWire wreaked enormous damage on the music community, helping contribute to thousands of lost jobs and fewer opportunities for aspiring artists ? This hard fought victory is reason for celebration by the entire music community, its fans and the legal services that play by the rules."
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