1 December 2010Copyright

Lime light goes out

LimeWire, a file-sharing service found responsible for inducing the users of its software to commit copyright infringement, has been shut down.

Judge Kimba Wood, presiding in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, issued a permanent injunction against LimeWire on October 26.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), representing the major record companies in the US, obtained a summary judgment against LimeWire in May. It held the file-sharing service secondarily liable for the copyright infringement committed by users of its software.

The injunction was issued against LimeWire because its file-sharing software allows for “infringement on a massive scale”.

Judge Wood said: “Using its best efforts, LimeWire shall use all reasonable technological means to immediately cease and desist the current infringement...and to prevent and inhibit future infringement of the copyrighted works...by...users of the LimeWire system and software.”

This can be achieved by disabling the “searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality, and/or all functionality” of LimeWire’s software.

A legal notice on LimeWire’s website confirms its compliance with the court-ordered injunction, and the website is now inaccessible.

A LimeWire spokesperson said: “While this is not our ideal path, we hope to work with the music industry in moving forward. We look forward to embracing necessary changes and working with the entire music industry in the future.”

In a statement, the RIAA said that the injunction will start to “unwind the massive piracy machine that LimeWire and [its founder Mike] Gorton used to enrich themselves”.

The record companies are also seeking damages. LimeWire may be liable for up to $150,000 in statutory damages for each instance of copyright infringement committed by users of its software.

The RIAA said: “In January, the court will conduct a trial to determine the appropriate level of damages necessary to compensate the record companies for the billions and billions of illegal downloads that occurred through the LimeWire system.”

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