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Limewire Hits Back Hard: Sues RIAA For Antitrust And Consumer Fraud
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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TechDirt Reports:
Last month, the RIAA sued Limewire after Limewire wouldn’t agree to simply roll over and pretend the RIAA’s interpretation of the Supreme Court decision in the Grokster case was actually what the Supreme Court said. The court actually said that services could be found liable, if they were shown to actively induce infringement. The RIAA and the MPAA pretended this meant that any file sharing network that had unauthorized content was flat-out illegal. Of course, that’s a bit of a stretch. So, it already seemed like it would be an interesting case, but now Limewire has hit back even harder with counterclaims accusing the RIAA of antitrust violations, consumer fraud and other misconduct. Specifically, they seem to be making the case that the RIAA only wants to shut down Limewire because it is a competitive distribution mechanism that they cannot control, which helps compete with their monopolistic control on traditional distribution. It’s an interesting claim that does make some sense, though the RIAA will simply try to paint Limewire as a tool for “thieves.” As with many of these types of cases, there’s probably a decent chance that the sides will settle before any decision is made, but in this case, it would be very interesting to see the actual outcome of any lawsuit — both on the issue of whether or not simply running a file sharing network is inducement and on whether or not there really is an antitrust claim here. If the case does go forward and the RIAA loses on the antitrust issue, it could have a big impact on the traditional labels, and could actually be a catalyst towards forcing them to accept the changing nature of the market. This is becoming a case well worth watching.
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2 Responses to “Limewire Hits Back Hard: Sues RIAA For Antitrust And Consumer Fraud”
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[…] Lime Wire gives up the goat and blocks sharing of Adobe Products Published by wiseassoffice November 14th, 2006 in Software. Lime Wire is announcing that it is bending to pressure from software publishers, such as Adobe with their first step in blocking Warez versions of Adobe PhotoShop from being downloaded. It appears they will be blocking this file sharing at the client side. The biggest issue with this is that any blocking they might do will be in vain because the protocol that Lime Wire is based on is open source and other clients will be able to share and download the software leaving Lime Wire in the cold as reduced capabilities software. On the Mac side at least Acquisition has taken up most of the slack from Lime Wire, expect new players to emerge on the PC front to take the place of Limewire. Of course the impact will not be huge because most large file sharers do not seem to be using Limewire anymore, Lime Wire has become a lame duck in the file sharing arena of late with torrents the more preferred software for sharing large files. Lime Wire is now often used for Mp3 downloads more than anything. We at Noheat.com wonder if this move is related to the story we covered in Sept when Lime Wire sued the RIAA. It could show weakness in the courtroom and internal feelings that their days are numbered. […]
I think Limewire has a great case on the antitrust. The RIAA is behaving as a monopoly controller. This could be very interesting indeed. Expect this case to strecth out for MANY years.