File sharing pioneer LimeWire has lost an American court battle against the big four music companies, who alleged that the site breached copyright. The case was brought by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which represents the four major US labels, and has been going through the courts since August 2006. Unlike Napster and other file sharing sites which have been brought down by court rulings, LimeWire doesn’t host the files on their servers – users share them directly through the site. However, US federal court Judge Kimba (yes, really) Woods ruled that “The evidence demonstrates that [LimeWire] optimised [their] features to ensure that users [could] download digital recordings, the majority of which are protected by copyright … [Lime Wire] assisted users in committing infringement.”
The court has yet to decide on damages, but the RIAA is claiming they want up to $150,000 for every infringing work. With millions of files in question, the penalty could theoretically be in the trillions, although the labels will first try to gain an injunction against LimeWire in light of the ruling, to force the service to go offline.
