The Recording Industry Association of America’s trial against LimeWire starts on Tuesday and we are expecting to see a totally out of proportion fine which will bankrupt the outfit.
A New York federal jury will decide how much LimeWire and its owner should pay the record labels for infringement committed on LimeWire’s service. US District Judge Kimba Wood ruled last year that LimeWire’s users commit a “substantial amount of copyright infringement,” and that the Lime Group had not taken enough steps to stop them.
The record labels claim LimeWire owes it more than $1 billion in damages, a sum that neither the company nor founder Mark Gorton could likely pay. Actually it did try to ask the court for several trillion dollars but was told it was being silly.
Wood said that LimeWire’s infringement was “willful” which means that Gorton and company are on the hook for as much as $150,000 for each track infringed. The RIAA has “identified” 9,715 recordings for which it is seeking damages.
LimeWire shut down in October after Wood ordered it to cease its “file-distribution functionality.”
Expect a ridiculous fine
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Nick Farell
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