LimeWire v RIAA
p2pnet view P2P | Freedom | Entertainment | Music | Politics:- Did LimeWire lose? Yes, to the tune of 105 million, far less than the 2 trillion being asked by the RIAA for damages. The RIAA stipulated that each instance of each download constituted an infringement requiring the maximum statutory damages of 150,000usd for each infringement. Without a shred of evidence that ANY downloading occurred, the RIAA just made numbers up from the only confirmable number, the amount of downloads of the LimeWire Client x imaginary average household user x imaginary average downloads x average shared songs. Mind you, again, not one single download can be confirmed with evidence. Actual proof that a particular song was infringed upon by violating the distribution license of copyright was never given. Although most of the proof of guilt was due to the centralized system that LimeWire is based upon, and many files on the LimeWire servers were infringing. This is why the RIAA pursued litigation against the CEO, George Searle, as well as the company.
The litigation has resulted in an agreement, sealed of course, between the RIAA and LimeWire, et al. The RIAA doesn’t want a precedent set that could potentially eliminate the ability to pursue the CEO of whatever new innovation comes along that the RIAA doesn’t like. MP3Tunes, OINK, IsoHUNT and others know what it feels like to innovate, and then be crushed by the legal might of dinosaur industry leaders who refuse to adapt their business model.
One interesting point that Mike Masnick of TechDirt constantly makes that is incredibly relevant is this; Has anti-piracy efforts improved sales? Very succinct and direct approach to this particular metric. ROI some businesses call it, return on investment. First there was Ireland rolling over like the French in WWII, spying on its’ internet customers at the behest of the MAFIAA, then HADOPI in France. Obviously this was forced on the French due to a celebrity polishing Sarkozy’s helmet, and not because it was even relevant, effective, useful or wanted by the French people. In fact, I think there were a few polls and demonstrations against it. And now look at what a shining light of proactive anti-piracy effectiveness in action. Sony spent more on R&D for BluRay DRM than they did on the security servers hosting the PlayStation Network. Think about that for a second, and you will realize where their priorities lie.
So, LimeWire lost. Another incentive for distributed technology. DNS is now under attack from DHS/ICE, which is not even in their mandate, and with the UN requesting the US release control over ICANN, public outcry about violations of constitutional rights, seizing domains that have been legally defined in a court of law in that country as, well, legal, not to omit placing defamatory accusations that over 80,000 sub-domain web sites were seized due to being CP related. Even if this even lasted minutes, instead of days, it should constitute actionable litigation against the US GOV.
Again, another reason to migrate to OpenDNS or other alternative that does not censor. The NSA said it best when they warned that the more you invade the privacy of others, the more measures they will take to inhibit your efforts. The more pressure that is put on centralized systems, will invariably force innovation away from it and more towards decentralized systems that cannot be affected. The internet sees censorship as a roadblock and simply routes around it.
And finally, TorrentFreak has a great article about bittorrent traffic increase reported by Sandvine, a Canadian-based broadband management company, amazingly NOT owned by the MAFIAA. It shows how impressive your 8-year litigation against LimeWire produced such an immense increase in physical and digital sales… oh wait, no it didn’t! They all moved to bittorrent. And when it takes you 8 more years to litigate away bittorrent, there will be something else already waiting. Congratulations RIAA, one less mole, superb use of resources, and an incredible boost to your coven on artists. Oh wait!… the artists’ get nothing? The 105 million will go back into investing additional anti-piracy efforts and the artists get nothing?
Impressive, most impressive.
You know, mp3Tunes and GrooveShark started with less than 105 million. I bet you could have built a great Last.FM for that kinda money. Until then I will use AudioHijack and streamed free music in iTunes, and pay for ‘other’ services, like bandwidth, to access the buffet, instead of your little expensive continental breakfast.
surfer – p2pnet
Share the wealth
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to p2pnet.net | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/feed
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
May 22nd, 2011 at 5:36 pm
I wonder what the FAC members have to say about the fact that they still get squat, even after being willing to throw fans under the bus to back 3 strikes legislation that they KNEW was doomed to fail. Cutting off fans noses out of spite made really great gains for them, didn’t it ?
May 22nd, 2011 at 5:38 pm
Searched their site, and, sure enough , not a single peep about it.
Too busy patting each other on the back, I guess.
May 22nd, 2011 at 5:40 pm
my, how they’ve changed since 2009 …
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/its-not-a-crime-to-download-say-musicians-1643217.html
May 22nd, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Where has the UN said it wants ICANN out of the US? Haven’t seen that anywhere.
May 22nd, 2011 at 6:52 pm
@Ted:
The whole concern over a US-controlled ICANN started becoming “news” back around 2005. The UN did express the desire to have command at some point.
Lots of hits, if you look.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/icann-head-warns-against-putting-internet-addresses-under-un-control/article1579820/
http://www.slate.com/id/2131182/
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/tennant/why-the-united-nations-should-govern-the-internet/?cs=41617
May 22nd, 2011 at 11:03 pm
google opens pay movie streaming service with 3,000 movies, now available!
usenet opens free movie download service with 350,000+ movies, circa 1980.
May 23rd, 2011 at 3:49 am
we share 100+TB of data @ avg. of 7.5 TB per day, run many link servers. had many shills try to shut us down and not once have they succeeded … or even got past first base. how you ask?
use free OS and free sharing appz only [no agreements], pay for PRIVATE bandwidth with agreeable ISP under common law only, encrypt your data and connections, know your common law rights and sovereign rights inside and out, decode their laws to find hidden remedies, never make joiner between yourself and commerce law in any way shape or form, never charge or ask for money [donations only], use barter or trade but be careful, never ship anything by mail, never sign anything … even if they threaten you with a gun to your head, tape all cops or agents and meetings [voice on video is best], never agree to meet in their offices, courts or buildings,
when you know your rights tape their court cases and all meetings if you are being hijacked, insist on producing their oaths, insist on them producing evidence … ALL evidence, never use a lawyer or attorney. always be polite … they are human too.
choose your dot extension carefully … org net or society is best. it’s all words and their specific meanings, learn them.
if they try to bring it to trial demand a jury of your peers. create a fee schedule and charge them by minimum of 1000 per hour and 10000 per instance … you want to cost them money, big money and way above their fee schedules. i’ve seen others demand payment in gold and silver in their notices
realize that once you’re off your job you are free of their power of commerce and under another jurisdiction. recheck all contracts you have signed to date for when they are applicable and when not … you will find they are not applicable once you punch out.
basically know your shit and they will get the message they can’t screw with you … or end up in one of their jails with all your stuff confiscated. your choice
limewire is a business and as one they are bound by laws of commerce. big mistake for them
May 23rd, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Unfortunately, there are some “artist representatives” who think this LimeWire result is a good thing for artists.
http://www.aftra.com/C25C73350FCE444F8E787E786001CBEA.htm
When given the chance to figure out that relationship between the artist and the major labels is less of a partnership and more of a food chain, AFTRA has invariably decided that every artist is served equally well by the major label business model. They’ve stood with the RIAA and the MPAA in asking for stronger governmental enforcement of copyrights. And, of course, AFTRA has it’s Executive Director, Kim Roberts-Hedgepeth, sitting on the board of SoundExchange, where she’s one of the nine “artist representatives” who have pretty much rubber stamped everything the RIAA has wanted the organization to do since they set it up.
There’s a schizophrenic tone to AFTRA’s dealings with recording artists. They realize the rules of the game have changed drastically in the past ten years, and that the major labels are no longer the gravitational center of the business, but they continue to treat independent artists like stepchildren, and the major labels like they’ve still got their hands on the wheel. It doesn’t bode well for AFTRA remaining relevant to recording artists that they are spending great amounts of time and energy readying for a Sound Recording Code negotiation with the crew of the Titanic.
May 23rd, 2011 at 7:38 pm
” When given the chance to figure out that relationship between the artist and the major labels is less of a partnership and more of a food chain, AFTRA has invariably decided that every artist is served equally well by the major label business model. ”
The FAC knows that this isn’t true, and side with the labels anyway.
Here’s my message to them.
You signed away your rights because you had no choice. I’m sorry, can’t turn back time. The bright side ? .. most of your members still manage to be pretty wealthy ( 1.5 mil home in the UK .. sound familiar ), and yet you still see fit to stand with the labels and sue those that could never afford to pay ?
Because of that, I would rather see the songs you want so desperately returned to you go PUBLIC DOMAIN as they should have YEARS AGO than see those rights go back to you. I will support any legislation that takes works out of corporate hands and puts them straight to the public domain where they belong. Screw us, Screw you.
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:20 pm
as we see with sum of comments above it all comes down to one greater good = freedom of choice
the workers have always been one step ahead of the rich til one thing happened > marketing [half truths and lies]
AND when you take a look at any smart and educated community you will find it helps each other, shares everything, doesn’t use money / barters and trades at worst, develops new ideas and tests them properly before it lets them loose on everyone, is self sufficient, coincides with nature, becomes educated much faster, has a much more comprehensive law system, better equality, operates in loving caring and supportive manner
BUT take a look at any product, service, idea or practice and you will find that business, industry, corporations, government and laws side with the rich … the filthy abusive lazy manipulating conniving and directly or indirectly murdering rich ruling class
When people decide they have had enough they can reject the business model and take all those chemicals, prescription drugs, genetically modified food, trash media, unjust laws, and mainly pollution and drop it all on the rich people’s doorsteps .. or their properties, as the shoe fits. That day is coming closer and closer
A reminder; CDs and DVDs are oil based poisonous products and only last about 10 to 20 yrs, as most oil based products. Once they start to deteriorate the gases given off are 1000s of times more dangerous than smoking. This makes sharing of files a much healthier alternative to buying them on plastic media.
many in the computer industry, as in oil industry, are suffering from multitude of illnesses after short to long exposure: eczema, psoriasis, lung problems, liver problems, heart problems, immune system breakdowns, lead poisoning, chemical poisoning and loads more.
MAFIAA likes to compartmentalize and beat one point to death til they win. Eventually it’s a death of 1000 needles for anyone who opposes them. Don’t be their sucker … see the bigger picture and slam them with it.
May 24th, 2011 at 4:05 am
Suing others companies is one thing. Suing the people is another.
Just to let you know all of you corporates parasites, crappy lawyers judges and members of the government corrupted by the industry, yes you Shitman, Joe Bit Me, you Orin Hash, You Feinstein:
Cost of the anonymous attacks against Sony for having sued a “moder” of the PS3 and exercising it’s freedom of speech: $175 millions. The attack might no be over yet by the way because anon is really mad.
This is the future folks. Don’t you have to think about the bottom line? All yours crappy companies of criminals will eventually be evicted from internet by the people of the world defending their countries and their freedom.
May 24th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
As living breathing men we are under common law.
Acts and statutes (such as those used for copyright) are NOT law. Acts and statues are GIVEN THE FORCE OF LAW WITH CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. Remove your consent, never give it, know the words the system uses, know the system, never understand and be free.
May 25th, 2011 at 6:42 am
i’m glad i’m not the only one who knows about common law on here.
June 18th, 2011 at 2:56 pm
I am now using the limewire pirate edition. It work exactly the same. Only now nobody can disable it.
Anyway I also have the source code and I can rebuild the app using my Borland builder compiler any time I want. Ha!