LimeWire slams RIAA member's 'illegal online cartel'
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Counterblast in counterclaim LimeWire LLC has returned fire in its copyright dispute with Recording Industry Ass. Of America (RIAA), accusing its members of operating an illegal cartel to control the online distribution of music.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Peer-to-peer (p-to-p) file-sharing software developer Lime Wire has countersued the biggest record companies, charging them with anti-competitive behavior. The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, follows the closing of most of the popular file-sharing Web sites due to lawsuits initiated by record companies. It also comes on the heels of a suit filed by 13 record companies against Lime Wire, accusing the developer of music piracy and demanding damages that could amount to $476 million. Lime Wire now charges the record companies with colluding to create a monopoly over the digital distribution of copyrighted music. The record companies "have engaged in these unfair business practices for the specific purpose of eliminating sources of decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing and acquiring a monopoly over digital distribution of commercially valuable copyrighted music and movie content," the lawsuit reads. The alleged unfair business practices include collusion among the record companies to price their licensing rates such that independent music sellers can't afford to stay in business, Lime Wire said. Lime Wire added that a since-changed policy at the record companies of requiring licensees to negotiate only with certain companies that represent a group of record labels resulted in artificially high licensing fees. Lime Wire also charges the record companies with trying to extend their monopoly by forcing music distributors to work only with their affiliated filtering system supplier. Lime Wire says it developed a filtering application to prevent illegal downloading and encourage legal content purchasing. But the record companies refused to give the developer access to the metadata that uniquely identifies each song in order for the filtering system to work, Lime Wire claims. Instead, Lime Wire alleges the record companies encouraged Lime Wire to use their preferred supplier for a P-to-P filtering system, iMesh. While Lime Wire concedes that iMesh is not owned by the record companies, it alleges the supplier is controlled by the record companies. A top executive at iMesh is a former leader of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and iMesh is the only RIAA-sanctioned business of its kind in the U.S., according to Lime Wire. Lime Wire is asking for a jury trial. The record companies named in the suit include Arista Records, Atlantic Recording, BMG Music, Capital Records, Electra Entertainment Group, Interscope Records, Laface Records, Motown Record Company, Priority Records, Sony BMG Entertainment, UMG Recordings, Virgin Records America, and Warner Bros. Records. The suit follows some high profile settlements by other leading p-to-p networks. In July,Â Kazaa agreed to payÂ at least $100 million to four record companies and an additional amount to motion picture companies to settle lawsuits. Earlier this month, eDonkeyÂ agreed to pay $30 millionÂ to settle similar suits. EDonkey's founder last year predicted that all U.S. p-to-p companies wouldÂ cease to existÂ because they wouldn't have the resources to defend themselves against the record companies after a Supreme CourtÂ ruling against Grokster. That ruling vaguely said that p-to-p software developers may be liable for illegal use of the software.
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P2PLawsuits.com, registered recently by the Recording Industry Association of America, serves up ads for nasty file-sharing clients. The site is described in a leaked strategy letter allegedly sent by the group. In Listening Post.
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Lawyers for Australia&#39;s recording industry branded the popular Kazaa file-swapping network &quot;an engine of copyright piracy to a degree of magnitude never before seen&quot; as they launched a court battle to shut down Kazaa&#39;s illegal
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A developer of peer-to-peer file-sharing software is taking record-company giants to court, charging them with unfair business practices including collusion and monopoly-building.
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Kazaa is responsible for more downloading of illegal copies of songs than any other service, according to the five recording companies who brought suit against its parent company, Sharman Networks, in an Australian court.
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SUING MACHINE, the RIAA is on the legal defensive after a P2P software company has accused it of nicking its technology. Altnet is suing the RIAA and several of its partners of pirating its patent covering
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The recording industry&#39;s lobbying group today sued three users of American University&#39;s computer network, accusing them of illegally sharing digital music files online.
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People who received MP3 players as holiday gifts may want to steer clear of some Web sites that claim to offer legal music but don&#39;t have licensing agreements with major music labels, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) said.CDT, a consumer rights group, has published a list of more than 30 MP3 download sites that don&#39;t have licensing deals with major U.S. music labels. The sites, which charge between $20 and $35 for subscriptions, say they offer music from artists signed to the major labels, CDT said.Consumers should be aware of the sites on the list because in some cases, they may simply provide subscribers popular peer-to-peer (P-to-P) software that&#39;s otherwise free, said David Sohn, CDT&#39;s senior policy counsel. And customers using P-to-P software to trade unauthorized music files could face lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), he said.&quot;People might get the false impression of what they paid for was legal,&quot; Sohn said. &quot;If you pay $25, you might think that $25 goes to compensate the rights holder.&quot;The CDT tried to contact the operators of each site on its MP3 warning list. In each case, the site operators did not respond.Several of the sites on the list seem to be run by the same people -- they have similar designs and make similar claims. In many cases, the sites are registered outside the U.S., Sohn said.Some of the sites hedge their claims of being legal in small print. For example, AllCoolMusic.com, which says it offers 12 billion files, includes a disclaimer at the bottom of its front page: &quot;Today, there are 240 million users trading MP3s on legal file-sharing networks. Sharing is not illegal as long as you obey all relevant copyright laws. Sharing copyrighted material, without permission to do so, is illegal. Purchasing a membership in AllCoolMusic.com does not give you license to download or upload copyrighted material. AllCoolMusic.com implores you to respect all copyright laws.&quot;AllCoolMusic didn&#39;t respond to CDT&#39;s letter, and there&#39;s no contact information readily available on the site.In March 2005, CDT filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against two Web sites claiming their music and video downloads were 100 percent legal.The FTC filed a complaint in U.S. court against one of the Web sites, mp3downloadcity.com, obtained an injunction, and eventually reached a settlement with the Web site operator in May 2006. The settlement required the site to refund customers.The RIAA has focused its lawsuits on P-to-P users that share music with others, not those that simply download music from P-to-P networks. However, if subscribers to these sites would opt to share their music on the P-to-P software some of the sites provide, that could expose them to lawsuits, Sohn said.In many cases, users of the sites are &quot;getting less than you pay for,&quot; he said.
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THE firm behind leading file-swapping network Kazaa is being sued by the record industry in the latest round of a fight over copyright.
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The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed 754 new lawsuits against alleged file-traders using peer-to-peer services, the trade group announced Thursday.
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A recording-industry trade group  said on Thursday it had filed a new round of lawsuits against  762 people it suspects of distributing its songs for free over  Internet "peer to peer" networks like Kazaa and eDonkey.
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The British Phonographic Industry threatens tough action. &quot;We will get IP addresses and names,&quot; a spokesperson said. &quot;P2P users have a misconception that they are anonymous, but they are not.
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The Federation of the Phonographic Industry said it filed 459 lawsuits against illegal music file-sharers in Europe. The suits were filed on behalf of Warner Music Group.
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By JIM FITZGERALD  WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A 16-year-old boy being sued by five record companies accusing him of online music piracy accused the recording industry on Tuesday of violating antitrust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats.
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Digital music service BurnLounge is accused of operating an illegal pyramid scheme.
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Universal Music Group, the world's   biggest record company, is stepping up pressure against popular   online sites YouTube and MySpace, accusing them of infringing   the copyrights of its artists' music videos.