LimeWire P2P File Share Loses Court Battle, Closes Service

"Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright; The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light, And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout; But there is no joy in middle America - mighty Limewire has struck out." (Thayer's "Casey at the Bat"- revised).

LimeWire, of Internet file-sharing fame (aka "piracy," to speak in the vernacular), has lost its lengthy court battle with record company moguls over its right to disseminate music and video files over the Internet, according to the Telegraph. The court-ordered injunction against LimeWire was made on Oct. 26, 2010, amid a chorus of wails from unhappy LimeWire users. Gnutella is the mother company for imperiled LimeWire, but it seems that Gnutella's other P2P (peer-to-peer) children, FrostWire, BearShare, Shareaza, Phex, Morpheus, Gnucleus, and Gtk-Gnutella, are not yet affected by the court ruling. LimeWire alone has been forced to close. P2P users wonder whether the other file share platforms will be affected.

For those unfamiliar with LimeWire, file sharing and P2P platforms, these online companies exist primarily as free search, upload and download tools for music, image and video clips. Users search the LimeWire database for free files (mpeg, etc.) and download songs to an Mp3 device, such as an iPod. By adding songs from LimeWire to Windows Media Player or other computer media player, songs can be written, or "burned," onto a CD also. Is this illegal? New York District Court Judge Kimba Wood says it is. It is likely that LimeWire will be fined for copyright infringement, etc.

Did LimeWire users know this was illegal? Many will say it was a "gray area," but the fact remains that taking something owned by another, be it music, video, words, etc., is stealing. If these items are granted "public domain" status, then yes, they are fair game. Media and communications may reach public domain status over a period of time (often long after the death of the original artist or author). That is how many books become available to read free in digital format. "Public domain" may also be granted by the owner of the copyright. See PD Info here for more on Public Domain. Most of the music on Limewire and other file-share entities is not licensed under public domain.

Many LimeWire P2P users are turning in droves to other P2P sources of file sharing, according to Music Week. FrostWire and BearShare are other popular media file share sources. Will these sources be declared outlaw? Most likely yes, given the demise of Napster in 2002, and now LimeWire, but it may take some time to extend the LimeWire ruling to include other platforms.

Meanwhile, it might interest LimeWire and other Internet media piracy platform users to know that file sharing is not the innocuous-sounding activity it seems. Stealing media in digital form is stealing and punishable by law. "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive" ( Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17).

Sources:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7720381/LimeWire-a-popular-peer-to-peer-filesharing-service-faces-closure.html

http://download.limewire.com/injunction/Injunction.pdf

http://www.pdinfo.com/

http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1043110&c=1

http://www.pcworld.com/article/91144/court_orders_napster_to_stay_shut.html