RIAA Lawsuit Results in Closure of FileSharing Site LimeWire

On Oct. 27, 2010, users of peer-to-peer filesharing program LimeWire encountered problems when trying to use the service and were greeted by a message on the LimeWire website saying that, due to a court-ordered injunction, their service was offline. It also reminded people that file-sharing of copywritten content is illegal. This was the end result of what Josh Halliday of England's Guardian news journal calls a "four year legal battle" with the Recording Industry Artists of America.

The impact of this ruling will certainly harm LimeWire, as it has been forced to shutter its doors. As for illegal file sharing, the outlook is much less clear. Music and film piracy has been rampant online for over a decade, and the Recording Industry Artists of America (RIAA) has been fighting illegal file sharing for almost as long. Its claims that file sharing cuts into its artists and recording studio profits are certainly with merit. Lawsuits brought by the RIAA have brought down other famous sites, like Napster, Grokster, and dozens of other file sharing and torrent services with court injunctions and high-dollar lawsuits.

The RIAA has been largely successful in getting targeted sites shut down. However, in the time that it took to close LimeWire down, dozens, if not hundreds, of file sharing sites have risen to take its place. File sharing, via other peer-to-peer sites and bit torrent networks are still alive and well online, and the individual targeting of sites is akin to fixing a flat tire with chewing gum.

So, the closing of Limewire may be seen as yet another pyrrhic victory for the recording industry and the RIAA. Sure, another file sharing site bites the dust, but dozens if not hundreds more exist. Efforts to change online culture via advertisements that file sharing is theft haven't stemmed the flow of online piracy. A better tactic would be to address the primary reason it flourishes - value.

Music and film piracy exists because costs haven't come down for content the way they have decreased for other items. The prices for televisions, stereos, computers, you name it have decreased as technology has improved. The standard price of a music CD hasn't. Digital downloads too have been increasing in costs. Amazon used to sell most of its online albums for $7.99; that cost is now $8.99 or $9.99. Other retailers are pricing single songs at prices from $0.98 to $1.49. Surely the technology to produce and market these products hasn't increased enough to justify a 25 percent mark-up during a recession in which millions of people have lost their jobs and many more have settled for stagnant or decreasing wages. Never mind that the "value" of some groups' albums is limited to one or two songs on a collection of 12. So, people have found alternatives to paying exorbitant prices for music: online piracy, or the shady world of discounted downloads via Russian sites like Iomoio, which offer downloads for as low as $0.15 per song.

Is the closing of LimeWire a benchmark precedent in the world of illegal file sharing? Hardly.

Sources:

Halliday, Josh. (October 27, 2010). LimeWire Shut Down by Federal Court. Guardian.
LimeWire.com (2010).