[quote=p2pnet]
“The corks were popping over in LaLa land”, said p2pnet in the middle of May.
That was because judge Kimba Wood had ruled LimeWire infringes copyright.
Now it looks as though one Kelly M. Klaus (right) of Munger, Tolles & Olson, yet another RIAA posse, wants Wood to order LimeWire owner Mark Gorton to pay $1,500,000,000,000 for 200,000,000 alleged downloads, at $750 per.
To whom? To Arista Records, Atlantic Recording, BMG Music, Capitol records, Electra Entertaiment, Interscope Records, Motown Recording, Priority Records, LaFace Records, Sony BMG (?), UMG Recordings and Warner Bros Records.
That’s one point five trillion dollars.
If you think that’s ridiculous, bear in mind the labels were once awarded almost $2 million because Jammie Thomas-Rasset allegedly downloaded 24 copyrighted songs.
That’s not all. Klaus also wants Wood to issue an order permanently shutting LimeWire down.
“As in Grokster and Aimster, Plaintiffs have been and will be irreparably harmed because Lime Wire will most likely be liable for more in damages than it will ever be able to pay”, says Klaus in a legal document going on:
“Plaintiffs seek statutory damages under the Copyright Act as a remedy for Lime Wire’s unlawful conduct. (First Amended Complaint ¶¶ 74, 87, 99). Where the defendant’s conduct is willful, the range of statutory damages runs from $750 to $150,000. See 17 U.S.C. § 504(a)(2)-(c).”
And that’s not all either.
The RIAA aka Klaus also wants LimeWire’s assets frozen.
“By this motion, Plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction imposing an immediate freeze on all of Defendants’ assets to prevent them from any further attempts to insulate their ill-gotten gains from a future judgment. The Court has found Defendants Lime Wire LLC (’Lime Wire’), Mark Gorton (’Gorton’), and Lime Group LLC (’Lime Group’) liable for inducing infringement of Plaintiffs’ copyrights (and related state law claims). (May 25, 2010 Amended Opinion & Order (“Order”).) Plaintiffs will be entitled to substantial damages, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, or even billions, because of the massive infringing conduct for which these Defendants are liable.”
But as a post on Ray Beckerman’s Recording Industry vs The People says, Klaus’ efforts do little more than show “the lawyers have no clue as to the technology they seek to stop”, going on >>>
Unlike Kazaa, grokster, and napster, there is nothing that can or will be shut down. They may try to stop the distribution of the limewire client. But the client is so widespread on the internet that they have no real chance of it disappearing.
The same thing happened when AOL tried to stop the original gnutella client.
Speaking on the technology side, I think they have no idea of what they are trying to stop, this is the gnutella network. There is no server to be shut down that will kill the network like with napster and grokster. Each client is a part of the network and can function without a server in some warehouse. It will be impossible to close it down.
All clients will still function even if Limeware as a group/company ceases to exist.
Which adequately sums it up.
Apart from the fact Gorton doesn’t have a trillion, or even a billion, dollars, the RIAA’s demand is exactly like demanding an order to plug one hole in a hose chock full of holes, and that’s permanently left On.
“In the nearly two years since the parties filed their respective summary judgment motions, LimeWire has continued to be a tool of choice for rampant infringement of Plaintiffs’ works”, Klaus tells Wood, adding:
“Since July 2008, the LimeWire client software has been downloaded from the website more than 50 million times, bringing the total downloads of the client from just that one website – i.e., exclusive of downloads from Lime Wire’s own website – to more than 200 million (and counting).”
[/quote]
This is a bit over the top isnt it?
I guess "Conservative estimate" means "we have downs" these days. because there is no way in hell they:
1) Could make $750 off 1 download
2) Be missing $1.5T in lost profits
3) have a brain
Not to mention, those poor saps have gotten viruses and other problems by using that awful network.
Is it just me, or is the RIAA and the companies it represents, losing their mind? Because this is absolutely batshit insane.
[url=http://www.p2pnet.net/story/40481][SRC][/url]
Hahaha the RIAA is a fucking joke
It's bartering, they say they want a ridiculous number, then they agree on something more reasonable.
It's also to win the public opinion.
If they say limewire stole trillions worth in songs, people might side with the RIAA.
People still use LimeWire?
These companies need to rethink their business models
what anti piracy companies don't understand is it's software
if you weren't going to buy the game (and COUGH'd it) then they wouldn't have gotten any money anyways since you weren't going to buy it in the first place
[QUOTE=Wayword;22466129]It's bartering, they say they want a ridiculous number, then they agree on something more reasonable.
It's also to win the public opinion.
If they say limewire stole trillions worth in songs, people might side with the RIAA.[/QUOTE]
They're not going to get any number close that that, even with bartering. They're going to atleast want close to several million.
Most people here, will never make anything close to that in our lifetimes. But making outragious claims such as $1.5T makes you look fucking stupid.
That's fine by me. I'm convinced anyone that uses Limewire is computer illiterate and is just asking for viruses and malware to infect their system.
They lost them nothing, most of the people wouldn't have bought the songs any way, sod off RIAA, who do you think you're kidding.
[QUOTE=Armotekma;22466155]what anti piracy companies don't understand is it's software
if you weren't going to buy the game (and COUGH'd it) then they wouldn't have gotten any money anyways since you weren't going to buy it in the first place[/QUOTE]
Even though you weren't going to buy the software, you still don't have any buisness using it.
[QUOTE=Richard Simmons;22466209]They're not going to get any number close that that, even with bartering. They're going to atleast want close to several million.
Most people here, will never make anything close to that in our lifetimes. But making outragious claims such as $1.5T makes you look fucking stupid.[/QUOTE]
Companies are made of multiple people, just because one person doesn't make that much doesn't mean companies can't.
does that much money even exist.
[QUOTE=Richard Simmons;22466209]Most people here, will never make anything close to that in our lifetimes.[/QUOTE]
No offense, but just to point out how big that number is: if we totaled every member of Facepunch's total lifetime salaries, that is, the amount of money each person would make in their life, it still would not be close to $1.5 trillion.
[QUOTE=clanratc;22466250]Even though you weren't going to buy the software, you still don't have any buisness using it.[/QUOTE]
You also have no business lending to things to or from people, however people still do it and will always do it.
wtf? wow, that just dumb
[QUOTE=Triumph Forks;22466180]$1,500,000,000,000!!
[img]http://i976.photobucket.com/albums/ae246/GhostInAShell/funny/dr-evil.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
ONE TRILLION DOLLARS :v:
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKKHSAE1gIs[/media]
And FrostWire pushes on.
[QUOTE=clanratc;22466250]Even though you weren't going to buy the software, you still don't have any buisness using it.[/QUOTE]
steal a 100,000$ car
download a 12$ album, let yourself get caught for both
RIAA will probably sue you
for alot more than that car was worth
[QUOTE=Wayword;22466129]It's bartering, they say they want a ridiculous number, then they agree on something more reasonable.
It's also to win the public opinion.
If they say limewire stole trillions worth in songs, people might side with the RIAA.[/QUOTE]
Its more likely to make people laugh at them.
Just to put 1.5 trillion into context:
The United State's GDP was 14.6 trillion dollars in 2008. Just think about that. They're trying to sue one man for a sizeable fraction of what the [b]entire United States economy[/b] is worth.
[editline]06:18PM[/editline]
Also, doesn't this contravene "cruel and unusual punishment", not to mention "excessive fines"?
[QUOTE=Armotekma;22466340]steal a 100,000$ car
download a 12$ album, let yourself get caught for both
RIAA will probably sue you
for alot more than that car was worth[/QUOTE]
I'm not saying this isn't stupid. I'm just saying that the way to justify piracy by saying that they wouldn't buy it anyway is faulty.
[QUOTE=DainBramageStudios;22466373]Just to put 1.5 trillion into context:
The United State's GDP was 14.6 trillion dollars in 2008. Just think about that. They're trying to sue one man for a sizeable fraction of what the [b]entire United States economy[/b] is worth.
[editline]06:18PM[/editline]
Also, doesn't this contravene "cruel and unusual punishment", not to mention "excessive fines"?[/QUOTE]
That. They're basically asking a company to pay them a tenth of the US GDP
[QUOTE=Armotekma;22466155]what anti piracy companies don't understand is it's software
if you weren't going to buy the game (and COUGH'd it) then they wouldn't have gotten any money anyways since you weren't going to buy it in the first place[/QUOTE]
That's not how it works. If you download the song it doesn't matter if you were going to pay for it anyway or not. You got a copy without paying for it, and that copy is worth whatever the asking price is at the time.
However since it's digital there are no appreciable damages beyond the total market value of the infringed content. The amount being sued for is ridiculous.
A copy of a song is not worth 750 $. They could ask 200 000 000 $ at 1$ per song tho. but Nooooooo they had to make fools out of themselves and ask for 1.5 fucking trillions
I never saw how piracy actually effected anyone. Music producers are still producing music, movies are still being made, game companies are still making games.
It seems to me like just a pathetic attempt to get more money as it usually is.
I thought Limewire asked you if you were planning to infringe copyright before they let you DL it?
[QUOTE=Wayword;22466254]Companies are made of multiple people, just because one person doesn't make that much doesn't mean companies can't.[/QUOTE]
I don't think even the company, lime group, could even come up with a number that close even with bargining. Im sure the RIAA is going to want several million.
I know limewire had a pro package, however that was also pirated on their own network.:irony:
Wait limewire doesn't host any illegal files though do they? Isn't it just a p2p program?
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