So long, LimeWire, it’s been fun. Seven months after the peer-to-peer file-sharing service was defeated in federal court, its company is preparing to shut down.
In October, LimeWire stopped distributing its software and shut down its servers in order to comply with a court ruling stemming from its lawsuit with the RIAA. In June, the RIAA said it would seek $1 billion in statutory damages for the copyright infringement incurred by the service.
Yesterday, Peter Kafka at AllThingsD reported that LimeWire had shut down its online music store. The closing of this store, which operated like iTunes or eMusic (that is, legally), suggested that the overall company might be shuttering.
Today, LimeWire responded to Kafka, confirming in its statement that it is indeed closing its doors.
The statement:
“Given our current situation, plans to bring our separate, legal music service to market have been canceled. The beginning of 2011 will mark the closing of LimeWire’s New York office and cessation of business by LimeWire. We attracted some of the top talent from the technology community over the years to build our new music service. We’ll be helping our team members commence their job search over the next few months.”
The halted music service was LimeWire’s last-ditch effort to go legit and get back into the good graces of the music industry. However, with the next phase of court proceedings planned for January and the plaintiff seeking upward of $1 billion in statutory damages, this final turn of events isn’t that surprising.
Still, for the RIAA, the lawsuit with LimeWire was never about recouping financial payment anyway. It was more about setting precedent, as was the case with previous rulings against Grokster, Napster and others.
This may be the final chapter in the LimeWire saga, but the debate on content distribution online is far from finished.
More About: file sharing, lawsuits, limewire, music, p2p, riaa
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