Limewire gives in to industry giants

David Swan
Monday, 16 May 2011 16:30

Your IT - Entertainment

American filesharing software corporation LimeWire has settled out of court with the major record labels, reportedly for over one hundred million US dollars.

 

Before the software was shut down last year, the labels claimed that Limewire was liable for sanctioning potentially trillions of dollars worth of illegal downloads.

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Chairman Mitch Bainwol said in a statement that his group is satisfied with the result.

"The resolution of this case is another milestone in the continuing evolution of online music to a legitimate marketplace that appropriately rewards creators," he said.

In recent years, the recording industry 'Goliath' has battled some similar 'Davids' in Napster, Grokster, Kazaa and Streamcast, with varying results.

None of these services remain in use, with the exception of Napster which is now a legal online music store.

Recent surveys show that most illegal downloaders have moved to torrents, which are de-centralized and in some ways harder to track than their earlier counterparts.

As a result of the earlier injunction, LimeWire 5.5.11 and all newer version have been fully disabled using a backdoor installed by the company.

However, version 5.5.10 and all prior versions of LimeWire remain fully functional and cannot be disabled unless a user upgrades to one of the newer versions.