LimeWire fights back over RIAA legal action

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 26 Sep 2006 at 12:08

The owner of LimeWire has responded to the RIAA's attempt to sue it out of existence by countersuing the US record industry body.

The p2p software distributor has filed a lawsuit alleging that the RIAA has a simple objective: 'to destroy any online music distribution service they did not own or control, or force such services to do business with them on exclusive and/or other anticompetitive terms so as to limit and ultimately control the distribution and pricing of digital music, all to the detriment of consumers.'

Last month the RIAA sued LimeWire, its parent company Lime Group and Lime Group's CEO Mark Gorton and COO Greg Bildson. The RIAA claimed $150,000 damages for every song downloaded using Limewire.

In its countersuit, Lime Wire, describes the RIAA suit as 'but one part of a much larger modern conspiracy to destroy all innovation that content owners cannot control and that disrupts their historical business models'.

It alleges that the RIAA has refused to do business with LimeWire, alleging that the music industry body wants to force the adoption of technology based on the iMesh model, which uses an acoustic fingerprinting technology to track and charge for p2p downloads.

'The Counter-Defendants [RIAA] have concertedly promoted the distribution of licensed content through companies in which many of the Counter-Defendants and business affiliates have or had direct equity interests, such as MusicNet, pressplay and Roxio, or through business entities that they have a relationship with, such as iMesh or Mashboxx,' the countersuit claims.

Although best known as software for sharing and downloading music files, usually without the permission of the copyright holder, Limewire, or so its developer says, will eventually be used distribute all kinds of dynamic information, including news stories, research papers and classified ads, via the Gnutella p2p network.

In its counterclaim filing, Lime Wire, Lime Group, Gorton and Bildson deny the RIAA's allegation that they 'have taken steps to ensure that LimeWire users "share" a large number of files on LimeWire, thereby maintaining the draw and reputation of LimeWire as a vast, unauthorized repository of commercial sound recordings'.

They also reject the claim that they designed the LimeWire p2p software to 'punish' users - known as freeloaders - who do not share files on their own computers with other users.

LimeWire is seeking damages for restraint of trade and calling for a jury trial.