AfterDawn: News

Labels want to freeze LimeWire's assets

Thirteen major record labels have announced they want to freeze all of LimeWire's assets, at the same time accusing the founder of the service of trying to evade millions, and possibly billions in damages over copyright infringement.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood found LimeWire guilty of assisting pirates in downloading unauthorized music and movies, and said that founder Mark Gorton personally "directed and benefited from many of the activities" involved.



Lawyers for the labels filed papers this week accusing Gorton of moving 90 percent of LimeWire's ownership stake to a new entity that he hopes will be shielded from any damages in the lawsuit.

Reads the filing: Gorton and LimeWire "have engaged in a series of fraudulent actions to frustrate a legal judgment in this case...An asset freeze is required in order to ensure that plaintiffs recover at least some of the monetary compensation they are entitled to."

Despite Wood's ruling last month, the labels said a quick search of LimeWire showed every recording in Billboard's Top 40, Top 40 Country, Top 40 Rock and Top 40 Latin Pop charts were still readily available.

Says LimeWire in response: "We will continue to stay focused on the development of our new music service and ensure that the company continues business as usual."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 9 Jun 2010 12:20

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• 11 comments

• 5fdpfan

  Oh say it isn't so. Life without Limewire? How will I cope? Hahaha

  9.6.2010 14:56 #1

• VENOM79

  not a fan of limewire but still, labels, riaa, directors,actors ,producers and whoever else is aginst us,in entertainment Fu%K YOU! you are all over paid pre madonna bitches. some of you may have tallent most of you do not. in fact 90-95% of you do not, so keep crying take down lime wire,if history repeats its self two more will take its place, take a look around everyone else in the working world has taken a pay cut due to the economics of the world what makes you so special,cause you think can play dead? until your pay goes way down and theater prices get to reality i will not stop using torrents,and will continue showing others how to use them as well not for payment,just so hollywood or music doesnt get the money either.
  

  9.6.2010 17:06 #2

• hikaricor

  If I'm not mistaken this a a case of the american legal system going after a company in another country right? They have nothing to worry about.

  9.6.2010 19:23 #3

• Xplorer4

  Originally posted by hikaricor: If I'm not mistaken this a a case of the american legal system going after a company in another country right? They have nothing to worry about.
  A U.S. District Judge just found Limewire guilty last week...yeah..of course they can't rule in favor of the labels. What are the labels thinking? [/sarcasm]
  

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  9.6.2010 20:17 #4

• ntense69

  limewire sucks quit using them almost as soon as they came around

  9.6.2010 21:34 #5

• magnets

  the fact that limewire did not provide you with "quality" pirate content isn't really the point.
  I think you'd agree that limewire enabled people to share in copyrighted material with handy file transfer and search features.
  The problem is the law is black and white. Sometimes the law is 'tested' as in this case. But essentially this ruling says "a computer program that helps people share and search for copyrighted materiel is illegal"
  so where do you draw the line? i can find illegal material with google, but it's safe to say that google makes more money from legitimate searches and is unlikley to be accussed of illegal behaviour.
  
  I really like the torrent protocol. Its a great way for small companies and content providers to distribute large files economically (even large companies, like NIN).
  It's also used as a transfer mechanism for copyrighted material.
  
  None of here are going to miss limewire; but the same can't be said of bittorrent can it?
  
  and if 99.9% of bittorrent is used for copyrighted file transfers...
  
  i think bittorrent is ok for the moment since the protocol is open and out there (no 'head' to cut off. But what if a law came in forcing isp's to block bitorrent protocol. Yes, you can use ssh, yes you can 'change the ports'. But most people can't. And that 800kbs download of Heroes will suddenly drop to 56k or maybe disappear altoghter. Remember the early days of napster? an mp3 might take a few hours to come down...
  
  What i'm saying is, don't look at limewire, look at what this ruling means, choose your vote carefully.

  9.6.2010 22:22 #6

• KillerBug

  Vote? Both parties are in bed with the RIAA/MPAA/ETC...who are you going to vote for?
  
  As for the law, I think the wording used makes windows illegal...but the wording does not seem to affect bittorrent...
  
  "a computer program that helps people share and search for copyrighted materiel is illegal"
  
  There is an "AND" there; if limewire did not have an internal search function, then it would be legal.

  9.6.2010 22:39 #7

• dEwMe

  I agree....who cares?
  Lot's of people getting busted using bit torrent too....Don't think you're safe or using that is a good idea...
  
  

  Just my $0.02,
  
  dEwMe
  

  10.6.2010 11:39 #8

• pippincp

  Haven't used "virus central" for ages. Won't be a great loss IMO.
  
  But as posted, according to the ruling any OS or IP and search engine is in breach which makes the law an ass (as if we didn't already know!).
  

  Pip
  All firmware and tutorials here thanks to Eamo et al
  http://www.4shared.com/dir/3042613/f6e3421c/sharing.html

  11.6.2010 10:32 #9

• Mez

  Originally posted by magnets:
  The problem is the law is black and white. Sometimes the law is 'tested' as in this case. But essentially this ruling says "a computer program that helps people share and search for copyrighted materiel is illegal"
  Actually the law isn't black and white at all. Most copyright laws allow a copy to be made for personal use. The jury is still out whether making something available to take is the same as distribution. What the media is pushing for is a new law to ban P2P of copyrighted material. That will make p2p black and white. It has passed in many countries.

  12.6.2010 19:48 #10

• IguanaC64

  Rofl...I bought Mechwarrior Mercenaries 4 and ended up downloading one of the disks off Bittorrent because it wouldn't install out of the box.
  
  There are legitimate uses (at least I consider that legit...Activision probably disagrees).

  14.6.2010 16:46 #11