14 DAY TRIAL // More and more producers have started protecting their copyrighted creations in court, and Limewire has been recently accused of having infringed this copyright. During the National Music Publishers’ Association’s Annual Meeting in New York City, CEO David Israelite announced that a group of eight music publishers had decided to sue the sharing service for copyright infringement of their works.
Last month, another lawsuit had already created a precedent for this situation, since a federal judge ruled that LimeWire and its creator, Mark Gorton, were liable for infringement. However, it seems that Israelite has declared that he was willing to reach a settlement that would not only stop the infringement, but that would also bring compensation for all the damages caused so far.
“The pervasive online infringement facilitated by LimeWire and others like them has consequences for everyone in the music chain,” Israelite said. “Operations like LimeWire must understand the songs that make their illegal venture lucrative don’t appear out of thin air. Behind every song is a vast network of people – a songwriter, a publisher, a performer, a record label. They have robbed every individual in that chain by selling their site as an access point for music and then refusing to properly license the music.”
On the other hand, it appears that the LimeWire team is also trying to solve this critical state of affairs, and that its officials are looking forward to discussing with the music publishers. The developers of the sharing platform have already started working on a new paid subscription edition, and they are most eager to see this lawsuit behind them.
The plaintiffs are EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Bug Music, MPL Music Publishing, Peermusic, and The Richmond Organization, and they want to obtain $150,000 for each track that was illegally distributed – needless to say, this will amount to millions of dollars as overall damages. Furthermore, they will also try to get the sharing service shut down altogether.
The defendants are Mark Gorton, the one who founded the LimeWire platform in 2000, and Greg Bildson, the former chief operating officer who has already testified in last month’s lawsuit.