P2P File Sharing Network Loses First Battle

LimeWire, a popular peer-to-peer file sharing technology, lost its first battle against several record labels after a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit. In case you didn't read the news, Lime Group LLC filed a complaint against a group of record labels, claiming they refused to license their content to LimeWire in order to harm the file sharing program. Today, Alex Veiga of Associated Press informed that US District Judge Gerar E. Lynch of New York dismissed the lawsuit saying that Lime Group LLC didn't manage to prove the record labels really harmed its file sharing network, causing damages to the company.

The lawsuit started when LimeWire "contended it sought to reach an agreement with the labels so that it could field a licensed music service, but the record labels refused to broker a deal, insisting it use a filtering system approved by the labels or reach an agreement with iMesh Inc., a rival file-sharing service that has been operating with the blessing of record labels since settling a copyright infringement case in 2004", AP explains.

In addition to these complaints, LimeWire accused the record labels of setting fixed prices for the music supposed to be published online. However, the judge said once again that Lime Group didn't explain how the companies harm the file sharing application since they are not direct rivals or competitors. The same explanation was offered when LimeWire complained that the record labels attempted to harm the company's image by "claiming it promotes child pornography", AP continued.

The file sharing networks have always represented a controversial side of the market but they manage to exist as an incredibly big number of users connect to such services. A recent report powered by Ipoque revealed that every night Internet users accessed file sharing application, the nighttime usage of such technology reaching 95 percent in certain countries of the world.