14 DAY TRIAL // The LimeWire saga is finally over. While there was little doubt as to who won, the music industry, of course, or, rather, their lawyers and lobbying groups, there was still the matter of how much LimeWire owed them.
There have been some pretty far-fetched figures from the RIAA lawyers, ranging from trillions of dollars to mere billions.
In the end, the two parties settled on $105 million which Limewire, or more specifically, its CEO and founder Mark Gorton, will have to pay to the music industry.
If you take the RIAA's word for it, coming up with the sum may not be a huge problem for LimeWire and there are indications that the company did manage to rack up tidy business in the ten years it operated, but it remains to be seen how much of the money actually ends up in the RIAA's hands.
"We are pleased to have reached a large monetary settlement following the court’s finding that both LimeWire and its founder Mark Gorton personally liable for copyright infringement," RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol said in a statement.
"LimeWire wreaked enormous damage on the music community, helping contribute to thousands of lost jobs and fewer opportunities for aspiring artists," explained.
"The resolution of this case is another milestone in the continuing evolution of online music to a legitimate marketplace that appropriately rewards creators," he added.
The RIAA has always fought for the music industry and the artists, the ones most affected by the scourge of piracy the industry group believes, but the "rewards creators" part may not apply in this particular case.
Indeed, while the RIAA may get its hands on the $105 million LimeWire promised to pay, the artists themselves are unlikely to see a penny of it.
It is the group’s policy that any damages it wins in piracy-related lawsuits are poured back into the fight against the music industry's biggest and apparently only threat, piracy, for the good of the artists, of course, though not for their direct monetary benefit.