LimeWire has almost concluded their long legal battle against music publishers and rights holders, with the now defunct music sharing service settling a lawsuit to the tune of $105 million.
LimeWire has already settled a similar lawsuit, launched against the company by music publishers (who own the copyright on a particular recording of a song), in March, to an undisclosed amount. The latest settlement is with rights holders (who own the copyright on the song itself).
The judge found both LimeWire, and its founder Mark Gorton, responsible for copyright infringement. The $105m settlement is much lower than the $75 trillion dollars that could have been awarded to the RIAA, based on their own calculations. Gorton's attorney emphasized the point that the actual damages awarded was far less than what the RIAA had claimed throughout the court case.
Regardless, the RIAA hailed the verdict. "The resolution of this case is another milestone in the continuing evolution of online music to a legitimate marketplace that appropriately rewards creators," said RIAA chairman Mitch Bainwol in a statement.
Based on past history, the RIAA will split the damages awarded amongst its four largest members, also known as the "Big Four", EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music. Just how much the actual "creators", the artists themselves will get, nobody knows.
Do you think verdict really helps to "reward creators", as the RIAA has stated, or do you think that record labels exploit the artists they represent too much? Post your opinion in this news article's comments section, or in this forum thread:
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=94850
Home
