The parties suing CNET has asked the judge to voluntarily dismiss the case, but before CNET celebrates, the reason for the dismissal may mean more bad news in the near future.
Back in early May, the founder of FilmOn, Alki David, launched his own lawsuit against CNET for promoting the file sharing software, LimeWire. In what appeared at the time to be a "revenge" lawsuit, after CNET's parent company CBS had sued David and FilmOn for copyright infringement, David claims by allowing millions of people to download the LimeWire software from CNET's Download.com website, CNET, and CBS, was in turn fueling the "Internet Piracy Phenomenon".
David and Co. withdrawal of the lawsuit seems to indicate a victory for CNET, but it may only be a temporary one, as the plaintiffs' reason for withdrawal is related to how much attention the lawsuit has gotten. Apparently, many others wanted to sign up to the lawsuit, and the lawsuit may be re-filed at a later time with more plaintiffs, and more than just the current 6 movie and music titles that the lawsuit claims CNET helped to pirate (via LimeWire).
If the plaintiffs re-file, then it could mean a larger problem for CNET and CBS, and potentially, they could be charged with facilitating the pirated download of thousands of movie and music titles. Or this could all be just a face-saving attempt by David and Co. to withdraw on their own terms, before silently dropping the matter altogether.
Do you think just because a website distributes file sharing software, that it should be held responsible for what the users of the software does? Post your opinion in this news article's comments section, or in this forum thread:
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=94829
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