First Napster, now LimeWire
Music Industry Squeezes LimeWireAssociated Press 16:40 PM Aug, 04, 2006
LOS ANGELES -- A coalition of major recording companies sued the operators of the file-sharing program LimeWire for copyright infringement Friday, claiming the firm encourages users to trade music without permission.
New York-based Lime Group, its subsidiaries who designed and distribute LimeWire, and the corporation's top executives, are named in the federal court lawsuit, which was filed in the Southern District of New York, the Recording Industry Association of America said in a statement.
Record labels owned by Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Britain's EMI Music are behind the complaint, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages, including at least $150,000 for each instance in which a copyright song was distributed without permission.
The case is the first piracy lawsuit brought against a distributor of file-sharing software since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that technology companies could be sued for copyright infringement on the grounds that they encouraged customers to steal music and movies over the internet.
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