LimeWire settlement unlikely to blunt music piracy

13.05.2011
Peer-to-peer software maker to pay a whopping $105 million to settle music piracy claims marks a decisive, if somewhat symbolic, victory for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

The proposed settlement will bring to an end another successful campaign by the music industry to stop those it contends are enabling widespread music piracy.

In recent years, the recording industry has paid what some say are enormous legal costs to fight similar battles against Napster, , Kazaa and Streamcast.

Despite the successful suits, industry experts wonder whether the effort has succeeded in slowing down online music piracy.

LimeWire said on Thursday it will pay $105 million to settle that its P2P file sharing software was responsible for enabling billions, and potentially even trillions of dollars in damages.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which heard the case, last year agreed with the RIAA's claims that LimeWire and its chairman, Mark Gorton, had enabled widespread music piracy.