LimeWire Gets Shut Down

One of the last P2P sharing sites is finally shutting down, thanks to a recent injunction that will halt Limewire’s service. The injunction notes that the company can’t support or distribute its P2P file-sharing software as the court has forced it to “disable the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality, and/or all functionality.” The company released a statement, explaining, “(We are) compelled to use our best efforts cease support and distribution of the file-sharing software, along with increased filtering.” However, this isn’t quite the end of this fight, the damages are still to be determined that LimeWire’s owner, Lime Group, will owe copyright holders for infringed materials. This will be decided in a trial that will begin in January 2011. The RIAA released a statement following the announcement, “For the better part of the last decade, LimeWire and Gorton have violated the law. The court has now signed an injunction that will start to unwind the massive piracy machine that LimeWire and Gorton used to enrich themselves immensely.” Lime Group is still working towards putting together a subscription service, one similar to Napster, which will allow it to continue operation legally. A representative said, “We look forward to embracing necessary changes and collaborating with the entire music industry in the future.” Will users want to pay for this service though? While labels and publishers will have the opportunity to add to the short list of companies vying to create a more robust market for recorded music, it’s hard to say if it will be worth it. Would you pay for LimeWire to only be able to access certain materials?