LimeWire Shuts Down After Losing Court Battle With The RIAA

The Gnutella-based download client LimeWire has ceased all its operations after a U.S. federal judge granted a request from the RIAA. Limewire was ordered to disable all functionalities in the current application to prevent users from sharing copyrighted material. The verdict is expected to have an unprecedented impact on the P2P file-sharing landscape.

A few months ago the RIAA asked a New York District Court to shut down the world’s most installed file-sharing application, LimeWire.

The record labels argued that the Gnutella-based download client might have caused billions of dollars in lost revenue and that it’s therefore one of the largest threats to the music industry’s revenue. Today, RIAA’s request was granted by a federal judge.

According to the injunction, Limewire “intentionally encouraged infringement” by Limewire users, it is used “overwhelmingly for infringement” and it knew about the “substantial infringement being committed” by its users.

The evidence further showed that Limewire marketed its application to Napster users and that its business model depends on mass copyright infringements.

The New York District Court demanded that Limewire shuts down its entire operation, including all searches and uploading and downloading that occurs through the client. LimeWire users who start up their client will immediately notice that it is no longer usable. LINK