Article here.
While our government is trying to pass a bill that makes the DCMA look like a future “good old days” story, the RIAA is still trying to support their outdated business model by suing everyone.
Here’s the deal – when you download limewire, you are prompted to make the following decision before your download begins:
1) I might use LimeWire BASIC for copyright infringement.
OR
2) I will not use LimeWire BASIC for copyright infringement.
If you choose ‘I might use LimeWire for copyright infringement’:
Important information about using peer to peer software safely
LimeWire LLC does not distribute LimeWire Basic to people who intend to use it for purposes of copyright infringement.
Thank you for your interest; however, we cannot complete this download.
Case closed.
This is pathetic. But it was bound to happen. I mean, look at the people they have sued:
The RIAA has been criticised in the media after they subpoenaed Gertrude Walton, an 83-year-old grandmother who had died in December of 2004. Mrs. Walton stood accused of swapping rock, pop and rap songs.
The RIAA in 2003 attempted to sue Sarah Seabury Ward, a 66 year-old sculptor residing in Boston, Massachusetts. They alleged that she shared more than 2,000 songs illegally. The RIAA dropped the suit when it was discovered that she was a computer novice. The case was dismissed, but without prejudice.
The RIAA has also been criticised for bringing lawsuits against children, such as 12 year old Brianna LaHara in 2003.
The RIAA also attempted to sue Candy Chan of Michigan, for the alleged actions of her daughter, 13 year old Brittany Chan. The court dismissed Priority Records v. Chan because it was ruled that the mother could not be sued for the alleged infringements of her daughter. When the court ruled in favor of the mother, dismissing the case, the RIAA proceeded to sue her child. However, prosecuting a minor is more difficult, and many previous adult defendants have said that the peer to peer software installation and copyright infringement was done without their knowledge by one of their children.
And on a related note: The RIAA’s recent targeting of students has generated controversy as well. An April 4th story in the MIT campus newspaper The Tech indicates that an RIAA representative stated to Cassi Hunt, an alleged file-sharer, that previously, “the RIAA has been known to suggest that students drop out of college or go to community college in order to be able to afford settlements.”
Is that PATHETIC or what?!
Listen up, pigopolists. LimeWire isn’t responsible. YOU are responsible. Your rampant, unchecked greed is the reason we download music using peer to peer instead of obtaining it directly from you for a nominal fee. LimeWire may be the current conduit, but you are not going to stop peer to peer by stopping LimeWire. In fact, you are making your own lives more difficult by encouraging the peer to peer community to devise and deploy a new music sharing system that has no central controlling entity that you can sue. The more heavy-handed you get with us, the harder we are going to fight back. We are NOT going to succumb to your greed. You made your bed, now you can sleep in it.