RIAA sues Limewire for $75 TRILLION

[Hammock Parties]

This must be why Dane had to leave.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/P2P-Lime...ews-10580.html

The music industry wants more from LimeWire than what the United States owes to Americans and other countries across the globe.

On May 11, 2010, the music industry won its battle against LimeWire LLC, as the court found that the company had induced multiple users of the LimeWire P2P file-sharing program to infringe the copyrights of Warner Bros Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Capitol Records and ten other labels. The litigation is now in the damage phase, with a trial on damages scheduled for May 2, 2011. The record companies are demanding damages ranging from $400 billion to an insane $75 trillion.

But in a 14-page opinion signed on March 10 (pdf), United States District Judge Kimba Wood labeled the record companies' damages request as "absurd" and contrary to copyright laws. Previously the plaintiffs argued that Section 504(c)(1) of the Copyright Act provided for damages for each instance of infringement where two or more parties were liable. Given that LimeWire had over 50 million users per month downloading millions of files a day, the resulting damages would be "staggering."

"As it stands now, Defendants face a damage award that 'could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars (if not over a billion dollars),'" the judge said. "Indeed, if one multiplies the maximum statutory damage award ($150,000) by approximately 10,000 post-1972 works, Defendants face a potential award of over a billion dollars in statutory damages alone. If plaintiffs were able to pursue a statutory damage theory predicated on the number of direct infringers per work, defendants' damages could reach into the trillions."

In essence, take the 50 million LimeWire users and multiply that number with the maximum statutory damage award of $150,000. The resulting number is the staggering $7.5 trillion USD. That would mean LimeWire would owe just over half of the national debt which now trickles over $14 trillion and is steadily climbing. "Absurd" is an ideal word for the music industry's demands based on those numbers.

"As defendants note, plaintiffs are suggesting an award that is 'more money than the entire music recording industry has made since Edison's invention of the phonograph in 1877,'" Wood added. "The absurdity of this result is one of the factors that has motivated other courts to reject Plaintiffs' damages theory."

By the end of the court order, the judge declared that the thirteen record labels are entitled to a single statutory damage award from LimeWire per work infringed, regardless of how many individual users directly infringed that particular work.

"We were pleased that the judge followed both the law and the logic in reaching the conclusion that she did," said LimeWire attorney Joseph Baio of Willkie Farr & Gallagher in a statement to Law.com. "As the judge said in her opinion, when the copyright law was initiated, legislatures couldn't possibly conceive of what the world would become with the internet. As such, you couldn't use legislative history. Instead, the overarching issue is reasonableness in order to avoid absurd and possibly unconstitutional outcome."

In jest, Baio added that the total sum the record companies wanted from LimeWire would be better spent paying off the nation's debt and investing in healthcare.

Stay tuned...Anonymous is brewing something up.

[Hammock Parties]

FYI the link says 7.5 but it's 75 according to:

http://hothardware.com/News/Record-L...on-in-Damages/

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/1261...75-million.htm

[Rasputin]

pffft i would have gone for more than that.

[ClevelandBronco]

Cue Austin Powers clip.

[BigMeatballDave]

Nothing like clogging the judicial system with more frivolous lawsuits.

[kstater]

Originally Posted by BCD

Nothing like clogging the judicial system with more frivolous lawsuits.

You think suing the party responsible for stealing your material is frivolous?

[MoreLemonPledge]

[Shogun]

lmao im sure they have 75 trillion. stupid lawsuit

[teedubya]

75 trillion is more than ALL of the world's GDP and World Debt combined.

Idiots.

[DaFace]

Huh. Well, that's silly.

[ShortRoundChief]

Originally Posted by Shogun

lmao im sure they have 75 trillion. stupid lawsuit

I'm pretty sure this isn't entirely about getting back money as it is to force them into bankruptcy.

[Rain Man]

I've heard that they're quietly communicating that they'd settle out of court for $30 trillion.

[Direckshun]

Here's the deal asswipes.

YOU CANNOT CONCEIVE of the shit the RIAA is capable of stirring up.

I was ****ing the daughter of their Vice President last week at one of Lindsay Lohan's bender parties.

And what he told me after I made her blast a few times was that THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS BEFORE.

ALL PARTIES INVOLVED ARE ****S

YOU ALL ARE ****S

****S ****S ****S

(Is that what we've been missing the past week?)

['Hamas' Jenkins]

What a ****ing joke of an organization.

[Gonzo]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

Here's the deal asswipes.

YOU CANNOT CONCEIVE of the shit the RIAA is capable of stirring up.

I was ****ing the daughter of their Vice President last week at one of Lindsay Lohan's bender parties.

And what he told me after I made her blast a few times was that THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS BEFORE.

ALL PARTIES INVOLVED ARE ****S

YOU ALL ARE ****S

****S ****S ****S

(Is that what we've been missing the past week?)

Pretty much. If any thread was going to b ring him back, this would be it.

Beat me to it, btw.
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