The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) says LimeWire (News - Alert) owes them 72 trillion dollars – a figure that makes the national deficit look like a drop in the bucket.  

Despite the fact that the file sharing site has been shut down for the better part of two years, the RIAA still says they have to pony up the dough. The RIAA came to the enormous figure by taking the total number of illegally downloaded song tracks (11,000) and multiplying it by $150,000, the requested amount.

LimeWire closed down in 2010 after a judge in the Federal District ordered its filesharing functions to cease.

According to Computerworld, the claim was heard in court earlier this month, with the judge saying that such a request is “absurd.”

“An award based on the RIAA calculations would amount to ‘more money than the entire music industry has made since Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877,” said Judge Kimba Woods.

"If Plaintiffs were able to pursue a statutory damage theory based on the number of direct infringers per work, Defendants' damages could reach into the trillions," said Woods in a 14-page document.

"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."

Law.com reported last year that LimeWire’s attorneys were happy with the judge’s sensible ruling. One attorney, Joseph Baio, joked that the total sum originally requested would be put to better use by paying off the national debt and investing in healthcare.

Despite the ruling, LimeWire won't escape unharmed, as they are still expected to face  stiff damages in a settlement of hundreds of millions, if not billions.