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December 07, 2007

Judge Dismisses LimeWire Antitrust Suit

By Raju Shanbhag, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Normally, you would see the music companies and content owners filing lawsuits against P2P network for the alleged violation of lawsuits. For once, it’s the other way around. Limewire, a well known P2P network that has been often hounded by music companies and content owners for alleged violations of copyrights, has sued against a coalition of major record labels.



 
A federal judge, however, dismissed those claims.
 
Stating that Lime Group failed to make its case that it has been harmed by the recording companies’ business practices, U.S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch in New York granted the companies’ motion to dismiss the claims. Lime Group’s options to pursue the claims in state court were also dismissed by the judge.
 
Like most other peer-to-peer sharing networks, users can share the files on their computers with other users who are in the loop, but P2P networks and torrent systems have been highly controversial, as many copyrighted materials are illegally distributed through them. Last year, major labels, such as Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Britain’s EMI Group PLC, and Sony BMG (News - Alert) Music Entertainment, filed suit against Limewire for alleged infringement of copyrights.
 
Although Limewire contends that it only facilitates file sharing and, hence, cannot be held responsible for copyright violations by its members, a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2005 ruled that technology companies could be sued for copyright infringement on the grounds they encouraged customers to steal music and movies over the Internet. A decision is still pending against Limewire in this case.
 
In turn, Limewire filed a counter claim against these music companies claiming that the record labels sought to monopolize the online distribution of music and refused to license their works to the company in an effort to put it out of business.
 
But, according to an AP report, the court concluded that Lime Group didn’t show any facts to suggest the record companies’ actions were “anything other than independent decision making by each company to refrain from doing business” with Lime Wire.
 
Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
 
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