The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) won a victory in court after it had the peer-to-peer LimeWire file sharing service shut down. US District Judge Kimba Wood issued a permanent injunction against LimeWire, so users will no longer be able to search, browse, and download/upload files through the LimeWire P2P client.
LimeWire first drew the attention of the RIAA in 2006, which is when the lawsuit was first filed against the file sharing service. After being launched, the service grew into one of the most popular P2P services while also proving to be a pesk for copyright holders.
Here is the notice LimeWire.com visitors are now greeted with:
Since a court ruling in May, LimeWire was unsure how much longer it would be able to stay open as a functioning service. Company programmers even included a kill-switch in the program just in case a ruling was handed down before the end of the year.
This ruling isn't overly shocking because the RIAA won a temporary injunction against the service in June. Shortly after the injunction, an attorney said LimeWire would technically owe a whopping $1.5 trillion fine for 200,000,000 counts of alleged copyright infringement carried out through the service.
LimeWire already is liable for millions of dollars to the RIAA and copyright holders, while company CEO Mark Gorton allegedly hid money.
The injunction focuses on the file-sharing service only, but company officials admitted they are unsure what step is next. Earlier in the year, it was disclosed LimeWire could be looking for a legal alternative to its P2P service, but details have remained quiet.
Each time the RIAA and other copyright trade groups have a service shut down, it becomes clear that there is no viable answer to stop P2P piracy, as multiple new clients and services spring up to take the place of the shuttered services.
