Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC
| Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC | |
|---|---|
| United States District Court for the Southern District of New York | |
| Full case name | Arista Records LLC et al. v. Lime Group LLC et al. |
| Date decided | 11 May 2010 amended on 25 May 2010 |
| Citations | 715 F. Supp. 2d 481 |
| Judge sitting | Kimba Wood |
| Case history | |
| Subsequent actions | Permanent injunction |
| Case holding | |
| Summary judgment granted for inducement of copyright infringement | |
Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC, 715 F. Supp. 2d 481 (2010), is a United States district court case in which the Southern District of New York held that Lime Group LLC, the defendant, induced copyright infringement with its peer-to-peer file sharing software, LimeWire. The court issued a permanent injunction to shut it down. The lawsuit is a part of a larger campaign against piracy by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
LimeWire LLC was founded in June 2000 and released its software program, LimeWire, the following August. LimeWire was widely used; in 2006, when the lawsuit was filed, it had almost 4 million users per day.
LimeWire is a program that uses peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing technology, which permits users to share digital files via an Internet-based network known as Gnutella; most of these were MP3 files containing copyrighted audio recordings. An expert report presented during the trial found, in a random sample of files available on LimeWire, that 93% were protected by copyright. These files were distributed, published, and copied by LimeWire users without authorization from the copyright owners, potentially competing with the recording companies' own sale of the music.
Thirteen major recording companies led by Arista Records sued LimeWire LLC, Lime Group LLC, Mark Gorton, Greg Bildson, and M.J.G. LimeWire Family Limited Partnership for copyright infringement. LimeWire filed antitrust counterclaims against the plaintiffs and ancillary counterclaims for conspiracy in restraint of trade, deceptive trade practices, and tortious interference with prospective business relations, all dismissed by the court in 2007.
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