Peer-to-Peer Developer Sues Record Companies - Yahoo! News
Peer-to-Peer Developer Sues Record Companies - Yahoo! News
Lime Wire now charges the record companies with colluding to create a monopoly over the digital distribution of copyrighted music. The record companies “have engaged in these unfair business practices for the specific purpose of eliminating sources of decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing and acquiring a monopoly over digital distribution of commercially valuable copyrighted music and movie content,” the lawsuit reads.
The alleged unfair business practices include collusion among the record companies to price their licensing rates such that independent music sellers can’t afford to stay in business, Lime Wire said.
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Lime Wire also charges the record companies with trying to extend their monopoly by forcing music distributors to work only with their affiliated filtering system supplier. Lime Wire says it developed a filtering application to prevent illegal downloading and encourage legal content purchasing. But the record companies refused to give the developer access to the metadata that uniquely identifies each song in order for the filtering system to work, Lime Wire claims.
Instead, Lime Wire alleges the record companies encouraged Lime Wire to use their preferred supplier for a P-to-P filtering system, iMesh. While Lime Wire concedes that iMesh is not owned by the record companies, it alleges the supplier is controlled by the record companies. A top executive at iMesh is a former leader of the Recording Industry Association of America and iMesh is the only RIAA-sanctioned business of its kind in the U.S., according to Lime Wire.
This isn’t the first time the music industry actively conspired in anti-competitive behavior. Music distributors were charged with price-fixing, and I know I received a check as part of a settlement of the class action lawsuit for having bought CDs at one point.
Here, Lime Wire is throwing a punch back at the record companies, scrapping together a tenuous argument, into the volley of lawsuits back and forth.