RIAA Sued LimeWire For More Money Than Exists In The World

[pokerfan]

Good luck with that.

The RIAA still has it out for LimeWire despite the fact that it was shut down in October 2010. The RIAA stated to a court that it has identified over 11,000 American songs that were being illegally shared, and as a result, LimeWire should compensate for every individual download of the tracks. How much does the RIAA think LimeWire should pay? Approximately $72 trillion, a figure that is 20% higher than the combined wealth of the entire world. Fortunately for LimeWire, the judge dismissed the case, stating that the RIAA is only entitled to sue per song rather than individual downloads. Even so, going by the figure of $150,000 per song, LimeWire could be subjected to paying a $1.65 billion fine.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/industry_news/limewire_sued_for_more_money_than_exists_in_the_world.html

[msongs]

1. get even! spend your own $$ and make your own music :-) nt

[Electric Monk]

2. Judge finds claim 'absurd'

http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112542592/riaa-sues-limewire-for-trillions-judge-finds-claim-absurd/

In a 14-page ruling on the matter, Judge Wood wrote that the plaintiffs’ position on statutory damages “offends the canon that we should avoid endorsing statutory interpretations that would lead to absurd results. 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.”

Judge Wood noted that this was the first time a court had been asked to consider whether a copyright holder could claim multiple awards on a single copyrighted work. If this “absurdity” was approved, the amount would be “more money than the entire music industry has made since Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877,” she said.

The RIAA has made a “ridiculous argument,” said Ray Beckerman, a NY lawyer who has represented individuals in RIAA music privacy lawsuits in the past, adding that he was not surprised by the judge‘s ruling.

[pokerfan]

7. The $8 Billion iPod

[Electric Monk]

9. Awesome TED talk, thanks for sharing :) nt

[KurtNYC]

12. I'm rich !

[pokerfan]

14. Me too!!

Not quite in Bill Gates territory yet but close...

[stevenleser]

3. Some of the comments to the article are hilarious. "Who runs RIAA, Dr. Evil?"

[pokerfan]

4. All the money in the world

plus twenty percent!

[stevenleser]

6. Worse than that, all the WEALTH in the world. How do you hand that over?

[pokerfan]

8. I guess you have to include Mars or something

All the wealth in the solar system?

[WCGreen]

11. So Zager and Evans and the Captain and Tennile will grab some of that Dough Re Me....

[Initech]

5. Who are they? Dr. Evil?

[madrchsod]

10. and the musicians a few dollars per song

[KurtNYC]

13. Limewire should pay them in songs

Write 11,000 songs Limewire! Write a bot that grinds out songs (call it Phillip Glass 2.0).

They are worth (72 tril divided by 11,000 = ) $65.4 million each apparently.

Even the Phil Collins songs -- $65.4 million.