Online file sharing is surely a contentious area that will lead to endless hours of debate at the bar, depending on which side of the divide you are on. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has been seen by many to be a major evil, partly due to their actions which might be interpreted wrongly by selected parties. For instance, having slapped LimeWire, a file-sharing software program, with a $105M settlement suit. How are music artists reacting to that figure? Surely they aren’t too pleased with the result, since $105 million is far less compared to the $1.4 billion that the plaintiffs were seeking, according to attorney Joseph Baio in a statement. Apart from that, LimeWire founder Mark Gorton also did not make any admission of wrongdoing as part of the settlement, further peeving off the artists.
It must be said that LimeWire, before it went offline last year, is the last of the Napster clones who were still in operation. The RIAA has since gone on a warpath, suing a whole lot of online file sharing sites, with a U.S. district court declaring that the site was illegally distributing copyrighted music and ought to be held personally liable.
Proceeds from the settlement will be distributed to the recording companies, although it has remained unclear just how much individual artists will receive from this amount. We think they will most probably get nothing, but this is just a speculation. What about you?
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