Like Kazaa, eDonkey and Napster, LimeWire may finally go down in flames.

It’s a bad day for the file-sharing service LimeWire, as U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood of the Southern District of New York found its operators liable for copyright infringement. The ruling came after the RIAA filed a claim that Lime Group and its founder Mark Gorton committed copyright infringement, induced copyright infringement, and engaged in unfair competition based on the copyrighted content found on the peer-to-peer network.

“The evidence demonstrates that [LimeWire] optimized LimeWire’s features to ensure that users can download digital recordings, the majority of which are protected by copyright,” Wood said in her 59-page decision. “And that [LimeWire] assisted users in committing infringement.”

LimeWire first appeared back in 2000, and has since been a large source for downloading illegal music and other multimedia. Built using the Java software platform, the peer-to-peer client uses both the Gnutella network and also the BitTorrent protocol. In fear of the MGM v. Grokster outcome (2005), LimeWire eventually launched an online store that offered single songs, subscription plans, and video content. However it’s still possible to acquire illegally copyrighted content by using the LimeWire client.

The obvious next step in the RIAA’s plan is to request (and receive) a preliminary injunction to shut down LimeWire’s file-sharing aspect. As it stands, that may very well happen within the next few days. Stay tuned as more hits the newswire.

From Tomshardware.com
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