Lime Wire, , the peer-to-peer file-sharing service that enabled millions of Internet users to download music for free, has been accused of copyright infringement by the music industry, was in effect ordered to shut down by Judge Kimba Woods, the Manhattan federal court.
Lime Wire is the largest global services to exchange music files and TV shows over the Internet. It was founded in 2000 by Mark Gorton. Lime Wire has been an annoyance for record companies because millions of users use the services of the company as a way to find and download music. Sales of recorded music in the U.S. fell from $ 14.5 billion in 1999 to $ 7.7 billion in 2009, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The industry blames piracy physical and online for the decline.
I do believe that LimeWire was responsible for millions in lost sales to countless up-and-coming artists, those who already grace our earphones, and big and small music labels alike. Services that flout the law do not deserve a place in today’s music marketplace where hundreds of existing, accessible, innovative legal sites offer users their favorite music at affordable prices—sometimes even free.
