Napster was replaced by Aimster and AudioGalaxy, which were supplanted in turn by LimeWire, Morpheus and Kazaa, which were then partially supplanted by eDonkey and BitTorrent. 6 After Napster was shut down, new networks quickly appeared. 5Īlthough these same technologies were also being used for non-infringing purposes, including sharing of authorized songs, live concert recordings, public domain works, movie trailers, and video games, the record industry has won most of these lawsuits-but it is still losing the war. Beginning with the December 1999 lawsuit against Napster, the recording industry has sued major P2P technology companies one after the other: Scour, Aimster, AudioGalaxy, Morpheus, Grokster, Kazaa, iMesh, and LimeWire. The music industry initially responded to P2P file sharing as it has often responded to disruptive innovations in the past: it sent its lawyers after the innovators, hoping to smother the technology in its infancy. One thing has become clear: suing music fans is no answer to the P2P dilemma. 4 And the lawsuit campaign has not resulted in any royalties to artists. Downloading from P2P networks is more popular than ever, despite the widespread public awareness of lawsuits. 3īut suing music fans has proven to be an ineffective response to unauthorized P2P file-sharing. And there’s no end in sight new lawsuits are filed monthly, and now they are supplemented by a flood of "pre-litigation" settlement letters designed to extract settlements without any need to enter a courtroom. 2 These individuals have included children, grandparents, unemployed single mothers, college professors-a random selection from the millions of Americans who have used P2P networks.
1 Five years later, the recording industry has filed, settled, or threatened legal actions against at least 30,000 individuals. On September 8, 2003, the recording industry sued 261 American music fans for sharing songs on peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing networks, kicking off an unprecedented legal campaign against the people that should be the recording industry’s best customers: music fans. Phase One: DMCA Subpoenas by the Thousands
0 kommentar(er)
