History shows the injunction against the LimeWire website is unlikely to be a game-changer
LimeWire's launch predates the Apple iPod by 19 months and the iTunes store by 23 months. Today millions of users accustomed to illegally sharing copyrighted content over the past decade will be temporarily inconvenienced after a permanent injunction against LimeWire's illegal peer-to-peer filesharing operation.
The New York federal court ruling is a significant, but not game-changing legal victory for a battered music industry. But LimeWire as we know it is dead. As with the closure of other peer-to-peer networks such as Napster before it, LimeWire must now go legit.
The permanent injunction follows a four-year legal battle brought by music industry heavyweight, the Recording Industry Association of America. The level of damages faced by the site will be revealed in January – the RIAA says LimeWire has single-handedly cost the music industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
Ripples from the ruling will reach the internet's innumerable other peer-to-peer networks. But history says it will do no more. The internet is awash with people sharing things, legally and illegally.
"It's not about the technology, it's a paradigm shift," says Mark Mulligan, an analyst specialising in music at Forrester Research. And the notion that you can eradicate illicit filesharing if you eradicate particular networks is a fallacy.
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