Some of the world's biggest record labels sued the makers of the file-sharing program LimeWire on Friday, saying the software allows users to download music without paying for it.
The complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court, is the latest in a string of lawsuits the music industry has filed in an attempt to curb Internet piracy. That effort was bolstered last year when the US Supreme Court ruled that content companies can take legal action against technology firms that encourage copyright infringement.
Record labels owned by the world's four major music companies - Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group Plc, and Warner Music Group Corp - brought the lawsuit against New York-based Lime Wire LLC.
The suit seeks $150,000 in damages for every song "willfully infringed" by LimeWire. It also names LimeWire parent Lime Group LLC as well as chief executive Mark Gorton and chief operating officer Greg Bildson as defendants.
LimeWire officials could not be reached for comment.
In the complaint, the record companies accuse LimeWire of profiting from illicit downloads of their music, saying "the scope of infringement is massive." LimeWire and its executives "have had a direct financial interest in, and derived substantial benefit from, the infringement of plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings," the complaint said.
In a statement, industry trade group the Recording Industry Association of America said that "despite numerous efforts to engage LimeWire, the site's corporate owners have shown insufficient interest in developing a legal business model." Last month, one of the world's best known file-sharing networks, Kazaa, agreed to pay more than $100 million and commit to going legitimate to settle two lawsuits brought by the movie and music industries. Kazaa had emerged as the dominant file-sharing network after recording industry lawsuits brought about the collapse of the original Napster in 2001. Napster has since re-emerged as a paid service.
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