Crack Down: How Will Limewire’s Demise Affect File Sharing?
On the second season of his TV series, comedian and actor Dave Chapelle produced one of his most eye-opening skits. He attempted to envision what the Internet would be like were it a real place with a physical location. Upon entering the dreamy, hazy, mall-like structure, Chapelle is greeted with a plethora of all-too-common offers and choices: Penis enlargement advertisers, debt relief hot-lines and porn that would make a pedophile blush.
But, of course, a scene depicting the Internet wouldn’t be complete without a mockery of the file-sharing networks that have taken root in the web. When Chapelle asks a passer-by where he might find some music, the stranger points to a boring, sterile storefront, which represents pay-per-song services like iTunes and has a few people browsing their selection. “Or, you can get it over there,” he tells Chapelle, pointing toward a gaping door with a massive, flashing sign overhead that reads “Free Music!”, with hundreds of patrons frantically fleeing, carrying paper bags packed with CDs.
The analogy is humorous, albeit quite accurate. The inception of free-music downloads have laid waste to the traditional model of digital media, creating fundamental flaws in corporate business models. And, certainly, the music industry hasn’t turned a blind eye. They’ve fought back in every possible way — yearning for a return to the years of record profits and multi-million album sales weeks.
In their effort, there’s been a recent breakthrough. The lawsuit won against Limewire has marked a pivotal shift in momentum. It’s made it clear that peer-to-peer file swapping is akin to aiding and abetting infringement. It’s certainly relegated these sorts of programs to the fringe, underground networks of the internet, as any publicly-used application will be subject to scrutiny and expensive lawsuits for their role in file sharing.
But, the actual changes that have come about in the way people obtain and consume music are interesting. With a situation like Limewire, the practical repercussions of the court’s decision are likely to be less far-reaching than the plaintiffs would have hoped for, and in a way it makes the future more clear: Things won’t be going back to the way they were before.
In what is often considered the golden era of hip hop in the late 1980s and early 1990s, fans of the genre were forced to frequent record stores and swap tapes to obtain rare and underground tracks from their favorite artists. The spread of hip hop, perhaps more than any other genre, was localized.
As Internet use became more prevalent and connection speeds improved, people increasingly turned to the web to acquire music. With the advent of services like Napster, anyone could obtain vast amounts of music — all for free. The public caught on quickly, building music collections that only the most dedicated music fans would have had only a few years prior.
Unsurprisingly, the businesses that depended on album sales were unhappy about the recent turn of events. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) — a business association that represents these companies — wasted no time in trying to stop the flow of music that didn’t put money in their pockets.
In 2001, they defeated Napster in court, shutting it down. While the public mourned the death of Napster, software developers were already hard at work. In response to the court’s decision, developers of music sharing software moved away from Napster’s model of centralized hosting and towards a peer-to-peer file sharing system. Without a central server, companies like Limewire and Kazaa never had possession of copyrighted material; instead, they simply facilitated the sharing of these files between users. The idea, at least, was that they couldn’t get sued for copyright infringement if they never actually had the files.
By the mid-2000s, it looked like their plan might have been successful. The RIAA seemed to give up on going after the distributors of these programs, instead suing everyday people who had downloaded free music, often for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The RIAA had chosen their targets at random, and stories emerged about suits against young children, poor college students, and even the recently deceased. The public outcry was almost immediate. The RIAA was almost always cast as the symbol of the extent of modern corporate greed.
Facing the firestorm of the media and the public, the RIAA switched it up again, once again setting their sights on the software that made illegal downloading possible. The landmark case came in 2005 with MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., in which the Supreme Court of the United States found Grokster, makers of a peer-to-peer file sharing program, guilty of contributory copyright infringement.
Writing for the unanimous court, Justice Souter declared, “”We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.”
In essence, the decision meant that the makers of a software that allowed illegal downloading — but didn’t actually ever possess illegally downloaded music — could be held liable for the infringing actions of users of the software.
On a practical level, it was both good and bad news for people who like to download all the music they want without paying for it. On the one hand, it meant that the RIAA would spend a lot less of its time going after a single person that illegally downloads. On the other hand, it virtually guaranteed that the RIAA could sue almost any peer-to-peer file sharing service, systematically driving them out of business.
Fast forward to May, 2010, where the RIAA took a full advantage of their new found legal advantage, bringing one of the oldest peer-to-peer networks, Limewire, to court. Federal District Court Judge Kimba Wood — famed for her brief stint with Playboy — followed the precedent set in Grokster, ruling that Limewire was guilty of inducing copyright infringement, effectively ringing the death knell for the current version of the software. The company has since announced plans to transition the Limewire into the Limewire Store — a sort of iTunes (because the Internet really needs more places to buy music).
The death of Limewire has been widely covered in the news, but it’s not nearly as a big a deal as it’s been made out to be. The fact is, the turning point came with the Grokster case five years ago. The court’s decision against Limewire just followed in those footsteps. At most, it cements the effectiveness of the Groster decision as a tool for the RIAA against distributors of file-sharing software, possibly emboldening the RIAA to look to shut down other kinds of sharing of copyrighted material on the Internet.
In fact, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) — the British equivalent of the RIAA — recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to Google, demanding it remove links to hosting websites – such as Sendspace, Rapidshare, and Megaupload – from its search results, since copyrighted mp3s may be hosted on these sites. Google has not yet responded to the letter or removed the links, but it does have a history of removing copyrighted material by request, a practice now common on Youtube — a subsidiary of Google.
Ultimately, those of us bent on getting free music will always be able to find ways to download tracks without paying. However, the Limewire decision represents both a loss of one reliable program and poor future prospects for the many similar programs, a significant blow to a market that had become widely accepted as the status quo for gathering music on the Internet.
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Kimba Wood is no ordinary judge. At the age of 65 many folks still refer to her as the "hottie" of the federal judiciary.
Currently serving on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Wood has had a checkered past. She received a nomination from Bill Clinton for attorney general in 1993, but withdrew her nomination after it was revealed that she had hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny (which was legal at the time) -- and that she was a former Playboy Bunny (Clinton, you dirty dog).
That's right -- while working toward her master's of science degree from the London School of Economics in 1966, Wood trained for five days to become a Playboy Bunny. The short, long-eared career served as the roadblock on her campaign toward a role atop the nation's courts.
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July 30th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
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