Injunction
According to a June 2005 report in The New York Times, Lime Wire LLC was considering ceasing its distribution of LimeWire because the outcome of MGM v. Grokster "handed a tool to judges that they can declare inducement whenever they want to."
On May 12, 2010, Judge Kimba Wood of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC that LimeWire and its creator, Mark Gorton, had committed copyright infringement, engaged in unfair competition, and induced others to commit copyright infringement. On October 26, 2010, LimeWire was ordered to disable the "searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality" after losing a court battle with the RIAA over claims of copyright infringement. The RIAA also announced intentions to pursue legal action over the damages caused by the program in January to compensate the affected record labels. In retaliation, the RIAA's website was taken offline on October 29 via denial-of-service attacks executed by members of Operation Payback and Anonymous.
In response to the ruling, a company spokesperson said that the company is not shutting down, but will be using its "best efforts" to cease distributing and supporting P2P software.
In early 2011, the RIAA announced their intention to sue LimeWire, pursuing a statutory damages theory that claimed up to $75 trillion in damages – a sum greater than the current GDP of the entire global economy. There are currently around 11,000 songs on LimeWire that have been tagged as copyright-infringed, and the RIAA estimates that each one has been downloaded thousands of times, the penalties accruing to the above sum.
A trial to decide on the eventual amount of damages owed by Limewire to thirteen record labels, including Warner and Sony Music, all of which are represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), started early in May and went on until on May 13, 2011, when Gorton agreed to pay the 13 record companies $105 million in an out-of-court settlement.
Mitch Bainwol, chairman of the RIAA, referred to the "resolution of the case another milestone in the continuing evolution of online music to a legitimate marketplace that appropriately rewards creators."
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