Limewire Settles For $105 Million; How Much Of That Will Go To Artists?

Copyright

from the you-get-three-guesses dept

In a move that’s hardly a surprise to anyone, Limewire and the RIAA have settled their lawsuit, with Limewire’s Mark Groton agreeing to pay $105 million to the labels. This particular trial was only about how much he should have to pay, and a settlement was inevitable, because Groton was already found to be guilty, and the judge had already declared that he, personally, was liable, rather than just the corporation (corporate veil? pierced!). So, at that point, you knew he had to settle. Limewire had already settled with the music publishers, who freaked out when Limewire sought to dig deep into records the publishers did not want public. Either way, as we noted when Limewire lost, this sort of result was inevitable. Limewire really did act quite like Grokster, and it’s really bizarre that Groton thought he could keep the site going without this result.

Of course, $105 million is significantly less than what the RIAA had been asking for — with the judge practically mocking the labels at one point for suggesting that Limewire was on the hook for $75 trillion — or “more money than the entire music recording industry has made since Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877.” $105 million is also significantly less than the $1 billion that was the whisper number making the rounds that the labels were demanding.

The real question, though, is what will happen to the money, and how much of it (if any) will actually go to any of the artists signed to those labels. If any RIAA label artists receive a check from this lawsuit, please let us know. I expect we’ll be waiting a long, long time. In the meantime, we’re still curious if this shutdown of Limewire has resulted in any increased sales. A couple months ago, we had an interesting discussion on the topic, and looked at some evidence on both sides. I think it may be too early to tell, but it’ll be worth watching to see what the eventual evidence shows.

Filed Under: money, settlement
Companies: limewire, riaa