By Karla Barone
New Rochelle, NY--
All good things must come to an end.
This saying is especially true now more than ever for music lovers who have been loyal fans of downloading music from websites such as Limewire and Limewire Pro.
After a four-year legal battle with the U.S. Music Industry, the ever-popular file sharing website has been shut down for good.
Limewire had been the world's most popular peer-to-peer file sharing network that enabled anyone with a computer and an internet connection to share files such as audio, video, and software.
It was started 10 years ago by founder Mark Gorton as a simple file sharing platform on the Gnutella Network. However, Limewire quickly grew into an enormous global file sharing phenomenon that only angered the music industry and that only got itself into many legal battles.
A permanent injunction has been ordered by a federal court in New York this past month that will prevent any searching or sharing of any copyrighted files.
U.S. Judge Kimba Woods ruled that record companies "have suffered-- and will continue to suffer irreparable harm from Limewire's inducement of widespread infringement of their works," adding that the potential damages were staggering.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Limewire has cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Also, according to their figures, U.S. recorded music sales fell to $7.7 billion in 2009 from $14.5 billion in 1999.
However it is hard to say if shutting down Limewire will truly help the music industry. Limewire is not the only file sharing website out there. Other websites such as Frostwire and BitTorrent are accessible alternatives for those looking to continue downloading free music. It is likely that nore and more people will start turning to these sites.
A trial is set for January of 2011, so that a federal court can decide the appropriate amount of compensation for record companies from all of the illegal downloading throughout the years. Due to the massive quantity of files that were downloaded in the past 10 years that Limewire has been available to the public, it is estimated that the damages could amount to around $1 billion dollars. However, despite the grim-sounding future, Limewire CEO, George Searle remains positive and has not lost all hope that his company will once again be up and running sometime in the future.
"We are extremely proud of our pioneering history and have, for years, worked hard to bridge the gap between technology and content rights holders," Searle said in the statement. "However at this time, we have no option but to cease further distribution and support of our software."
So, for the time being, music lovers everywhere will just have to be patient and wait for that promising solution or cough up the $1.29 per song fee from iTunes.
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