Days after a secret team of developers release a version that removes “all dependencies on LimeWire LLC’s servers” LimeWire Inc. issues a demand that “all persons using the LimeWire software, name, or trademark in order to upload or download copyrighted works in any manner cease and desist from doing so.
LimeWire Inc. has learned of the release of the new LimeWire Pirate Edition and is apparently not amused in the least.
Last month U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood issued an injunction ordering LimeWire to disable the “searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality, and/or all functionality” of the famed file-sharing program.
The injunction follows LimeWire’s loss to the RIAA this past May where Judge Wood determined the company had committed copyright infringement, engaged in unfair competition, and induced others to commit copyright infringement,
LimeWire complied with the ruling, but less than two weeks later a self-described “horde of piratical monkeys” released a new LimeWire Pirate Edition that rendered the efforts of both the RIAA and LimeWire meaningless.
“All dependencies on LimeWire LLC’s servers have been removed, all remote settings have been disabled, the Ask toolbar has been unbundled, and all features of LimeWire PRO have been activated for free,” said a source.
It was inevitable that LimeWire would learn of the the new Pirate Edition, and in a statement on its site it puts out a general warning asking the people responsible to “cease and desist” from using the LimeWire trademark in order to upload or download copyrighted material.
“We demand that all persons using the LimeWire software, name, or trademark in order to upload or download copyrighted works in any manner cease and desist from doing so,” it says.
No word from the RIAA yet on the fact that a new “cage-free” version of LimeWire has been released into the wild.
Stay tuned.
I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus
