Thirteen major record labels have announced they want to freeze all of LimeWire’s assets, at the same time accusing the founder of the service of trying to evade millions, and possibly billions in damages over copyright infringement.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood found LimeWire guilty of assisting pirates in downloading unauthorized music and movies, and said that founder Mark Gorton personally “directed and benefited from many of the activities” involved.
Lawyers for the labels filed papers this week accusing Gorton of moving 90 percent of LimeWire’s ownership stake to a new entity that he hopes will be shielded from any damages in the lawsuit.
Reads the filing: Gorton and LimeWire “have engaged in a series of fraudulent actions to frustrate a legal judgment in this case…An asset freeze is required in order to ensure that plaintiffs recover at least some of the monetary compensation they are entitled to.”
Despite Wood’s ruling last month, the labels said a quick search of LimeWire showed every recording in Billboard’s Top 40, Top 40 Country, Top 40 Rock and Top 40 Latin Pop charts were still readily available.
Says LimeWire in response: “We will continue to stay focused on the development of our new music service and ensure that the company continues business as usual.”
Result for: monetary compensation
The giant Chinese search engine Baidu has been sued again, this time by a local music industry group, marking the second time in the last month that the search engine finds itself in legal trouble.
The Music Copyright Society of China and one of its officials, Qu Jingming accuse Baidu of “providing music listening, broadcasting and downloading services in various forms on its Web site without approval, and through unfettered piracy, earning huge advertising revenue on its huge number of hits.”
The group goes as far as to say that Baidu’s piracy led to the shut down of many up and coming legal online music providers. The group filed the suit in Bejing Court yesterday and alleges that 50 songs were illegally traded. The group wants monetary compensation.
Updates as they become available.
Result for: monetary compensation
The popular Chinese movie download site Jeboo has filed a lawsuit against the MPA for libel . The statement in question implies that Jeboo admitted to piracy as part of a past legal settlement. Jeboo claims it did no such admission.
MPA officials refused comment on the suit, which was filed in a Beijing court last week.
Back in September, Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures and Paramount
Five studios sued Jeboo in Shanghai for “supplying Internet cafes with computer software that allowed users to download and watch illegal copies of 20 Hollywood movies, including “Hitch” and “Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest.””
Earlier this month the MPA announced that Jeboo had settled with the studios and that the defendants “confirmed the cessation of infringing activities,”, apologized to the studios and also paid monetary compensation.
Company official Xie Jiangping says the settlement is confidential but that Jeboo never admitted to piracy. “We cannot tolerate statements that don’t reflect the truth,” he added.
