LimeWire countersues RIAA

A major technology newsbreak this week: Lime Group, which distributes the innovative LimeWire peer to peer file sharing client, is striking back at the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for attempting to put it out of business:

LimeWire LLC has countersued the biggest record companies, charging them with anticompetitive behavior.

The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, follows the closing of most of the popular file-sharing Web sites due to lawsuits initiated by record companies. It also comes on the heels of a suit filed by 13 record companies against LimeWire, accusing the developer of music piracy and demanding damages that could amount to $476 million.

LimeWire now charges the record companies with colluding to create a monopoly over the digital distribution of copyrighted music. The record companies "have engaged in these unfair business practices for the specific purpose of eliminating sources of decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing and acquiring a monopoly over digital distribution of commercially valuable copyrighted music and movie content," the lawsuit reads.

The U.S. entertainment industry, including the RIAA and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) have been attempting for years to stifle innovation and intimidate other businesses, not to mention their own customers. We strongly applaud LimeWire for standing up to these out of control corporate cartels. They probably won't win (U.S. laws on copyright and other issues were written by the entertainment industry) but at least they're trying.