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P2P Bearshare Settles With RIAA For $30 Million
P2P Bearshare Settles With RIAA For $30 Million
May 04, 2006
By Brian Garrity, Billboard
SOURCE: Billboard.biz
Bearshare has become the latest peer-to-peer network to bow to the music industry in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling against Grokster. The file swapping service, a unit of Free Peers Inc., and its principal owners Vincent Falco and Louis Tatta on May 4 entered into a $30 million pact with the Recording Industry Assn. of America to settle digital piracy charges levied against the company.
In connection with the settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, Free Peers is selling the Bearshare name and selected assets to MusicLab, a subsidiary of reformed P2P operator iMesh, for an undisclosed sum.
“iMesh is committed to transitioning the compelling experience of P2P to an authorized marketplace. Our strategy includes expansion through acquisition and the purchase of assets,” said iMesh Executive Chairman Robert Summer in a statement.
Bearshare emerged on the short list of the RIAA’s P2P targets following the industry’s similar $50 million settlement with Grokster last November.
P2P services WinMX and i2Hub, other RIAA targets, have since gone out of business as well.
The RIAA still has either pending litigation or cease and desist orders outstanding against WarezP2P, Streamcast/Morpheus, Kazaa, Limewire, eDonkey and Soulseek.
"The [Supreme] Court's decision helped pave the way for this transformation of the digital music marketplace,” says Steven Marks, General Counsel and Executive Vice President, RIAA. “This is another important step in that evolution."
User Comments
(These do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this site)
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OldCodger
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Date: May 5, 2006 @ 4:37 AM
"The [Supreme] Court's decision helped pave the way for this transformation of the digital music marketplace,” the RIAA gloated. The RIAA's successful $30,000,000 settlement award, to go along with the industry's similar $50,000,000 settlement with Grokster last Novemeber, "is another important step in that evolution," boasted Steven Marks of the RIAA.
By having gotten the law on their side, the RIAA's style of "transformation of the digital marketplace" is tantamount to soaking up all these juicy cash cow settlements while trying to gain a bullying stranglehold over file sharing technology.
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OldCodger
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Date: May 5, 2006 @ 4:43 AM
BOYCOTT THE RIAA!
Support independent music.
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axxis
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Date: May 5, 2006 @ 8:10 AM
THOSE FUCKERS!!!
RIAA - YOU ARE HEREBY WARNED IN A PUBLIC FORUM. YOU ARE HEREBY ORDERED TO CEASE AND DESIST TO CONTIUNE DOING BUSINESS OR WE SHALL PUT OUT OF BUSINESS BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!
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gdZiemann
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Date: May 5, 2006 @ 7:20 PM
"reformed P2P operator iMesh"
Translation -- p2p with no mp3s. |
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GardenFish
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Date: May 5, 2006 @ 9:26 PM
Theres still videos. Those are better. |
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ChillinBuzz
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Date: May 5, 2006 @ 11:00 PM
Excuse me? WinMX outta business? what total crap!
Frontcode Technologies, the makers of WinMX, may well have been scared off but a hardcore team of enthusiasts have made sure WinMX is definitely alive and kicking since its' original shutdown last year. I know - I still run WinMX and although the network is rife with poisonous files it is still working fine for me and many others.
WinMX is decentralised. Frontcode made WinMX so that it referenced their servers for the nodes (primary connections) to get onto the network. The patch basically gets around that by providing new nodes and also, I believe, a way of finding other primary connections without relying so heavily on a center point. In eight months of using the patch I have only had about a week's worth of problems.
http://www.winmxgroup.com/
http://www.winmxworld.com/
Now, repeat after me, WinMX is not dead. :D |
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ChillinBuzz
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Date: May 5, 2006 @ 11:12 PM
The only way to defeat WinMX is to take out the starter servers. They did that with Frontcode. Someone else came along and gave it new directions. When they are closed down it will happen again. and again. My apologies, it is not really "decentralised" in the way it starts up, only in the way it operates once you are on the network. |
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autodidact
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Date: May 9, 2006 @ 11:13 AM
Hey, this is an easier way to extort $30 million than suing grandmothers and people without computers.
Any chance the "artists" will ever see a dime of this money? |
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NiceGuy2003
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Date: May 9, 2006 @ 12:37 PM
"The [Supreme] Court's decision helped pave the way for this transformation of the digital music marketplace,” says Steven Marks, General Counsel and Executive Vice President, RIAA. "Now you will listen to what we want you to listen to, as often as we want you to listen to it. All the while you'll be paying what we want you to pay, which should be $5 per song, for a song encoded in a lossy file format which you shall NOT listen to while playing games like The Sims and which you shall NOT burn to CD, unless you allow us to install rootkits or other malicious software to ensure you only burn the CD one time and one time only. And if you should lose your file, then you shall buy the file again, for the same price, no refunds." |
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CopyrightLaw...
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Date: May 9, 2006 @ 12:47 PM
"Hey, this is an easier way to extort $30 million than suing grandmothers and people without computers."
And 12-year-old girls and disabled moms.
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OldCodger
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Date: May 9, 2006 @ 5:57 PM
They even sued somebody who was dead, didn't they?
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autodidact
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Date: May 10, 2006 @ 12:40 AM
"They even sued somebody who was dead, didn't they?"
A dead pirate is still a pirate. |
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PhantomGhost
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Date: May 12, 2006 @ 3:53 AM
BearShare sells out - I always wondered when this would happen. Who will be next? Better not be limewire - I share non RIAA music over that network. |
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OldCodger
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Date: May 12, 2006 @ 4:26 AM
"They even sued somebody who was dead, didn't they?"
"A dead pirate is still a pirate."
That's pretty funny; I like it.
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OldCodger
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Date: May 12, 2006 @ 4:38 AM
NiceGuy2003: good post!
Regarding your last line, which goes like this:
"And if you should lose your file, then you shall buy the file again, for the same price, no refunds."
Following that line, how about adding:
"And if you should lose your life, then your file shall be placed in your coffin with you so as to be sure that it does not get used inappropriately in violation of the terms of the EULA agreement."
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