RIAA Wins $105 Million From Music Piracy Site, Artists Get Nothing

TorrentFreak.com is reporting that the RIAA has settled its' lawsuit with LimeWire for a staggering $105 million. This amount of money is considerably less than the $75 trillion that the RIAA was asking for after the RIAA filed an injunction last year and had Lime Wire taken down for music piracy.

As part of its' case against Lime Wire, the RIAA presented staggering losses by musicians due to music piracy. The RIAA brought in 9,715 tracks as evidence in the case and with the $105 million settlement, that translates to just over $10,000 per song. But that is not how the RIAA sees it.

RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy previously told TorrentFreak that the 'damages' accrued from piracy-related lawsuits will not go to any of the artists, but towards funding more anti-piracy campaigns. “Any funds recouped are re-invested into our ongoing education and anti-piracy programs,” he said.

Thus far the RIAA has not announced officially how the LimeWire settlement will be spent, but we don’t expect them to steer away from their previous course. This makes today’s decision on compensation a victory for the major labels, but certainly not one for musicians.

Who are the real thieves here?

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Tags:  riaa, piracy, lime wire  

Jason Fisher    May 13, 2011