Canada's Recording Industry Welcomes US Federal Court Ruling Against Limewire

TORONTO, May 13 /CNW/ - The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) and Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) today welcomed the US Federal Court ruling yesterday against Limewire, a US-based online file sharing service with extensive reach in Canada and around the world.

"This decision is a huge win for artists and everyone involved in music, across Canada and worldwide," said CRIA President Graham Henderson. "The ruling kicks another leg out from under a major source of pirated music in Canada."

Henderson added, "Limewire is one of the last hold-outs from the Napster era that is still widely used. It's particularly popular with people who find technologies like BitTorrent and newer peer-to-peer services too complicated. This ruling could cause a big shift from illicit downloading on Limewire to legitimate paid downloads."

Limewire is one of the most popular peer-to-peer file sharing services. According to Alexa statistics (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/limewire.com), about 4 percent of all Limewire users are Canadian.

The US Federal Court found Limewire and its operators to be liable for inducement of widespread copyright theft and accepted evidence that 93 percent of the files available through Limewire are protected or highly likely to be protected by copyright. The Court also found that Limewire had intentionally encouraged direct infringements by Limewire users.

"Canadian music companies have been very diligent in making their artists' work available in multiple digital channels," said Duncan McKie, President and CEO, CIMA. "Hopefully this decision will remove a significant impediment to further developing the digital marketplace and compensating our creative artists for their continuing hard work."

About the Canadian Recording Industry Association

The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) promotes the interests of Canadian record companies.

About the Canadian Independent Music Association

The Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) is the trade organization representing the independent sector of the Canadian music and sound recording industry. For 30 years CIMA has been the collective voice of independent music in English-speaking Canada.

For further information: Don Hogarth, Hogarth Communications, [phone], [email protected]