The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has attempted to sue early peer to peer platform LimeWire for $72 Trillion Dollars, yep.

Thankfully the Federal judge presiding over the case has thrown out the request for flatly being “”absurd” deeming that the award would be “more money than the entire music industry has made since Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877,”.

It’s not all good news though as the RIAA has successfully held LimeWire accountable for enabling the illegal distribution of 11,000 copyrighted songs at a potential $150,000 a pop earlier this year – it now comes down to the actual damages that the company owe (if they have any money at all?).

Even with the Federal Judge body-slam  Jennifer Pariser, senior vice president of litigation and legal affairs at the RIAA, said via email that the industry “respectfully” disagrees with Judge Wood’s decision.

“We are confident there are more than plenty of works in this case that will constitute significant damages,” Pariser said. “Even the recent P2P report from NPD strongly reinforces the massive damages caused by LimeWire as the largest illegal P2P service. Its shuttering was a major step forward for artists and music creators who work tirelessly to bring us the world’s greatest music.”

Now where’s that secret volcano lair of theirs?

source: computerworld via pages digital