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By Richard Menta 9/22/05 It looks like the Record Industry lawsuits against the P2P companies are finally having their desired effect as two such services are on the run. Two days ago WinMX went offline. Now Reuters is reporting that eDonkey has closed its NY offices. Armed with a vague win in the US Supreme Court, the RIAA issued cease and desist letters to several file sharing services. With the cost of further litigation and large settlements over their heads these services are either discussing shotgun wedding agreements with the record industry or, as it looks nows, just giving up the ghost all together. |
Most of the services targeted in the suits like eDonkey have parent organizations. This is because their goal all of the time was to eventually enter into some kind of agreement with the record industry to monetize the trading of files over the Internet for profit. Those able to work deals with the record industry (as Grokster is looking to do) will probably get their wish, but with the upper hand going to the labels. This means less freedom with regards to how to deliver such files and with a very heavy portion of the total revenue going to the record industry.
Right now it looks like eDonkey and WinMX are choosing to close. But, in these days of de-centralized file sharing applications, aren't these networks supposed to continue even if there is no organization to centrally manage them?
Right now the eDonkey network is still running, WinMX is not. Time will tell what will happen as the fallout continues. This includes how many other services will choose to end and if new, overseas networks will take their place.
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