Fresh off its recent settlement with Kazaa requiring the service go legit and pay $115 million to the RIAA, the RIAA filed suit against Limewire's parent company Lime Group LLC. The RIAA claims that the service allows for the company to make money off illegal piracy.
It is reasonable to expect that the RIAA will again find victory and ensure the closure or legitimization of another P2P service currently being used for illicit means. What happens next remains to be seen. With many of the biggest file sharing services closed, will new ones appear to replace them or will the market scatter so much that users do not have one service to flock to? If so, will this effectively end P2P piracy?
Ultimately the closure of these services will help to thwart casual and moderate pirates. The hardcore who want to illegally obtain music will continue to find ways to do so. Instead, the RIAA needs to continue its anti-piracy education effort, policies against illegal physical format distribution in the US and abroad, and help the online music industry create flexible usage models that limit the perceived need for piracy. These efforts should help to further curb illegal file sharing and develop usage models that help propel the music industry into the future, assuming no further rootkit scandals emerge.