Music Companies Sue LimeWire

Even as music proliferates on the web through a variety of promotional, marketing, distribution and sale models, the copyright questions and legal pitfalls continue.

The recording and music publishing industry may have begun to figure out the digital media landscape later than the new media entrepreneurs and visionaries, and the suit filed by publishers including EMI, Universal and Warner/Chappell show that the libraries remain vast and copyright law remains on their side. Lawsuits have always been a means to force a deal and this may be the case here as well as the filing contains references to accommodations reached with other online entities, including Napster. Online music players need to remember the sandbox still has room for kids that have been there a long time.