Aimster faces more lawsuits

The Motion Picture Association of America and a group of music publishers have separately filed lawsuits against file-swapping company Aimster, charging the company with contributing to copyright violations. The lawsuits follow a similar lawsuit filed by a group of record labels. Each of the organizations is making a claim similar to that facing Napster, which has begun blocking songs from being traded through its service after a court order.

Aimster argues that its service is different because it is focused on the broader issue of private network communications, and just one part of this has been the swapping of copyrighted works. Even before the record industry's lawsuit, Aimster asked a court for an independent ruling that what the company offers is legal. The last file-swapping company to face such broad opposition was Scour, which went out of business after facing a similar lawsuit.