File-sharing site eDonkey kicks it

The parent company of popular file-sharing network eDonkey has agreed to pay $30 million to settle a copyright infringement case brought by six music labels, according to court documents filed this week.

The settlement follows a federal district court ruling earlier this week that dealt what appears to be final blow to MetaMachine's peer-to-peer (P2P) client eDonkey; the eDonkey Web site has since been taken down.

A judge in New York's southern district ruled Monday that eDonkey facilitated illegal activity by allowing users to swap copyrighted material over the eDonkey2000 network. Another MetaMachine creation, a decentralized P2P network called Overnet, was also ruled illegal.

P2P networks have succumbed one by one since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in June 2005 that file-sharing services were illegal. Some, like Grokster--the original defendant in the Supreme Court case--were snuffed out altogether. Others reemerged in legal form and questions about their viability remain unanswered. Still others, like BitTorrent, have not run into the same kind of legal roadblocks but are nevertheless making plans to cooperate with the entertainment industry.

MetaMachine founder Jed McCaleb and CEO Sam Yagan could not be reached for comment, leaving it unclear whether they have any plans to reopen their service in a piracy-free form. The eDonkey Web site is now replaced with a warning that reads, "If you steal music or movies, you are breaking the law. Courts around the world--including the U.S. Supreme Court--have ruled that businesses and individuals can be prosecuted for illegal downloading." Site visitors' IP addresses are logged and displayed to underscore that music pirates can easily be tracked down.

It should be pointed out, however, that while the New York-based company has been ordered to stop distributing the eDonkey software, existing users who already have the software can still connect to the eDonkey2000 network and swap files. Yagan and McCaleb, however, have been ordered to take action against this as part of the court settlement.

The Recording Industry Association of America is "pleased to have reached this settlement," organization CEO and Chairman Mitch Bainwol said in a statement. But he indicated that the fight is far from over. "The theft of music remains a major threat to the artists, record labels, legitimate online and mobile services," Bainwol said. "Our settlement with eDonkey will make operations such as Lime Wire that continue to break the law and profit off the back of stolen copyrighted content all the more conspicuous."

Plaintiffs listed in the case against MetaMachine included Arista Records, Atlantic Recording, Capitol Records, Elektra Entertainment Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and UMG Recordings.

[bobby_brady]

Everyone uses Emule, so it's a moot point

Go EMULE!! Ride 'em cowboy!

[unknown unknown]

Misstated

quote from the article:
"P2P networks have succumbed one by one since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in June 2005 that file-sharing services were illegal."

The Supreme Court did not say that file-sharing services were illegal. They said the operators of such services can be held responsible for infringing activity on those services if they take steps to actively promote infringing activity.


As for the New York case strangely I am unable to find any mention of it else where on the net. Usually such decisive wins get ran up the flag poll several times by the RIAA and MPAA (aka MAFIA) .

[speedy5662]

Edonkey is Dead all the way!!!!

Edonkey's website is down with the message as quoted in this article, However the File sharing program is also dead!!! YOU CANNOT connect to Edonkey any more!!!

Speedy

[kjharris]

look further

According to some of the file sharing websites I'v looked at, you CAN still use edonkey and connect to the network. Look at their discussion groups/forums and see how to do it.

[cocos2000]

oif course you can

just use another client like emule and no problem at all, network exists, just one client killed.

[briancsmith]

P2P File Sharing Stuff

If you haven't noticed.. The Government has given permission to all major companies to steal from us for any reason. Look at the gas, electric, medical, pharasutical, oil industries... It is ok for them to steal our money or whatever they want but we are not allowed to have anything for free anymore... We pay for air (Emmissions), what else can they rip us off for... It is called illegal for us but income for them. You may think this is an invalid statement. Just look whats to come. Microponders (Tracking devices) they will have compulsory to inject under our skin for identification and tracking which has been implanted in dogs, cats, and over 50,000 humans. What's next if we crap in the toilet that will be illegal next. I'm fed up with the FN BS, I've been watching this crap get worse and worse as we progress. The internet was our only free release, now it is being policed like everything else to crush our dreams.

[poisond]

Exactly

What Brian said is exactly what is happening and most people are not noticing how every one of our freedoms is being taken away a little piece at a time.

I'm also fed up of it, sometimes I can almost see why people take their lives or sacrifice it to make a point. What's the point of living if you feel like you are living in a prison and have no rights?

[OmahaStylin_]

Observation...

It seems unclear to me who the terrorists are anymore. When it comes to a direct assault on the freedoms and liberies of the people of the United States, it would seem that the "clear and present danger" does not lay with an enemy 10,000 miles away and over an ocean... They're coming and when they do, we will not be ready.

[twinsbc]

1 Judge against the rest of the world

eDonkey is dead, long live eMule. Thank you for publishing the list of companies behind the coup.It will keep me away from buying their products in future.

[cocos2000]

ridiculous ruling!

how could court rule that they helped exchanging copyrighted material??? Its like ruling that gunmakers helping killing people. Same thing. Totally ridiculous what lobbysts doing!

[GT-Force]

Guns must be illegal then, too!

Here's what I don't get:
P2P software are created, so that, people can share whatever files they want to share. This may include, but not limited to, photos that that person took to podcasts that person created created, and from documents written by that person to music composed by him/her!
So, if people use the software for braking the law by sharing illegal files, how come the software can be pronounced illegal, and its production can be ordered to a halt, and its makers can be forced to pay tens of millions of dollars? Then all the guns must be ruled as illegal and their production must be stopped, since people buy guns and kill other people, which is a MUCH more serious crime with consequences that are crystal clear compared to a crime committed by sharing copyrighted material!
What do you think?
My two cents...

[jbholmes3209]

1984

Here's why eventually the RIAA or another form of the same group will win. The answer is actually very, very simple: MONEY. Money is the main reason why we, the dissenters, will always lose in an American system.

The reason for this is because the United States is not a democracy, nor is it a republic, it is an aristocracy. Plato's Republic defines a government as something that holds in itself the benefit to its people. Thus, to define a government you need to define who is most helped by the governments existence. The United States government is set in place to benefit the aristocracy the most: every senator, representative, judge, and presidential appointee is an aristocrat. Every one of these people is paid more in a year than 75 percent of American citizens, and that is defensively low, undoubtedly, the percentage is a great deal higher than that. Naturally, everyone wants to protect their own and, in fact, that is considered the American way, get what's coming to me, ME, ME! An aristocracy develops and the American dream diminishes for the average person, this coupled with the continuation of a hereditary system of money-gathering creates people that can run for office and people that can't. The deciding factor, money.

With this as your basic assumption here is why the RIAA will win. The RIAA is made up of aristocrats, meaning that their interests will be protected by the other aristocrats, legislators. This allows the RIAA to do essentially almost anything it wants as long as it still appears to pay lip service to the joke that the American Constitution has become. And here is the honest truth, this is one of the battles that is being fought in a long, long war for actual freedoms. Freedoms are disappearing more and more, being replaced by misery, and when finally the average person realizes this, it will be too late. Freedoms will disappear quicker soon after the internet file-sharing battle is won, the war will begin in earnest and when finally the everyman fights back he will discover to his chagrin that the secret to winning a war is, you guessed it, money.

That's why my only advice to you is move to Canada to live out your time, or Portugal, or France, or somewhere far away, because soon Orwell's vision of horror will become a truth the same way Verne's did. Good luck to all of you.

J

[trueliesanddownloads]

Follow the idea??

I havent used edonkey but I have used other p2ps programs.I dont use them as often as I used to because of the threats of being sued.I would down load things that I already owned to make back-ups(we all know how hard it is to do that now)or to sample something before I went out to buy it.Its stupid of the record industry to fight this because ,Ive purchased more cds because I could hear the song at my home and make the decision weather or not to buy it.I do have an opinion why
they are going after the p2ps.There is a profit to be made and the Idea is to profitable to be free.So they are shuting down the free sites one by one and opening the paysites in there place.
tell me. what is the difference between recording your favorite movie with your vcr or downloading it from the internet?that aspect is well promoted
in main stream culture. So am I a crimminal now that I use a different tool to do the same thing that has been happening since cable television first came out.If thay dont want this type of thing to happen ,then why are they creating product that help create the one thing that they are fighting against.So does that mean that technically they are responsible as well??why arent the companies that make recorders or blank cd/dvds being sued(It helps illegal things to happen).sorry for ranting I'm just confused

[assbad81]

You are totally right

I completely agree with you trueliesanddownloads. It's all about
them making the profit that's why they're trying to shut down
the p2ps programs. Honestly, there's always going to be new
ways for people to share music.

[assbad81]

CAN'T BE STOPPED

Really funny, but they think that they can actually stop people
from sharing music, something that we've already paid for.
Ridiculous!

[assbad81]

Now I Know

Ok, after finding out the name of the record companies that are
against p2ps. I can guarantee you record companies that I will
never ever again buy any record albums from those that've been
mentioned.