The advent of peer-to-peer file sharing rocked the music business in the early and mid-2000s, and the rammifications of it are still sending shock waves throughout the industry. Now, one group of Hip Hop artists is taking CBS Interactive to court for their part in the P2P operation.
AllHipHop.com is reporting that a host of Hip Hop acts, including 2 Live Crew, the Ying Yang Twins, JT Money, the Force MD’s, J-Shin and Pretty Ricky, are suing CBS Interactive over their website CNET, which was one of the primary providers for a variety of P2P-based downloading programs. The parties levying the suit claim that CNET made millions of dollars off their music from offering P2P program downloads on a pay per download basis, in addition to the revenue they earned from advertisements.
“Defendants are liable as vicarious infringers for the copyright infringement committed via P2P client software that Defendants created, distributed and promoted, including LimeWire and others,” the lawsuit reads.
CNET was the primary provider of P2P downloading program LimeWire, which was downloaded 220 million times from their website. In addition, CNET offered downloads of other P2P programs, including Morpheus, iMesh and FrostWire.
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The plaintiffs are looking for millions of dollars in damages and court and lawyer fees.
