

Limewire sued for more money than exists in the world - ianleckey
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/industry_news/limewire_sued_for_more_money_than_exists_in_the_world.html

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freeslave
this story is old, and the case was settled for substantially less than all
the money in the world:

"A trial to decide on the eventual amount of damages owed by Limewire to
thirteen record labels, including Warner and Sony Music, all of which are
represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), started
early in May and went on until on May 13, 2011, when Gorton agreed to pay the
13 record companies $105 million in an out-of-court settlement. "
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LimeWire>

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Tyrannosaurs
Interesting that they even put this number forward as (a) it was pretty
obviously going to be dismissed, but more importantly (b) exposes the nonsense
maths that is being used in these situations.

There is I think increasing awareness that the RIAA and others are making
demands which, let's put it politely, rather distort the real picture. If I
were them I certainly wouldn't be doing things like this that bring attention
to these numbers with little real benefit.

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laserDinosaur
FYI: This story is a year late to the party:
<http://www.geekosystem.com/limewire-sued-75-trillion/>

[http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202486102650&...](http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202486102650&Manhattan_Federal_Judge_Kimba_Wood_Calls_Record_Companies_Request_for__Trillion_in_Damages_Absurd_in_Lime_Wire_Copyright_Case)

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cheeze
This is nothing new, nor does the article add much insight IMO. Every news
site that reports this seems to say the same thing, that they are sued for
"more money than exists in the world." The world GDP is ~$60T, but GDP is a
long shot away from the total amount of money that exists in the world. There
could be $600T in the money supply but if nobody spent their money, GDP would
be $0.

~~~
sageikosa
Or the converse. There could be $6T in the money supply, but circulation is
high. Sort of like a self-contained ornamental fountain that can flow more
gallons per day/month/year than it has capacity to hold.

The real insidious part of such lofty sums is that they usually are predicated
on potential lost earnings (and sometimes punitive damages), which
historically is obviously nowhere near the numbers requested.

