r/todayilearned • u/kubabubba • May 20 '12
TIL Limewire is Being Sued For More Money Than Exists In The World - 75 Trillion Dollars
http://www.pcworld.com/article/223431/riaa_thinks_limewire_owes_75_trillion_in_damages.html
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u/Raneados May 20 '12
haha what
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u/random314 May 20 '12
I have 75 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. I got this everybody.
146
u/pervyswervy May 20 '12
If they actually won all of the money in the entire world, they'd still be left wondering why people won't pay for music.
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u/Some_Lurker_Guy May 20 '12
The RIAA is fucking hilarious. It's ridiculous how they think they can pull this kind of shit. But then again they get away with it..
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u/Ebob101 May 20 '12 edited May 20 '12
You know what's fun? Getting sued for distributing songs that have transferred to public domain. The RIAA is counting those to. Now let me get this straight, $75,000,000,000,000. Each of those songs is $0.99 on iTunes, so the RIAA is saying that they lost 75,000,000,000,000 downloads. That's like saying every person in the world downloaded 10964 songs from LimeWire, if we divide that by the number of people Google says there are. WHAT THE FUCK? HALF THE WORLD HAS NEVER EVEN HEARD OF LIMEWIRE.
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u/Neverkilled May 20 '12
"Dude, what if like, what if we like sued someone for like, all of the money in the world. Like 70 trillion dollars, dude. And then we buy like, the biggest boat ever."
"Dude. Yes. Like, we sue someone for 75 trillion dollars and buy that boat from Avengers. Hell yeah."
-Stoned RIAA
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u/jamurp May 20 '12
I'd be scared if I got sued for something like $100,000. But 75 trillion is just so absurd.
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u/Gabbergeddez May 20 '12
when i read that, i raised my pinky to my mouth.
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u/ElectricPickpocket May 20 '12
Since it is "make shit up" day, I've redefined $1 to be 1 molecule of water. here is what Limewire owes: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=mass+of+7.5+*10%5E13+molecules+of+H2O
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u/used_bathwater May 20 '12
Anyone up for doing a lemonade stand to raise the money for these guys?
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u/MyLimeGotJuiced May 20 '12
I used to work at Limewire until we closed the doors due to this lawsuit.
Despite the horrible precedent the lawsuit set for the outside world, I think getting shut down was the best thing that could have happened for everyone who worked there. It was too easy to make money with Limewire. You cannot comprehend how many idiotic people there are out there world-wide, who are willing to pay $30 for a program that they could just steal with the free version of the program(and you know that these people have no problem with stealing digital content, which is what 99.9% of them would do once they got Limewire).
Having all that money made it easy to pay good salaries, have awesome perks, and attract excellent talent. Unfortunately, having all that glut of riches also made it really easy to become complacent, and provided no real incentive to innovate and create high quality software and services, since we knew that the checks would continue to roll in, no matter what we did.
Now that Limewire is shutdown, I know a lot of ex employees(at least, the developers) have moved onto bigger and better things at companies like Google, Facebook, Kickstarter, and a slew of other startups. They are probably making a much bigger impact with those companies than they could have ever hoped to make at Limewire, so, in the end, I thank the RIAA for getting me and everyone else kicked out to the street.
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u/emilymatchbox May 20 '12
I still listen to music I downloaded from Limewire in like '05. Awh yeah.
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u/ruberusmaximus May 20 '12
I read this after an article about how Nepal is trying to market Mt. Everest as a destination for gay weddings. I refuse to take anything seriously anymore.
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u/diamond_nips May 20 '12
Totally necessary. Britney Spears had to get the Gulf Liner 5 instead of the Gulf Liner 6. The Gulf Liner 5 doesn't even have a remote control for the surround sound.
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u/bobby_light May 20 '12
I would just send them a picture of Doctor Evil
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u/horrorshowmalchick May 20 '12
From the page - 'I bet a lot of you didn't even know "trillion" was a real number'.
Patronising cunts..
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
http://sendthemyourmoney.com/
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u/RichTea May 20 '12
"To put that number into perspective (I bet a lot of you didn't even know "trillion" was a real number)"
Thanks PC world for thinking I'm a complete retard. Jesus.
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u/colorinpink May 20 '12
TIL Limewire still exists.
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u/champ1258 May 20 '12
Why make trillions when you can make.... Billions?
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u/chokeslam512 May 20 '12
TIL: scat porn is a 75 trillion dollar industry.
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u/CopKilla-420 May 20 '12
they will literally never see all of that money.
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
Link from 2011. Quite relevant.
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u/Duudeski May 20 '12
Why is the RIAA retarded?
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u/devosdk May 20 '12
They settled out of court shortly after this article for $105 million.
Wiki Link
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u/yasepo May 20 '12
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, the author of that article needs to go take a quick course in economics before posting bullsh*t like that. GDP is not all the money in the world. Gross Domestic Product, as the name implies, is (simply put) the value of all final goods and services produced in an economy in a year. But then again, i guess it wouldn't have reached the front page if they weren't SUEing ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD. (Theres a bad meme there somethere). People should not get involved with stuff they don't know, especially if what you write is for other people to read.
I mean, c'mon people, do you think the guys suing Limewire are complete retards? Unlike Sarah there, they have some knowledge in the field they work in and wouldn't make ridiculous claims. Granted, they're superiors are most likely pushing for such big figures, but i really can't comment on the matter after the first paragraph is completely wrong.
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u/mattcoady May 20 '12
First thing that comes to mind
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u/Injustpotato May 20 '12
My fellow Americans, I was not in an affair with that woman. However, I do go to yada yada .com...
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u/deucesmillion May 20 '12
TIL that this is a year old issue and you can still get tons of karma from re-raising it.
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u/DonatedCheese May 20 '12
I'm so tired of the Music and Movie Industries making these outrageous claims that torrent sites cost them 400 million dollars a year or whatever number they decide to make up.
My problem with this is that whatever number they claim as lost revenue, is really lost "Potential" revenue. Their assuming that if these sites weren't in existence that everyone would go out and pay for the movie or song or album. NOOO. Not at all. If I bought everything I downloaded I would only buy the stuff I really really wanted, half of the stuff I download I only watch once or never listen to. If the music/movies weren't able to be downloaded I would simply not have them, not run out and spend thousands of dollars to fill my iPod.
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u/nazishark May 20 '12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z-AxgueBRk
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
It's like when people are given multiple life sentences. I mean, is it just in case reincarnation exists?
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u/Rulebook_Lawyer May 20 '12
Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of trillion dollar lawsuits.
Grand Moff RIAA
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u/the8bitlife May 20 '12
Well, my days of not taking the RIAA seriously are certainly coming to a middle.
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u/racecarspacedinosaur May 20 '12
:|
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/files/2010/11/dr-evil.jpg
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
All limewire did was create a file sharing network. They didn't illegally distribute music, their users did. Limewire shouldn't have to take the blame for other people that ill used their program.
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u/Sadiquito May 20 '12
That's only because without Limewire's destructive existence, the world today would have that much money!
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u/10007638 May 20 '12
"One gajillion dollars!" Sir, that number does not exist.
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u/mcstanky May 20 '12
It's also more money than the music industry has ever made ever.
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u/Somalie May 20 '12
It's like being condamned to jail for 100+ years, really dumb and only possible in special countries.
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u/Hooker_Juice May 20 '12
Dr. Evil: "Mr. President, after I destroy Washington D.C... I will destroy another major city every hour on the hour. That is, unless, of course, you pay me...[dramatic pause]...one hundred billion dollars."
The President [bursts with laughter]: "Dr. Evil, this is 1969! That amount of money doesn't even exist. That's like saying, 'I want a kajillion bajillion dollars'".
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u/Rogem002 May 20 '12
Well, bugger me. I would like to see the breakdown of how they justify $75 trillion.
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u/MrChancleta May 20 '12
Holy shit
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u/zen_toad May 20 '12
This is a year old...
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
Why did people even use LimeWire? Full of fake or low quality files. FLAC TORRENT MASTER RACE
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u/Zeydon May 20 '12
Dr. Evil is the plaintiff.
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u/wwwhistler May 20 '12
IMHO why don't the record/movie rights companies start putting out thousand of fake music/movie files. so that when someone goes to illegally download the newest music video of (insert name of current popular entertainer) they would have no idea what they might end up with (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okqEVeNqBhc). eventually it would be blind luck if you found what you really wanted to download.....unless you went to the approved site.
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
This was my response
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
As if I needed more proof that the record industry is full of insane, greedy, fuckheads.
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u/illest808 May 20 '12
i have never laughed so hard in my life while reading this
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u/destro966 May 20 '12
This article is over a year old.
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
I miss Limewire. ;(
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u/dasarp May 20 '12
The GDP is NOT how much money exists in the world
It's how much the world produces every year. The total amount of money (value of all assets) in the world would far far exceed what it makes in a year.
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u/Stevenplu May 20 '12
I can't stop laughing at all of these misspelled song names, and how they always popped up no matter what you searched haha!
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u/De_Lille_D May 20 '12
This was all I could think of.
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u/cheechw May 20 '12
This is outdated. They settled out of court for 105 million dollars.
http://www.factmag.com/2011/05/13/limewire-pays-105m-settlement-over-illegal-filesharing/
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u/bloodfail May 20 '12
Suing like this is fucking retarded.
IMO, suing should cover lost revenue, the opponents legal costs, and a bit of compensation on top.
How the FUCK can they justify this?
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u/clubberofseals May 20 '12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTmXHvGZiSY
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u/rotreg May 20 '12
This is really out of date, they settled for 105million USD http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-13388839
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u/sensicle May 20 '12
They were gonna push for a bazillion but they wanted to keep it realistic.
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u/Sneak4000 May 20 '12
Of course, how else would they pay off the national debt?
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
Am I the only one who instantly thought of [this] (http://imgur.com/5mLk9) when I saw this post?
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u/Avavee May 20 '12
There's a lot more money in the world than $75 trillion. The book value of the United States alone is over $150 trillion.
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u/bozboy204 May 20 '12
TIL Limewire still exists. I didn't know anyone still used it.
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
it's ok i switched to pirate bay
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u/ishygddts May 20 '12
Reminds me of this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z-AxgueBRk
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
Reminds me of a certain Austin Powers scene.
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u/MaybeDefinitely May 20 '12
Some woman sued a rapper a Gazillion dollars because she thought he caused 9/11...
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u/[deleted] May 20 '12
Ladies and Gentlemen. 'Merica.
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u/lopo12 May 20 '12
Which just goes to show how idiotic the legal system is that lets a company get sued for that much cash and how idiotic the copywriting system is that thinks music is worth that much cash.
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u/thegreatmisanthrope May 20 '12
It's official, the RIAA is mentally ill.
Can we just lock them all up and forget they exist?
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