The lovely lawyers over at the Recording Industry Association Of America (and I hear they're very lovely, if a little dull) have sent cease-and-desist letters to seven P2P file-sharing services, including LimeWire, WinMX and BearShare. Those letters follow and reference the recent and much previously reported US Supreme Court decision in MGM v Grokster case, which ruled that technology companies who make and sell P2P software which enables (or at least does not try to prevent) the illegal transfer of copyrighted material are themselves acting illegally.
Confirming the RIAA had contacted the seven P2P companies objecting to their activity, a spokesman for the association told reporters: "Companies situated similarly to Grokster have been given ample opportunity to do the right thing. Those businesses that continue to knowingly operate on the wrong side of that line do so at their own risk."
It will be interesting to see how the P2P companies respond to the RIAA's latest attack. Most of the court rulings against P2P companies have focused on the defending companies' marketing activity, which promoted P2P technology on the implication it could be used to illegally share copyrighted content. It would be interesting to see how the courts would rule if a P2P company could prove it hadn't produced such marketing material.