September 25, 2009

By By Antony Bruno, Denver

Razor & Tie has withdrawn its copyright infringement lawsuit against P2P file-sharing service LimeWire. The Kidz Bop label originally filed the suit last October, about two years after the RIAA filed a similar lawsuit August of 2006. The RIAA lawsuit remains pending.

Neither LimeWire nor Razor & Tie would provide details that led to the lawsuit?s dismissal, though CEO George Searle said the company is working towards a partnership with the Razor & Tie and other labels.

?My personal believe is that this is not a legal issue; it?s a business issue,? he said. ?You can?t fix business issues with a legal approach. So we?ve been in discussions with both Razor & Tie and with labels, publishers and artists of every size, working towards a solution? It?s not going to work only with Razor & Tie content. We?re in discussion with the entire industry.?

Razor & Tie said the lawsuit was withdrawn without prejudice and no agreements were made.

LimeWire recently made several efforts to put on a more legitimate face. In addition to operating a paid download service with licensed content from several independent labels and digital distributors, it recently hired formal label veteran Zeeshan Zaidi as its head of global and former TotalMusic exec Jason Herskowitz as VP of product management.

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