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takyon writes:

Aurous, a recently-launched music player application created by developer Andrew Sampson in Florida, has been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The application sources pirated music from Russian site Pleer and may include BitTorrent integration in the future, should the developer prevail against legal challenges:

The RIAA also references several comments the developer made in the media before the official launch, confirming that Aurous will be used to pirate music. After the debut of the alpha release, Aurous allegedly provided technical assistance to pirate specific tracks.

In addition, the complaint also mentions Sampson's torrent search engine Strike, which he released earlier this year. "As a stand-alone search engine, Strike Search finds infringing content on BitTorrent but needs to be used with other software and services in order to download the content onto users' computers," the RIAA notes.

The complaint lists a total 20 popular tracks that are freely available through Aurous. This means that Sampson faces up to $3 million in statutory damages if the case goes to trial.

Finally, the RIAA requests a broad preliminary injunction which would prevent domain registrars, domain registries, hosting companies, advertisers and other third-party outfits from doing business with the site.

However, in comments posted to Twitter tonight, Sampson seems unfazed. "Don't worry, we're not going anywhere, empty lawsuits aren't going to stop the innovation of the next best media player," he said. "Hey @RIAA @UMG and everyone else, we challenge every CEO to an arm wrestling competition, we win you drop your empty suit."

Popcorn Time is/was a streaming BitTorrent client that has been the latest and most-discussed bane to the film and television industries.

Complaint [PDF]

Original Submission