Much can be said about the ever-changing business of music since the so-called “copyright wars” began, but one thing is certain: ordinary music users are much more copyright conscience than they’ve ever been. There are now entire colleges, such as Belmont University’s College of Entertainment and Music Business, dedicated to the education of music business and copyright law. Major record labels are partnering with music-streaming companies like Pandora and Spotify to perpetuate alternatives to illegal file sharing. Even a federal district judge in New York awarded DMX, a leading provider of commercial music services, the right to pay lower and variable performance licenses to BMI based on direct licensing arrangements with certain publishers.

I think everybody can remember the first time they heard about Napster. It was the shot

After being sued by the RIAA, Limewire wants to relaunch its brand as another streaming service that aims to directly compete with Spotify. The service will sync with iTunes and mobile devices all to the cloud. The launch looks like it will be near the end of the year.

But this is all hypothetical, really. Limewire is using this as a defense to remain open for a bit longer. The outcome of the first lawsuit doesn’t look like the company can even exist with infringement costs of $1 billion floating around along with an asset freeze. After this RIAA case is over, Limewire is just beginning with another lawsuit filed by 8 music publishing companies.

In general it looks like there is no end in sight for the