I know, it is. It could be something else, but it isn't. The operators wish it could be something else, and force everyone who uses the program to promise that they won't use it to infringe, but it still happens. But regardless, since it is merely a medium, and it is designed to be used for purposed other than copyright infringement, it's highly unfair for them to be charged anything, let alone such a ridiculous sum.

Saying Limewire owes the RIAA anything for helping people to pirate music is like saying Ford owes governments and peoples billions for aiding robbers and criminals get to and from crime scenes. It's total BS. In addition, there is no way that everyone would download as many songs if they had to pay for them. I, and many of my friends have 4000 songs plus. Do we really have 4K to spend on music? Not a chance! I might have the budget for $100, 2.5%. Therefore, if one could logically deduce that Limewire owes the RIAA, if anyone for that matter, then 37.5 billion would be much closer, which for the RIAA, probably isn't very much. But even then, piracy helps to advertise certain music, and increases concert revenue, so even if Limewire caused the the music industy to make 37.5 billion less from iTunes and CD sales, they likely made that back in the increased popularity of bands, and therefore higher attendance and higher ticket prices at concerts, and the increased sale of band merchandise.

The guys at CESA are just stupid. Their numbers are so far off, that it is ridiculous. I think for them to measure money lost to priacy in this way is bullsh*t. Like come on, it's obvious that not all downloads could have been purchases, about 5% could have been. So maybe they lost 2 billion. But wait! Their numbers are, at best, uneducated guesses. They only guessed the numbers for Japan, and guessed how that compared to the world. So obviously they don't know what they're saying at all. To top it off, piracy is free advertising. Yah, maybe I'll pirate a game for the PC and never buy it, but there are a few that I liked and bought the console version, or bought the console version and pirated a version for my laptop, to take on trips. Either way, lots of the downloads are copies, either being downloaded twice (bad torrent), downloaded by someone who has or will buy the game, or count as free advertising for similar games, which is an acceptable expense.