But that’s not to say the record labels have been slacking. After all, it takes time, effort and manpower (measured in lawyer hours) to sue a peer-to-peer file sharing company. And, as everyone knows, the labels have had their hands full suing individual P2P users.

LimeWire itself is not a P2P network. Instead, the company manufactures and distributes a program, also called LimeWire, that accesses the Gnutella P2P network.

The recording industry’s lawsuit is the first filed against a P2P since last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that companies could be held liable for encouraging copyright infringing activities through the use of their products.

The lawsuit accuses LimeWire of “actively facilitating, encouraging and enticing” users to trade copyrighted music by not blocking users from trading protected works. The suit also claims LimeWire is building a business model based on music piracy.

“Defendants not only have known of the infringement, but have promoted and relied upon it to build their business,” charges the lawsuit.

But it’s not like the recording industry’s lawsuit was a bolt out of the blue for LimeWire. The company was one of several to receive warning letters last year. However, the record labels claim the company has made no effort to stop its users from infringing on copyrighted songs.

Of course, the RIAA had something to say about the LimeWire suit.

“While other services have come productively to the table, LimeWire has sat back and continued to reap profits on the backs of the music community,” the trade organization said. “That is unfortunate and has left us no choice but to file a lawsuit to protect the rights and livelihoods of artists, songwriters and record label employees, as well as those companies building legitimate businesses based on music.”