They are exactly like a cartel. I mean, how many times have they come to people and said "I'd really hate for you to go to court. If you pay us a little bit of money, maybe we make sure you don't go to court for downloading illegal MP3s we know you have huh? I'm just sayin' I wouldn't wanna see nothing bad happen to ya, would I vinny?" "No boss.".
I hope limewire wins this, lets just hope they didn't hire Jack Thompson.