Arstechnica reports that eDonkey has been "taken to the glue factory", or without the puns, shutdown. The company behind eDonkey has coughed up $30 million in exchange for not being sued.

Whilst I have no doubt the record companies and anti-p2p groups will be claiming this to be a great step for them, they are wrong.

The RIAA claim:

"The RIAA is predictably thrilled. "With this new settlement, another domino falls, and we have further strengthened the footing of the legal marketplace," Mitch Bainwol, chairman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, said in a statement. MetaMachine has also agreed to stop distributing all versions of its software."

Yet eDonkey was never a major player in the p2p market, even though the ed2k network was popular, other p2p programs saw the majority on its network. eMule will carry on as it has no association with eDonkey, and so will its numerous mods. In addition, Shareaza, the other major player on the ed2k network, is till going on strong.