LimeWire shuts down P2P service, looks to future

[Mike]

After being found liable for copyright infringement last May, LimeWire has finally been ordered to take down the key features of its service. Citing the program as committing and facilitating copyright infringement, the popular file-sharing client will be required to "disable the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality, and/or all functionality" of its software. For the RIAA this injunction ends a legal battle dating back to 2006, and closes the book on one of the most accessible and heavily used P2P programs of the last decade.

Looking to the future, LimeWire hopes to follow other reformed P2P sites like Napster into the realm of legitimate music sales. But the road ahead will be a bumpy one - a January damages trial is planned to set a monetary value to the "billions" of infringements the RIAA seeks compensation for. Judge Kimba Wood stated the plaintiffs have suffered "irreparable harm from LimeWire's inducement of widespread infringement of their works," although she acknowledged any damages awarded would be "well beyond" LimeWire's ability to pay. But as P2P file-sharers simply migrate to new platforms when needed, this ruling boils down to the destruction of LimeWire as a company, and not the real root causes of Internet piracy.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/40868-limewire-shuts-down-p2p-service-looks-to-future.html

 

[Burty117]

That last nit about it Boiling down to destroying LimeWire as a Company is totally true. I've only ever used LimeWire once or twice round a friends house and he always had virus's etc... while it was installed so i've always stayed well clear and if anyone I know really wanted a P2P downloader i'd recommend Vuze.

Anyway, I guess this will make someone out there cry, I know people who only get music off LimeWire.

 

[Regenweald]

.....And Frostwire surged in popularity they can't stop it, Radiohead got it, why can't they ?

 

[IamBD]

I tried them once, but over all not really a P2P user like I used to be back in the day. If I couldnt find a song through a digital service or the CD though ebay, then I would consider P2P, but nowadays I dont bother with that stuff. Too buggy.

 

[Yoda8232]

Hell it's about time, there are so many viruses on there it's not even funny...

 

[Serag]

Great news!! Now I can be relieved of cleaning friends and family PC's of malware downloaded using LimeWire.

 

[Zoner1501]

Limewire was only good for downloading viruses anyway

 

[mattfrompa]

Agreed, Limewire is garbage. Good Riddance.

 

[lawfer]

There's still Frostwire, and not to mention the other dozen ways you can illegally download music. Sorry RIAA, you lose.

Nothing has really happened here folks, move along.

 

[Fragrant Coit]

It ended up being dreadful.

Any search returned "Upskirt" or some such.

I wonder how many infections it caused? Though noone with an ounce of savvy is going to think a song is an 87Kb .exe file.

Maybe if it's a paid service (though Limewire Pro used to cost), they might weed out all the bogus crap.

 

[jizzyburnizzy]

I'm honestly it survived this long, and surprised that people still use this crappy application

 

[starfreezer]

So, this story and all the comments so far are implying that software piracy will live on and it will drastically cut down the cases of infected computers.... interesting!

 

[natefalk]

RIAA is fighting a losing battle and I'm sure everyone agrees. I stopped using Limewire for many reasons, but mainly b/c I can find the same content posted to various forums around the net (rapidshare, hotfile, megashare, ect.).

So unless the RIAA starts moderating thousands of forums or kills all file sharing services, people will still download music for free.

 

[frodough]

another one bites the dust, BUT more and more will rise up. it's and will forever be a cat and mouse game and RIAA, MIAA, etc etc will find themselves spending endless amount of money going after and endless number of P2Pers like Lime Wire. what a waste of money.

 

[dustin_ds3000]

I think i stopped using Limewire back in 2006, i made the switch to uTorrent.

 

[JMMD]

I'm amazed it will around as long as it was. I've seen it installed on people's machines but I've never actually used it. Last time I used anything like it was when Napster was first introduced.

 

[ryan29121]

Everyone seems like they use limewire. I work at a computer repair shop and every computer that comes in the door seems like it has limewire installed on it. What are these people going to do to download their music illegally now? Torrents?

 

[crzydave]

Maybe they will move to sealand hahah. Never used limewire myself. Sounded to sketchy

 

[stensland]

I just don't get it, fighting internet piracy in such a manner is about as effective as the war on drugs. No matter what you do there are still going to be drug dealers, and there is still going to be piracy over the internet. If you destroy one source of the "supply" (both in reference to dealers and P2P) then the people just move on to another one. If you make it more affordable for people to purchase media then you eliminate the need to download illegally. Itunes shouldn't be charging 1$ per song seeing as hosting it costs slim to nothing, and the music artists who are doing so "poorly" now are still as rich as ever.
You can't really make downloading legal like you could with things like marijuana where you can physically control the substance, but you can make the media out there more widely available at lower costs. The simple fact is if you're doing drugs, P2P sharing, or kidnapping baby harp seals for their fat to make your weird northern soup "delicacies" you are going to keep doing it, and if you don't someone else will.

p.s. check my blog for an AMAZING baby harp seal soup recipe!

 

[mccartercar]

All of these P2P apps are/were bad. Limewire probably being the worst but only because it was the most well known. Many have already been shut down such as Grokster and some are still running like bearshare....if it still is?
Its amazing still, to think of all the money and time being thrown at taking down this one shitty service when there are still numerous, and much more convenient I might add, services to search indexed digital wares on the intertubes.
Bittorent protocol Networks...UDP and TCP
Usenet....Xennews FTW...with the exception of usenext...BLAH
FTP
Http File sharing services- megaupload or the trillion other flavors
My point is that it seems futile to run around in the jungle with a flyswatter.
Filesharing- Adapt or be consumed.
/rant

 

[kevin1212]

I forgot these apps existed when i dicovered torrents. Don't think anyone will miss this.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

I didn't know they still existed.

 

[Neojt]

torrent is musch better anyways lot less virus compared to lime wire

 

[Skyphox]

No bad thing, 99% of the stuff is spyware or a virus

 

[windmill007]

One word Frostwire. Almost everyone in the know has made the switch. And I'm sure there will be many more backup applications in the works. Seriously..>What else would kids use. People say it's garbage but u look on any PC with kids and they all use it because it's easy. There is no alternative out there that works as well or well known that I know of.