p2pnet - rss feed: Is LimeWire closing down?
p2pnet.net News- Open source p2p application LimeWire is undergoing changes which suggest owner Mark Gorton is on the verge of taking it offline, at the same time stopping sales and distribution.
LimeWire was download.com’s most popular independent Windows file-sharing application in January, and was still Number One today (July 27) with Morpheus and Warez P2P immediately behind it.
Its adherents are many and even if the commercial, non-ad application goes, obviously, the free ad-bearing version will still be available from aficianados who will, no doubt, also continue to develop it.
In June, “We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by the clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties,” wrote Justice David H. Souter on behalf of the Supreme Court on its Grokster v MGM ruling.
Then, “Mark Gorton, the chief executive of the Lime Group, a brokerage firm that makes LimeWire, a file-sharing alternative to Grokster, said he was likely to stop distributing LimeWire in reaction to the ruling,” said the New York Times.
“He said it appeared too difficult to meet the implied standard for inducement. The court, Mr. Gorton said, has ‘handed a tool to judges that they can declare inducement whenever they want to’.”
LimeWire coo points out that Lime Group LLC is not a brokerage firm and doesn’t make
LimeWire. That’s Lime Wire LLC’s job.
Be that as it may, it was among the first major p2p companies to take advertising space in p2pnet and at the beginning of the month, Bildson told us he was reluctantly cancelling LimeWire’s p2pnet box and banner ad support as of August saying the company is, “in a state of flux”.
Is Gorton shutting LimeWire down completely? - we asked.
No Comment.
If so, is the closure based on the Grokster ruling?
No Comment.
If that’s the case, is this a holding measure to allow Gorton to re-evaluate?
No Comment.
If LimeWire is shutting down, will it in effect re-open outside of America, perhaps in France?
No Comment.
Either way, what will happen to the US LimeWire company?
No Comment.
Do you have a message for LimeWire users?
No Comment.
If, as appears likely, LimeWire is being taken off the market, will it be a permanent arrangement, or merely temporary?
Only Gorton knows, and for the moment, he’s not talking.
Meanwhile, the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will tomorrow hold a full hearing into the implications of Grokster v MGM.
It’ll start at 2:30 pm and attendees will include Adam Eisgrau, P2P United; Gregory Kerber, Wurld Media; Mark Heesen, National Venture Capital Association; Dave Baker, Earthlink; Mitch Bainwol, RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America); and Fritz Attaway, MPAA (Motion Picture Industry of America).
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
See:-
Number One - LimeWire ‘Most Downloaded’, p2pnet, February 5, 2005
Grokster v MGM - Grokster ruling and US schools, p2pnet, July 5, 2005
New York Times - Sharing Culture Likely to Pause but Not Wither, June 28, 2005
July 27th, 2005 at 7:26 pm
I guess it is time to download the source code so that the network will be continued. FreeWan is Still on the horizon.
July 27th, 2005 at 7:33 pm
what’s freewan?
July 27th, 2005 at 7:39 pm
Right now it is a few scattered ad-hoc local area networks networks that may or may not be connected to the Internet. Each network is like a cell unto itself. Each computer on a a FreeWan cell may or may not be connected to the Internet. FreeWan is intended to allow the free flow of information unimpeded by Cartel controlled infrastructure (copper wire optics, etc) and MPAA, RIAA, and other private and government interests.
Hopefully all freeWan cells will be somehow interconnected so as to provide a worldwide network controlled and run by the people. I get most of my music and movie downloads from a Cell on my way home from work every day. The Network throughput is fantastic.
July 27th, 2005 at 7:57 pm
What this means is that information can be carried from cell and distributed within each individual cell (local network). The information can be transported via an Internet connection, a laptop computer that is used by a person who travels between two cells, or a CD or DVD ROM. As far as using laptop computers is concerned, I have considered writing programs that would facilitate drive by downloads and uploads that would work much like traditional p2p networks. All one would have to do is type in the name of a file and the file will be downloaded if that person passess through a freewan cell that has the file.
Imagine the **AA’s going after filesharers on FreeWan cells. I know that there would be big trouble if suspicious vehicles were driving through my neighborhood in order to triangulate my Wireless hub.
July 28th, 2005 at 2:19 am
Yeap, not going to be any money it from ads. If it is financed by ads then they are certainly responcible for enducing people to use p2p so they can get paid. Instead it looks like, “Mums the word” in what our intentions are. No public announcements as to what direction, no public acknowledgement to changes and what they mean to the downloading public.
There is one good thing out of all this. A company that offers an open source, no ads, no spyware type client may be a tougher opponent to tackle. Those in it for the money are going to have a short life span.
July 28th, 2005 at 10:02 am
“A company that offers an open source, no ads, no spyware type client may be a tougher opponent to tackle. Those in it for the money are going to have a short life span.”
That’s the idea we had in the Shareaza camp. Since no money is being made, and the program has always had notices about infringement, no changes are being made following the court decision.
I think those other vendors that don’t make any money from their software are going to be far better protected that those that do. However, I suppose we shall have to see about that.
The case also has the added benefit of meaning that the scam companies that are selling cloned software are probably going to be in a spot of trouble. One example is Etomi where they are selling cloned versions of LimeWire and Shareaza.
July 28th, 2005 at 11:05 am
“A company that offers an open source, no ads, no spyware type client may be a tougher opponent to tackle. Those in it for the money are going to have a short life span.”
Actually money and profits has nothing to do with it. What the court said was that inducement to infringe created a responsibility for (vicarious) infringement. Meaning that If you manufacture and sell blank cd’s for profit and these are used to copy music without the music pwner permission, you are not responsible for infringing. However if you write on the product box “great for copying copyrighted music and software without the owners’s permission” then you are in trouble and the music/software owners could sue you sucessfully.
If, on the other hand the statement on the box is “great for copying music”, then it will be presumed (by the court) that whatever copying will be done will be with the music owners permission and all will be ok, as far as the manufacturer of the blank cd’s are concerned. Mind you, this is not legal advise and courts are unpredictable.
Sure, 99 percent or so of the blank cd’s will be used to copy cd’s without the owners permission, just like cassettes have always been used. Sure, some of the cd manufacturer themselves are big music owners that know that their products will be used almost exclusively for copying music without the owners permission. But the sale of blank CD are legal because they are not advertised a being great for copying without the music owners permission. Of course they are great for copying and everyone knows it, so that fact does not require mentioning and that keeps the inevitable copiers happy and the cartels disarmed. This is the meaning of Grokster.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
July 28th, 2005 at 8:49 pm
That sounds awesome!!
July 28th, 2005 at 9:08 pm
i haven’t used limewire in a few years because…well, because it sucks.
July 28th, 2005 at 9:57 pm
If a person would want to know the truth , who cares ?
I personally don’t involve myself with downloading because limewire has a limited number of mp3s that have an ethernet download rating that are very rapid in their download speed and the the rest of the downloads take an average of 15 minutes to 3 hours download time and the software program would be in the middle of a download and all of a sudden the file being downloaded would crash and just stop.
BIG WASTE OF MONEY.
And besides getting sued for an average $4000 by the RIAA is not worth it for a bunch of sometimes poopy sounding compressed mp3 files.
but this does not befront me.
The technology is relatively new and still has a lot of bugs in it.
As far as movie downloading is concerned forget it……….
Maybe the industry will have all of the bugs out of it 5 years from now.
July 29th, 2005 at 11:23 am
When will the RIAA / MPAA learn?! They CAN NOT stop the Internet, they CAN NOT stop the digital revolution… All they are doing with the lawsuits is HURT old grammas/grampas and little girls/boys — while at the same time alienating their BIGGEST customers (see previous article how downloaders spend 4 1/2 TIMES as much on purchased material!!!!)
Ha ha ha
Stupid fucks (MPAA / RIAA of course)
July 30th, 2005 at 6:18 am
Actually money and profits has nothing to do with it. What the court said was that inducement to infringe created a responsibility for (vicarious) infringement. Meaning that If you manufacture and sell blank cd’s for profit and these are used to copy music without the music pwner permission, you are not responsible for infringing. However if you write on the product box “great for copying copyrighted music and software without the owners’s permission” then you are in trouble and the music/software owners could sue you sucessfully.
So why can’t Limewire just put a disclaimer in its program warning about copywright infrengement?
July 30th, 2005 at 6:32 am
If I read download.com correctly, as of today, July 29, LimeWire 4.9 has 63,056,159 downloads and Morpheus 5.0 beta has 136,279,671. How does that make LimeWire “most downloaded”?
Check out poisoned if you have OSX 10.2 or higher. Sweet interface. http://gottsilla.net/poisoned.php
July 30th, 2005 at 4:06 pm
obviously not becuase there still putting out betas!
August 31st, 2005 at 6:54 am
Site is down for me…and the new versions this month have been full of problems
any news on if they are closing for sure ???
October 7th, 2005 at 8:55 pm
“the Lime Group, a brokerage firm that makes LimeWire, a file-sharing alternative to Grokster”
“LimeWire coo points out that Lime Group LLC is not a brokerage firm and doesn’t make LimeWire. That’s Lime Wire LLC’s job.”
Wait. . . so Lime Group is a brokerage firm that makes LimeWire, yet somehow they’re not a brokerage firm and they don’t make LimeWire?
That makes no sense. Can someone please clarify?
December 1st, 2005 at 12:49 am
Limewire can’t be shut down. no matter what the courts decide there will always be another p2p program. it is like tring to stop the water from draining from a bucket while more and more holes appear in he buckets side using only one finger. there is only one court. they can shut down limewire. then people will get xfactor. they shut that down get morphious. P2P CANNOT BE STOPED. no matter how many they shut down. more will come.
January 4th, 2006 at 6:30 am
Your an idiot
January 4th, 2006 at 6:33 am
That doesnt count previous versions. LimeWire updated their software more recently then Morpheus…
January 4th, 2006 at 6:35 am
Very True…
August 7th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
limewire sucks it’s full of virus’s and anyway i much prefer buying cd’s having the artwork etc. limewire messes up computers
March 4th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
if theres no money going into the music industry then less and less music will be created, eventually people will work out theres no point in paying for cds and the music industry will die out….. but hey! thats not gona stop me.
March 4th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
hmm wait a min, this was originally posted 3 years ago, and i just started using limewire 3 months ago, i guess that answers if its being shut down