recently, limewire release their 4.16.2 version, on limewire free and the pro editions'. but i wondered why does limewire has put offline since its growing years. it's very clear that limewire connects to a peer network and share files such as videos, mp3, images, and documents that are copyrighted and is private.

it's very obvious that limewire the software itself and the makers of such software is violating rules and the law when it comes to music piracy. it simply corrupts income of music stores and artists' income.

but for me yeah, i'd been using limewire pro for years now but yet is fast and reliable one. but i dont know if im violating rules or not.

As far as I know it's illegal.

In Australia anyway, if you are caught using it then they disconnect your phone line.

You're expected to pay for music and movies, no one is going to make money if everyone downloads it off Limewire.

limewire isn't illegal, using limewire isn't illegal either. Limewire is nothing more but a program that connects to a network that is made to share files. If you download copyright protected material, then you are doing something illegal with limewire.

if so.. what about broadband subscribers, satellite, or wireless subscribers, are they'll be disconnected?

I completely agree with wutske. Its not Limewire's fault if users use them to download copyrighted stuff. Same could be said about Ares or the clients of the Bit-Torent protocol. There are many stuffs that can be legally distributed or shared using Peer-to-Peer technology. Just because many people use it the wrong way doesn't mean that such softwares are illegal. You can't label file sharing sites such as Rapidshare illegal even though 90% of files happen to be so. They take steps by deleting reported files but still its become more of a pirated software repository.

You do however make the valid point, if everybody gets the files for free, how is the industry going to last? At the moment, I am studying software engineering and when I get a job and start working for a company, I would want the company's softwares to be purchased and not pirated by using cracks or serials. How am I going to get my paycheck otherwise? But, you can't expect everyone to buy originals. Many people justify their doings by saying that the costs of the softwares are way too exorbitant for them to afford and to quite an extent its true as well. Having said that, this is no excuse to go ahead with piracy. The sheer number of people involved in any form of piracy is un-settling and I can't say that I am perfectly clean either. I do have a resolution to abstain from all forms of it when I start earning cash by myself.

Its a tricky situation really. Who do you blame, the hackers who are hell bent on cracking the shareware softwares, or the ellusive user who wants every software for free? Probably both, but you should certainly not blame the likes of Ares or Limewire.

In some cases, of course not in all, a lot of whom firstly like to download mp3 of some new band album or something and if they like it, they usually buy a cd in some festival or concert, so it depends.. of course most of people just download and doesn't care at all, they don't think that it is something illegal either, for what to pay? for an mp3 file, I don't even have a CD and having 500 CDs in your room of music is also not very comfortable.. besides by listening to mp3, most of their quality is bad, but it also depends on their sound system..

So Limewire as been said is not an illegal program, it is a program which can connect to a p2p network and people who share files are responsible for what they share and what they download.. In fact, by having those kind of programs, at least the http, irc and ftp protocols are a bit cleaner, because when you store something on a server, it is your responsibility for a lawsuit..

If looking at it, if the laws really would be so strict about mp3 and so on, what would most people listen too? what films would they be watching? what software would they use? In my opinion, home users shouldn't be watched so strict, I rather see strict rules for companies, firms, universities, schools, libraries and etc. that they wouldn't use anything illegal, but for example, for most schools it is expensive to do that, even for a lot of universities.. They could start using free and/or open-source everything though

Limewire's nothing, the Gnutella network is tiny compared to torrents. Places like The Pirate Bay have loads of legal letters that they poke fun at.

I use both, guess what for. It shouldn't be this easy.

I vaguely recall having to press a button when downloading Limewire "Do you intend to download copyrighted material with LimeWire?" Yes or no. Limewire itself is not illegal, you can easily only share legit music from eg. friends. (they composed something, and are releasing it to you through limewire) Downloading copyrighted contents without having paid for it, IS illegal. Now, I have downloaded WoW through Limewire (yep, world of warcraft), but I own a fully legit account. Therefore my download too was legit.

(For those doubting: http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com search for Marillian on Tanaris server, that's me)

I'm dreading the day when the cyber police take all these file sharing networks off. o.o
But it's normally the uploaders who get in trouble because there are normally thousands of clients to a download. ;p

Legal if for personal use and it does not require a license to play music.

look here