Difference between revisions of "Limewire"

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[[File:Limewire-logo.jpg|200px|thumb|left|]]
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[[File:Limewire-logo.jpg|400px|thumb|right|]]
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== History/Versions ==
 
== History/Versions ==
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In June 2000, CEO and Founder Mark Gorton launched LimeWire LLC. In August 2000, LimeWire launched the software that we know today, a free P2P (Peer to Peer) sharing program that used the Gnutella network (a large P2P network) to allow users to download audio, video, images, and other files from others users who were also on the network. LimeWire could be run on Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems. The first year of LimeWire’s existence resulted in over three million downloads, and over the years its popularity rose mainly because of its user-friendly nature and lack of cost. Just before LimeWire was issued a court order to shut down, the company claimed they had 50 million monthly users who downloaded over three billion songs per month. Through the years over 160 updated versions of LimeWire were released, most of which only made minor corrections to previous versions; some versions were even released one day apart.
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[[File:Limewire search.jpg|right]]
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LimeWire version 1.5 was the third update ever, introducing color coding to mark download speeds of files. On September 7th, 2001,  version 1.7 introduced the chat option, which allowed users who were downloading or uploading from each other to chat. Version 1.9 introduced swarm downloads, which allowed the user to download a file from multiple sources to make the process quicker. Version 2.5 was released on July 1st, 2002, and introduced the "browse host" feature.  This allowed the user to  view all of the shared files on other user's computers, so that one could download several more songs very quickly. Version 3.5, released in August 2003, set up a LimeWire playlist on iTunes and automatically added downloaded songs to this playlist.
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In July of 2004, version 4.1.1 introduced "file view," which allowed users to share files through a URL. Other individuals could use this URL either to download the file straight from the web, or from LimeWire. Version 4.10.6 was released in February of 2006 and altered the search process to make it quicker and to filter out spam. This version also allowed for international characters to be used in searches, and it set the search to automatically filter junk results to the bottom of the list. Version 4.11 was launched in March 2006 and took a big step towards safety. LimeWire would now display messages notifying the user whether or not a particular file was safe to download. Furthermore, an image of a lock was placed next to secure results in a search. Finally, version 5.3 Beta introduced the obscene content filter.
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[[File:Lime wire pro.png|thumb|right|]]
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===LimeWire Pro===
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This version of LimeWire sells for $34.95 per one year subscription and offers several advantages not included in the free version, such as faster downloads, a video player, access to BitTorrent, and anti-malware protection. LimeWire Pro also gives users 66% more search results, and access to free software updates for the first six months after purchase.
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===Credence===
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Credence was an add-on feature to LimeWire, created by two students at Cornell University in 2005. Credence was able to filter out corrupt files that frequented searches. Users could also vote on the quality of a file once they had downloaded it, and these votes would be stored in a record that would be visible to all other users.
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===LionShare===
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LionShare was developed at Penn State University, and was used strictly for file sharing between different universities.
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[[File:For.png|thumb|right|The FrostWire Logo]]
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===LimeWire Pirate Edition===
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After the shut down of LimeWire, a secret team of programmers called "Secret Dev Team" opened an unofficial and unauthorized version of LimeWire and called it “LimeWire Pirate Edition” (LPE). LPE is not endorsed by LimeWire, but it is based off and almost identical to LimeWire version 5.6, while also including LimeWire PRO features and eliminating spyware. LimeWire Pirate Edition is only available for Windows.
  
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===FrostWire===
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FrostWire is a sub branch of LimeWire and is written in Javascript, while also acting as a clean and open source program with no pop-ups or other annoying solicitations. The first release of FrostWire came in 2005 as a free program. FrostWire also has the chat feature, and is used mostly by Mac users.
  
 
== Various Uses ==
 
== Various Uses ==
Though LimeWire is most notably for allowing users to share music, there were various other ways people have engaged with the technology.  Interestingly enough, one of the more prevalent uses of LimeWire was actually the work of the RIAA, LimeWire’s arch nemesis, to catch users engaging in copyright infringing activities.  Before its major legal actions against LimeWire itself, the RIAA had a rampant series of lawsuits against individuals who they believed to be violating copyright.  To catch these people, the RIAA teamed up with a company called Media Sentry, which also developed programs that operate over the same Gnutella Network in which LimeWire exists (Butler).  Media Sentry had a list of recordings from RIAA companies and utilized the search feature like any other LimeWire user, but then they collected the “hash” codes online that are on the files.  These hash codes allowed LimeWire to pinpoint how many users were sharing that one file (Butler). When there were several users that have a file with the same hash code, it usually meant that the file was being illegally shared because the hash codes are very unique and can vary with the slightest change.  For instance, a song ripped from a CD on your computer would have a different code if your friend ripped that same CD onto his or her computer (Butler).   
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Though LimeWire was most notably known for allowing users to share music, there were various other ways people have engaged with the technology.  Interestingly enough, one of the more prevalent uses of LimeWire was actually the work of the RIAA, LimeWire’s arch nemesis, to catch users engaging in copyright infringing activities.  Before its major legal actions against LimeWire itself, the RIAA had a rampant series of lawsuits against individuals who they believed to be violating copyright.  To catch these people, the RIAA teamed up with a company called Media Sentry, which also developed programs that operate over the same Gnutella Network in which LimeWire exists (Butler).  Media Sentry had a list of recordings from RIAA companies and utilized the search feature like any other LimeWire user, but then they collected the “hash” codes online that are on the files.  These hash codes allowed LimeWire to pinpoint how many users were sharing that one file (Butler). When there were several users that have a file with the same hash code, it usually meant that the file was being illegally shared because the hash codes are very unique and can vary with the slightest change.  For instance, a song ripped from a CD on your computer would have a different code if your friend ripped that same CD onto his or her computer (Butler).   
  
 
When these files with identical hash codes are found, they are stored in Media Sentry’s database, and then Media Sentry and the RIAA decide how to proceed against infringers.  Usually, Media Sentry records the IP address of the infringer as well, which the RIAA then utilizes to obtain the infringer’s name from one’s Internet provider (Butler). This method of hash code collecting is the main reason for the several lawsuits filed against various individuals for downloading sometimes only a handful of recordings.  These individuals have been anyone from college students like those sued at University of Georgia in July 2007 (Quigley) to individuals who may have not even downloaded the music themselves, it just happened to be at their IP address.  These suits were dubbed “John Doe” suits, which usually end up being settled for thousands of dollars outside of court (Knopper).   
 
When these files with identical hash codes are found, they are stored in Media Sentry’s database, and then Media Sentry and the RIAA decide how to proceed against infringers.  Usually, Media Sentry records the IP address of the infringer as well, which the RIAA then utilizes to obtain the infringer’s name from one’s Internet provider (Butler). This method of hash code collecting is the main reason for the several lawsuits filed against various individuals for downloading sometimes only a handful of recordings.  These individuals have been anyone from college students like those sued at University of Georgia in July 2007 (Quigley) to individuals who may have not even downloaded the music themselves, it just happened to be at their IP address.  These suits were dubbed “John Doe” suits, which usually end up being settled for thousands of dollars outside of court (Knopper).   
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== Napster Bombing ==
 
== Napster Bombing ==
 
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Napster bombing refers to the practice of changing the name/artist of a song on a P2P network to that of a more famous band or musician. Users will click to listen to or download the song, thinking it is a new smash hit or at least a more popular song, only to find a completely different song released by a much more small-scale, usually underground or local artist. Artists do this to get more users to listen to or download their material, which usually would not have garnered much attention when under its proper name. Napster bombing can get very annoying due to the fact that the real song that is heard is often of poor quality and may even consist of a series of horrible noises. Napster bombing can even be thought of as spam in P2P networks.
 
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== Legal Troubles ==
 
== Legal Troubles ==
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[[File:Gorton.jpg|400px|thumb|right|LimeWire CEO, Mark Gorton]]
 
[[File:Gorton.jpg|400px|thumb|right|LimeWire CEO, Mark Gorton]]
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This ruling called into question the future of peer-to-peer filing services, and CEO Mark Gorton considered stopping the distribution of LimeWire after the decision (Farzad).  The court’s decision seemed to say that as long as peer-to-peer services did not “actively promote” infringement among its users, they were not liable. The act of promoting infringement was known as “inducement” in the court.  Gorton did not believe that as long as he did not “induce” user infringement that he would be in the clear.  According to Gorton, the court gave “a tool to judges that they can declare inducement whenever they want to” (Farzad).   
 
This ruling called into question the future of peer-to-peer filing services, and CEO Mark Gorton considered stopping the distribution of LimeWire after the decision (Farzad).  The court’s decision seemed to say that as long as peer-to-peer services did not “actively promote” infringement among its users, they were not liable. The act of promoting infringement was known as “inducement” in the court.  Gorton did not believe that as long as he did not “induce” user infringement that he would be in the clear.  According to Gorton, the court gave “a tool to judges that they can declare inducement whenever they want to” (Farzad).   
  
Gorton’s uncertainty of LimeWire’s future was justified, as LimeWire was served a cease and desist notice from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) only a few months after the Grokster decision on September 13, 2005.  Gorton refused to adhere to the RIAA’s demands (Samuelson).  Appropriately, the RIAA fired back, filing a lawsuit, which would eventually decide LimeWire’s fate almost a year after delivering the cease and desist order.  Thirteen record labels: Arista, Atlantic, BMG, Capitol, Elektra, Interscope, LaFace, Motown, Priority, Sony BMG, UMG, Virgin, and Warner Bros. joined forces to file their complaint of copyright infringement on August 4, 2006.  The suit claimed LimeWire is “devoted essentially the Internet piracy of recordings” and also implicated LimeWire’s inducement of its users, saying, “Defendants have continued to promote, market, and distribute LimeWire as the successor-in-infringement to these pirate services” (Arista v. LimeWire).  The pirate services the plaintiffs were referring to were of course the already defunct peer-to-peer services, Grokster, Napster, and Aimster.  
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Gorton’s uncertainty of LimeWire’s future was justified, as LimeWire was served a cease and desist notice from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) only a few months after the Grokster decision on September 13, 2005.  Gorton refused to adhere to the RIAA’s demands (Simmons).  Appropriately, the RIAA fired back, filing a lawsuit, which would eventually decide LimeWire’s fate almost a year after delivering the cease and desist order.  Thirteen record labels: Arista, Atlantic, BMG, Capitol, Elektra, Interscope, LaFace, Motown, Priority, Sony BMG, UMG, Virgin, and Warner Bros. joined forces to file their complaint of copyright infringement on August 4, 2006.  The suit claimed LimeWire is “devoted essentially the Internet piracy of recordings” and also implicated LimeWire’s inducement of its users, saying, “Defendants have continued to promote, market, and distribute LimeWire as the successor-in-infringement to these pirate services” (Arista v. LimeWire).  The pirate services to which the plaintiffs were referring were of course the already defunct peer-to-peer services, Grokster, Napster, and Aimster.  
  
Though the skies were dim for LimeWire in light of the decision of MGM v. Grokster, Gorton and LimeWire fired back strong, filing a countersuit against the RIAA a little over a month after the RIAA filed its complaint with LimeWire. Gorton’s countersuit made a sweeping claim that the RIAA had essentially violated the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts and had “formed an illegal cartel, conspiring to restrain trade in the market for online music distribution” (Samuelson). The language in the counterclaim was very heavy and pointed to a larger question regarding the conflict between development of all technology and content owners.  The counterclaim went onto imply that the music industry at large did not want any online music distributor not in their possession or doing business with them was to be eliminated (Kawamoto). LimeWire had detailed in the countersuit its attempt to work with the RIAA, which failed because the RIAA demanded that they use an approved filtering system or work with another file-sharing service iMesh, which had been working with the RIAA closely since 2004 after they settled on a copyright case (Corelis).
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Though the skies were dim for LimeWire in light of the decision of MGM v. Grokster, Gorton and LimeWire fired back strong, filing a countersuit against the RIAA a little over a month after the RIAA filed its complaint with LimeWire. Gorton’s countersuit made a sweeping claim that the RIAA had essentially violated the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts and had “formed an illegal cartel, conspiring to restrain trade in the market for online music distribution” (Simmons). The language in the counterclaim was very heavy and pointed to a larger question regarding the conflict between development of all technology and content owners.  The counterclaim went onto imply that the music industry at large did not want any online music distributor not in their possession or doing business with them was to be eliminated (Kawamoto). LimeWire had detailed in the countersuit its attempt to work with the RIAA, which failed because the RIAA demanded that they use an approved filtering system or work with another file-sharing service iMesh, which had been working with the RIAA closely since 2004 after they settled on a copyright case (Corelis).
  
LimeWire’s courageous and daring counterclaim would however be eventually dismissed a few years later in December 2007.  United States District Judge Gerald Lynch ruled that the counterclaim “fail[ed] to allege an adverse effect on competition market-wide” (Corelis).  His decision was also aided from the RIAA’s overwhelming amount of information in its defense, which included 100 GB of data or 29 million pages, while LimeWire did not present any other supporting evidence for the accusations made in its counterclaim (Corelis).  This decision was the first of many blows to LimeWire.  Before the dismissal of the counterclaim, Gorton was called to testify at a Congressional hearing in July 2007 for endangering National Security as, since sensitive government documents such as “military orders, confidential corporate accounting documents and localized terrorist threat assessments” (Germain).  Other information such as government employees’ personal tax forms, bank statements, and credit card numbers were also inadvertently shared through LimeWire.  Gorton did not choose his words carefully, saying that he was “unaware” of the sharing of sensitive information and that it was probably the “minor” result of  “inexperienced users” (Germain). Congress did not appreciate it, Rep. Darrell Issa of California fired back, declaring, “It’s not an anecdotal thing.  It is not only once in a while” (Germain).  Gorton embarrassingly had to apologize in front of Congress during his testimony and affirmed that LimeWire was committed to providing the most secure technology possible.  Two years later, Issa and others wrote a letter to Gorton, demanding a report on the progress of LimeWire’s security after getting letters from Attorney General Eric Holder and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz as they felt that LimeWire and other peer-to-peer services had not done enough to protect people’s privacy (Musgrove).
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LimeWire’s courageous and daring counterclaim would however be eventually dismissed a few years later in December 2007.  United States District Judge Gerald Lynch ruled that the counterclaim “fail[ed] to allege an adverse effect on competition market-wide” (Corelis).  His decision was also aided from the RIAA’s overwhelming amount of information in its defense, which included 100 GB of data or 29 million pages, while LimeWire did not present any other supporting evidence for the accusations made in its counterclaim (Corelis).  This decision was the first of many blows to LimeWire.  Before the dismissal of the counterclaim, Gorton was called to testify at a Congressional hearing in July 2007 for endangering National Security as, since sensitive government documents such as “military orders, confidential corporate accounting documents and localized terrorist threat assessments” (Germain).  Other information such as government employees’ personal tax forms, bank statements, and credit card numbers were also inadvertently shared through LimeWire.  Gorton did not choose his words carefully, saying that he was “unaware” of the sharing of sensitive information and that it was probably the “minor” result of  “inexperienced users” (Germain). Congress did not appreciate it, Rep. Darrell Issa of California fired back, declaring, “It’s not an anecdotal thing.  It is not only once in a while” (Germain).  Gorton embarrassingly had to apologize in front of Congress during his testimony and affirmed that LimeWire was committed to providing the most secure technology possible.  Two years later, Issa and others wrote a letter to Gorton, demanding a report on the progress of LimeWire’s security after getting letters from Attorney General Eric Holder and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz as they felt that LimeWire and other peer-to-peer services had not done enough to protect people’s privacy (Musgrove). It was very clear that Gorton and LimeWire had not done enough as Gorton was asked to why Michelle Obama’s safe house location and presidential motorcade routes were available on the website (Albanesius). 
  
All of these legal issues for LimeWire eventually culminated in May 2010, when the court finally ruled that LimeWire was indeed liable for the inducement of copyright infringement.  On May 11, 2010, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood decided that LimeWire was liable on the basis that the software enabled the exchange of over 3000 of the plaintiff;s recordings (Harris).  According to Wood, the evidence overwhelmingly proved that LimeWire users were infringing upon the record label’s copyright, and LimeWire encouraged this behavior through the development and maintenance of the software (Harris).  With this ruling, the RIAA pounced a filed for another lawsuit a month later.  On June 16, 2010, the four major music publishers, EMI, Sony/ATV, Universal, and Warner/Chappell, and four independent publishers filed one motion looking to get $150,000 for every song shared illegally and another motion for the shutdown of the website (Howley).
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All of these legal issues for LimeWire eventually culminated in May 2010, when the court finally ruled that LimeWire was indeed liable for the inducement of copyright infringement.  On May 11, 2010, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood decided that LimeWire was liable on the basis that the software enabled the exchange of over 3000 of the plaintiff;s recordings (Harris).  According to Wood, the evidence overwhelmingly proved that LimeWire users were infringing upon the record label’s copyright, and LimeWire encouraged this behavior through the development and maintenance of the software (Harris).  With this ruling, the other members of the music industry pounced and filed for another lawsuit a month later.  On June 16, 2010, the four major music publishers, EMI, Sony/ATV, Universal, and Warner/Chappell, and four independent publishers filed one motion looking to get $150,000 for every song shared illegally and another motion for the shutdown of the website (Howley). 
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Eventually, this case lead to the injunction issued on October 26, 2010.  Judge Kimba Wood again provided LimeWire the injunction, which instructed LimeWire to “cease the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and file distribution functionality of LimeWire’s P2P software” (Vijayan).  A spokesperson for LimeWire said that the injunction did not translate into a complete shutdown, but is rather stopping distribution at the moment of the peer-to-peer software.  LimeWire can still pursue other plans such as its proposed subscription based service and operate its online store (Vijayan).  Though it may seem like LimeWire still has some light with those statements, the company still waits a trial to determine the amount of damages for which LimeWire will be held liable.  The trial is tentatively scheduled for January 2011 (Vijayan).
  
 
== Death: Court Ruled Shutdown and Proliferation of BitTorrent and Storage Lockers ==
 
== Death: Court Ruled Shutdown and Proliferation of BitTorrent and Storage Lockers ==
  
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[[File:PirateBay.png|150px|thumb|left|The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular torrent websites.]]
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Though this injunction may seem like the official marker of LimeWire’s death that most people will note, LimeWire was already becoming replaced during its major legal battles with the RIAA.  Bittorrent, another form of peer-to-peer file, sharing had been increasingly becoming more popular as it allowed access to greater quantities of files.  With Bittorrent, one could obtain complete albums as opposed to single mp3 files like on LimeWire, movies, software applications, and e-books among other things (Yalung).  Not only does Bittorrent offer greater amounts of content, it also seems to be more secure than LimeWire because torrent files have a stricter screening process.  The torrent files also are not restricted to one location; one just needs to do simple Google searching to find the best torrent file available in various torrent hosting websites such as The Pirate Bay, BT Junkie, and Mininova.  To download these files, one only needs to install a torrent client.  The very first one of which was uTorrent, formerly known as Bittorrent.  Another very popular torrent client is Transmission for Mac.  The client is what enables all of the sharing and downloading of files.   
 
Though this injunction may seem like the official marker of LimeWire’s death that most people will note, LimeWire was already becoming replaced during its major legal battles with the RIAA.  Bittorrent, another form of peer-to-peer file, sharing had been increasingly becoming more popular as it allowed access to greater quantities of files.  With Bittorrent, one could obtain complete albums as opposed to single mp3 files like on LimeWire, movies, software applications, and e-books among other things (Yalung).  Not only does Bittorrent offer greater amounts of content, it also seems to be more secure than LimeWire because torrent files have a stricter screening process.  The torrent files also are not restricted to one location; one just needs to do simple Google searching to find the best torrent file available in various torrent hosting websites such as The Pirate Bay, BT Junkie, and Mininova.  To download these files, one only needs to install a torrent client.  The very first one of which was uTorrent, formerly known as Bittorrent.  Another very popular torrent client is Transmission for Mac.  The client is what enables all of the sharing and downloading of files.   
 
[[File:PirateBay.png|150px|thumb|left|The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular torrent websites.]]
 
  
 
In addition to the popularity of Bittorrent, the popularity of mp3 blogs and blog aggregators such as Hype Machine in the past several years have also become strong alternatives to LimeWire.  First popping up on the Web around 2004, many mp3 blogs were highly specialized and only offered downloads of obscure artists and genres.  These early websites such as Fluxblog and Stereogum were able to fly under the radar of the RIAA for a couple of reasons.  First, most early mp3 blogs gave a notice that the songs were for “sampling” only, and more importantly, record labels saw blogs as a new way to market music not traditionally offered in mainstream pop, giving bloggers permission to use songs in exchange for some free publicity (Pasick).  These blogs distribute mp3s not through Bittorrent or LimeWire, but “storage locker” or “third-party” websites such as Megashare or Mediafire (Schiffman).  The distribution of these mp3s through storage lockers would then be heightened exponentially through the popularity of aggregators, most notably, the Hype Machine.  Aggregators collect the data of various mp3 blogs in one website to produce a general landscape of what is popular among mp3 blogs through its rating system.  This system has been abused by recording artists and record labels through the manipulation of the Hype Machine ranking system in attempts to draw more publicity for certain bands (HypeMachine).  The combination of mp3 blogs and aggregators such as the Hype Machine also create a new environment for those searching for music to download.  Since much of the music found on these websites are stored in third-party websites, music can even be illegally downloaded through a simple Google search by entering an artist’s name or song name with the name of whatever storage locker website you can imagine, Mediafire, YouSendIt, Megashare, etc.  Though LimeWire has been legally halted, copyright infringement will rage on with all of these various options.
 
In addition to the popularity of Bittorrent, the popularity of mp3 blogs and blog aggregators such as Hype Machine in the past several years have also become strong alternatives to LimeWire.  First popping up on the Web around 2004, many mp3 blogs were highly specialized and only offered downloads of obscure artists and genres.  These early websites such as Fluxblog and Stereogum were able to fly under the radar of the RIAA for a couple of reasons.  First, most early mp3 blogs gave a notice that the songs were for “sampling” only, and more importantly, record labels saw blogs as a new way to market music not traditionally offered in mainstream pop, giving bloggers permission to use songs in exchange for some free publicity (Pasick).  These blogs distribute mp3s not through Bittorrent or LimeWire, but “storage locker” or “third-party” websites such as Megashare or Mediafire (Schiffman).  The distribution of these mp3s through storage lockers would then be heightened exponentially through the popularity of aggregators, most notably, the Hype Machine.  Aggregators collect the data of various mp3 blogs in one website to produce a general landscape of what is popular among mp3 blogs through its rating system.  This system has been abused by recording artists and record labels through the manipulation of the Hype Machine ranking system in attempts to draw more publicity for certain bands (HypeMachine).  The combination of mp3 blogs and aggregators such as the Hype Machine also create a new environment for those searching for music to download.  Since much of the music found on these websites are stored in third-party websites, music can even be illegally downloaded through a simple Google search by entering an artist’s name or song name with the name of whatever storage locker website you can imagine, Mediafire, YouSendIt, Megashare, etc.  Though LimeWire has been legally halted, copyright infringement will rage on with all of these various options.

Latest revision as of 15:44, 17 November 2010

Limewire-logo.jpg


History/Versions

In June 2000, CEO and Founder Mark Gorton launched LimeWire LLC. In August 2000, LimeWire launched the software that we know today, a free P2P (Peer to Peer) sharing program that used the Gnutella network (a large P2P network) to allow users to download audio, video, images, and other files from others users who were also on the network. LimeWire could be run on Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems. The first year of LimeWire’s existence resulted in over three million downloads, and over the years its popularity rose mainly because of its user-friendly nature and lack of cost. Just before LimeWire was issued a court order to shut down, the company claimed they had 50 million monthly users who downloaded over three billion songs per month. Through the years over 160 updated versions of LimeWire were released, most of which only made minor corrections to previous versions; some versions were even released one day apart.

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination

LimeWire version 1.5 was the third update ever, introducing color coding to mark download speeds of files. On September 7th, 2001, version 1.7 introduced the chat option, which allowed users who were downloading or uploading from each other to chat. Version 1.9 introduced swarm downloads, which allowed the user to download a file from multiple sources to make the process quicker. Version 2.5 was released on July 1st, 2002, and introduced the "browse host" feature. This allowed the user to view all of the shared files on other user's computers, so that one could download several more songs very quickly. Version 3.5, released in August 2003, set up a LimeWire playlist on iTunes and automatically added downloaded songs to this playlist.

In July of 2004, version 4.1.1 introduced "file view," which allowed users to share files through a URL. Other individuals could use this URL either to download the file straight from the web, or from LimeWire. Version 4.10.6 was released in February of 2006 and altered the search process to make it quicker and to filter out spam. This version also allowed for international characters to be used in searches, and it set the search to automatically filter junk results to the bottom of the list. Version 4.11 was launched in March 2006 and took a big step towards safety. LimeWire would now display messages notifying the user whether or not a particular file was safe to download. Furthermore, an image of a lock was placed next to secure results in a search. Finally, version 5.3 Beta introduced the obscene content filter.

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination

LimeWire Pro

This version of LimeWire sells for $34.95 per one year subscription and offers several advantages not included in the free version, such as faster downloads, a video player, access to BitTorrent, and anti-malware protection. LimeWire Pro also gives users 66% more search results, and access to free software updates for the first six months after purchase.

Credence

Credence was an add-on feature to LimeWire, created by two students at Cornell University in 2005. Credence was able to filter out corrupt files that frequented searches. Users could also vote on the quality of a file once they had downloaded it, and these votes would be stored in a record that would be visible to all other users.

LionShare

LionShare was developed at Penn State University, and was used strictly for file sharing between different universities.

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination
The FrostWire Logo

LimeWire Pirate Edition

After the shut down of LimeWire, a secret team of programmers called "Secret Dev Team" opened an unofficial and unauthorized version of LimeWire and called it “LimeWire Pirate Edition” (LPE). LPE is not endorsed by LimeWire, but it is based off and almost identical to LimeWire version 5.6, while also including LimeWire PRO features and eliminating spyware. LimeWire Pirate Edition is only available for Windows.

FrostWire

FrostWire is a sub branch of LimeWire and is written in Javascript, while also acting as a clean and open source program with no pop-ups or other annoying solicitations. The first release of FrostWire came in 2005 as a free program. FrostWire also has the chat feature, and is used mostly by Mac users.

Various Uses

Though LimeWire was most notably known for allowing users to share music, there were various other ways people have engaged with the technology. Interestingly enough, one of the more prevalent uses of LimeWire was actually the work of the RIAA, LimeWire’s arch nemesis, to catch users engaging in copyright infringing activities. Before its major legal actions against LimeWire itself, the RIAA had a rampant series of lawsuits against individuals who they believed to be violating copyright. To catch these people, the RIAA teamed up with a company called Media Sentry, which also developed programs that operate over the same Gnutella Network in which LimeWire exists (Butler). Media Sentry had a list of recordings from RIAA companies and utilized the search feature like any other LimeWire user, but then they collected the “hash” codes online that are on the files. These hash codes allowed LimeWire to pinpoint how many users were sharing that one file (Butler). When there were several users that have a file with the same hash code, it usually meant that the file was being illegally shared because the hash codes are very unique and can vary with the slightest change. For instance, a song ripped from a CD on your computer would have a different code if your friend ripped that same CD onto his or her computer (Butler).

When these files with identical hash codes are found, they are stored in Media Sentry’s database, and then Media Sentry and the RIAA decide how to proceed against infringers. Usually, Media Sentry records the IP address of the infringer as well, which the RIAA then utilizes to obtain the infringer’s name from one’s Internet provider (Butler). This method of hash code collecting is the main reason for the several lawsuits filed against various individuals for downloading sometimes only a handful of recordings. These individuals have been anyone from college students like those sued at University of Georgia in July 2007 (Quigley) to individuals who may have not even downloaded the music themselves, it just happened to be at their IP address. These suits were dubbed “John Doe” suits, which usually end up being settled for thousands of dollars outside of court (Knopper).

Along with identifying copyright infringers, authorities have also been able to track down sex offenders on various occasions due to users inadvertently sharing all of the files on their personal computer. In May 2007, FBI Agent Byron Mitchell was able to capture a child pornographer, Charles Borowy, through a simple search of “Lolitaguy,” a common child pornography term. Mitchell found 240 files of child pornography and used them as probable cause to arrest Borowy (Selby). In 2008, the FBI in Atlantic City, NJ, again was able to identify another child pornographer, Gary Gandy, who ended up having over 600 images and video of child pornography (PressofAtlanticCity).

Napster Bombing

Napster bombing refers to the practice of changing the name/artist of a song on a P2P network to that of a more famous band or musician. Users will click to listen to or download the song, thinking it is a new smash hit or at least a more popular song, only to find a completely different song released by a much more small-scale, usually underground or local artist. Artists do this to get more users to listen to or download their material, which usually would not have garnered much attention when under its proper name. Napster bombing can get very annoying due to the fact that the real song that is heard is often of poor quality and may even consist of a series of horrible noises. Napster bombing can even be thought of as spam in P2P networks.

Legal Troubles

Before the lawsuit leading to the shutdown of LimeWire, the most significant court case for Limewire and all other file sharing software was the 2005 case, MGM v. Grokster. In this case, the court essentially ruled that peer-to-peer file sharing companies can be liable for its users practice of illegal sharing of copyrighted items. Before this case, file-sharing companies such as Grokster and Limewire followed the precedent set forth in the 1984 case, Sony Corp. V. Universal City Studios, which ruled that Sony as producers of the Betamax, a technology capable of illegal copying of material, were protected from copyright infringement of its users because the technology was “capable of substantial noninfringing uses.” Through this ruling, Grokster had been able to side step the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had ruled that Grokster and other peer-to-peer service Morpheus were not liable for copyright violations made by their users (EFF.org). However, the Supreme Court overruled this outcome on June 27, 2005.

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LimeWire CEO, Mark Gorton


This ruling called into question the future of peer-to-peer filing services, and CEO Mark Gorton considered stopping the distribution of LimeWire after the decision (Farzad). The court’s decision seemed to say that as long as peer-to-peer services did not “actively promote” infringement among its users, they were not liable. The act of promoting infringement was known as “inducement” in the court. Gorton did not believe that as long as he did not “induce” user infringement that he would be in the clear. According to Gorton, the court gave “a tool to judges that they can declare inducement whenever they want to” (Farzad).

Gorton’s uncertainty of LimeWire’s future was justified, as LimeWire was served a cease and desist notice from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) only a few months after the Grokster decision on September 13, 2005. Gorton refused to adhere to the RIAA’s demands (Simmons). Appropriately, the RIAA fired back, filing a lawsuit, which would eventually decide LimeWire’s fate almost a year after delivering the cease and desist order. Thirteen record labels: Arista, Atlantic, BMG, Capitol, Elektra, Interscope, LaFace, Motown, Priority, Sony BMG, UMG, Virgin, and Warner Bros. joined forces to file their complaint of copyright infringement on August 4, 2006. The suit claimed LimeWire is “devoted essentially the Internet piracy of recordings” and also implicated LimeWire’s inducement of its users, saying, “Defendants have continued to promote, market, and distribute LimeWire as the successor-in-infringement to these pirate services” (Arista v. LimeWire). The pirate services to which the plaintiffs were referring were of course the already defunct peer-to-peer services, Grokster, Napster, and Aimster.

Though the skies were dim for LimeWire in light of the decision of MGM v. Grokster, Gorton and LimeWire fired back strong, filing a countersuit against the RIAA a little over a month after the RIAA filed its complaint with LimeWire. Gorton’s countersuit made a sweeping claim that the RIAA had essentially violated the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts and had “formed an illegal cartel, conspiring to restrain trade in the market for online music distribution” (Simmons). The language in the counterclaim was very heavy and pointed to a larger question regarding the conflict between development of all technology and content owners. The counterclaim went onto imply that the music industry at large did not want any online music distributor not in their possession or doing business with them was to be eliminated (Kawamoto). LimeWire had detailed in the countersuit its attempt to work with the RIAA, which failed because the RIAA demanded that they use an approved filtering system or work with another file-sharing service iMesh, which had been working with the RIAA closely since 2004 after they settled on a copyright case (Corelis).

LimeWire’s courageous and daring counterclaim would however be eventually dismissed a few years later in December 2007. United States District Judge Gerald Lynch ruled that the counterclaim “fail[ed] to allege an adverse effect on competition market-wide” (Corelis). His decision was also aided from the RIAA’s overwhelming amount of information in its defense, which included 100 GB of data or 29 million pages, while LimeWire did not present any other supporting evidence for the accusations made in its counterclaim (Corelis). This decision was the first of many blows to LimeWire. Before the dismissal of the counterclaim, Gorton was called to testify at a Congressional hearing in July 2007 for endangering National Security as, since sensitive government documents such as “military orders, confidential corporate accounting documents and localized terrorist threat assessments” (Germain). Other information such as government employees’ personal tax forms, bank statements, and credit card numbers were also inadvertently shared through LimeWire. Gorton did not choose his words carefully, saying that he was “unaware” of the sharing of sensitive information and that it was probably the “minor” result of “inexperienced users” (Germain). Congress did not appreciate it, Rep. Darrell Issa of California fired back, declaring, “It’s not an anecdotal thing. It is not only once in a while” (Germain). Gorton embarrassingly had to apologize in front of Congress during his testimony and affirmed that LimeWire was committed to providing the most secure technology possible. Two years later, Issa and others wrote a letter to Gorton, demanding a report on the progress of LimeWire’s security after getting letters from Attorney General Eric Holder and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz as they felt that LimeWire and other peer-to-peer services had not done enough to protect people’s privacy (Musgrove). It was very clear that Gorton and LimeWire had not done enough as Gorton was asked to why Michelle Obama’s safe house location and presidential motorcade routes were available on the website (Albanesius).

All of these legal issues for LimeWire eventually culminated in May 2010, when the court finally ruled that LimeWire was indeed liable for the inducement of copyright infringement. On May 11, 2010, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood decided that LimeWire was liable on the basis that the software enabled the exchange of over 3000 of the plaintiff;s recordings (Harris). According to Wood, the evidence overwhelmingly proved that LimeWire users were infringing upon the record label’s copyright, and LimeWire encouraged this behavior through the development and maintenance of the software (Harris). With this ruling, the other members of the music industry pounced and filed for another lawsuit a month later. On June 16, 2010, the four major music publishers, EMI, Sony/ATV, Universal, and Warner/Chappell, and four independent publishers filed one motion looking to get $150,000 for every song shared illegally and another motion for the shutdown of the website (Howley). Eventually, this case lead to the injunction issued on October 26, 2010. Judge Kimba Wood again provided LimeWire the injunction, which instructed LimeWire to “cease the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and file distribution functionality of LimeWire’s P2P software” (Vijayan). A spokesperson for LimeWire said that the injunction did not translate into a complete shutdown, but is rather stopping distribution at the moment of the peer-to-peer software. LimeWire can still pursue other plans such as its proposed subscription based service and operate its online store (Vijayan). Though it may seem like LimeWire still has some light with those statements, the company still waits a trial to determine the amount of damages for which LimeWire will be held liable. The trial is tentatively scheduled for January 2011 (Vijayan).

Death: Court Ruled Shutdown and Proliferation of BitTorrent and Storage Lockers

The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular torrent websites.

Though this injunction may seem like the official marker of LimeWire’s death that most people will note, LimeWire was already becoming replaced during its major legal battles with the RIAA. Bittorrent, another form of peer-to-peer file, sharing had been increasingly becoming more popular as it allowed access to greater quantities of files. With Bittorrent, one could obtain complete albums as opposed to single mp3 files like on LimeWire, movies, software applications, and e-books among other things (Yalung). Not only does Bittorrent offer greater amounts of content, it also seems to be more secure than LimeWire because torrent files have a stricter screening process. The torrent files also are not restricted to one location; one just needs to do simple Google searching to find the best torrent file available in various torrent hosting websites such as The Pirate Bay, BT Junkie, and Mininova. To download these files, one only needs to install a torrent client. The very first one of which was uTorrent, formerly known as Bittorrent. Another very popular torrent client is Transmission for Mac. The client is what enables all of the sharing and downloading of files.

In addition to the popularity of Bittorrent, the popularity of mp3 blogs and blog aggregators such as Hype Machine in the past several years have also become strong alternatives to LimeWire. First popping up on the Web around 2004, many mp3 blogs were highly specialized and only offered downloads of obscure artists and genres. These early websites such as Fluxblog and Stereogum were able to fly under the radar of the RIAA for a couple of reasons. First, most early mp3 blogs gave a notice that the songs were for “sampling” only, and more importantly, record labels saw blogs as a new way to market music not traditionally offered in mainstream pop, giving bloggers permission to use songs in exchange for some free publicity (Pasick). These blogs distribute mp3s not through Bittorrent or LimeWire, but “storage locker” or “third-party” websites such as Megashare or Mediafire (Schiffman). The distribution of these mp3s through storage lockers would then be heightened exponentially through the popularity of aggregators, most notably, the Hype Machine. Aggregators collect the data of various mp3 blogs in one website to produce a general landscape of what is popular among mp3 blogs through its rating system. This system has been abused by recording artists and record labels through the manipulation of the Hype Machine ranking system in attempts to draw more publicity for certain bands (HypeMachine). The combination of mp3 blogs and aggregators such as the Hype Machine also create a new environment for those searching for music to download. Since much of the music found on these websites are stored in third-party websites, music can even be illegally downloaded through a simple Google search by entering an artist’s name or song name with the name of whatever storage locker website you can imagine, Mediafire, YouSendIt, Megashare, etc. Though LimeWire has been legally halted, copyright infringement will rage on with all of these various options.

References

Arista Records, LLC. v. LimeWire, LLC. Civ. 05936. 26 Oct. 2010. Web. <http://download.limewire.com/injunction/Injunction.pdf>

Corelis, Tom. “Judge Throws Out Lime Wire Countersuit.” Dailytech.com. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://www.dailytech.com/Judge+Throws+Out+Limewire+Countersuit/article9900.htm>

Farzad, Roben, and Saul Hansell. "Sharing Culture Likely to Pause but Not Wither." New York Times, 28 Jun 2005. Web. Accessed: 16 Nov 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/technology/28peer.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2>.

Germain, Jack. “Committee Grills LimeWire CEO Over P2P Security.” Ecommerce Times. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/58511.html?wlc=1289848253&wlc=1289937483>

Harris, Andrew. “Lime Wire Induced Copyright Infringement, Judge Rules (Update 1).” Bloomberg Business Week, 12 May 2010. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-12/lime-wire-induced-copyright-infringement-judge-rules-update1-.html>

Howley, Nicole. “Copyright Infringement: Music producers sue Limewire for file-sharing service.” Justice News Flash, 10 Jun 2010. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://www.newyorkinjurynews.com/2010/06/24/Copyright-Infringement-Music-producers-sue-Limewire-for-file-sharing-service_201006244099.html>

Kawamaoto, Dawn. “Lime Wire, squeezed, files countersuit.” Cnet News. Web. 16 Nov 2010. < http://news.cnet.com/Lime-Wire,-squeezed,-files-countersuit/2100-1030_3-6119646.html>

Musgrove, Mike. “House Committee Sets Sights On LimeWire.” Washington Post, 21 Apr 2009. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2009/04/house_committee_sets_sights_on.html>

Pasick, Adam. “MP3 blogs serve rare songs, dusty grooves.” Reuters. Web. 16 Nov 2010. < http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/music/2004-07-08-mp3blogs_x.htm>

Schiffman, Betsy. “MP3 Blogs Offer File Sharing Even the RIAA Could Love.” Wired. Web. 16 Nov 2010. < http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2007/12/mp3_blogs>

Simmons, Sarah. “LimeWire Strikes Back against the RIAA (Cartel?).” Chilling Effects. Web. 16 Nov 2010. < http://www.chillingeffects.org/weather.cgi?WeatherID=556>

Vijayan, Jaikumar. “Court orders LimeWire to cease file-sharing business.” Computerworld.com. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9193199/Court_orders_LimeWire_to_cease_file_sharing_business>

Yalung, Brian. "LimeWire vs. BitTorrent: File Sharing Comparison." Hubpages.com. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://hubpages.com/hub/LimeWire_vs_BitTorrent_File_Sharing_Comparison_>.

“MGM v. Grokster.” EFF.org. Web. 16 Nov 2010. <http://w2.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/>