Limewire | Is It Legal Or Illegal?

[joseph0829 0]

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.

[Sten 0]

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.

[wutske 0]

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.

[joseph0829 0]

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.

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

[turbopowerdmaxsteel 0]

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.

[Quatrux 4]

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

[toby 0]

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.

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

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: https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/ search for Marillian on Tanaris server, that's me)

[Sophia The Zombie 0]

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

[WentDo 0]

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

look here

[kgd2006 0]

Limewire is most likely a illegal program that I am sure is being tracked by RIAA, any programs that doesnt have a price tag per download is most likely illegal. Limeware for the meantime has been lucky that it hasnt encountered too much attention, because there are various programs out there that has been balancing the load of interest for RIAA to take any big action on limewire like they did on NAPSTER. NAPSTER was the "program" that everyone used and so the peer ratio was enormous and downloads were almost instant cause so many people were sharing. But since that has been closed and napster turned into a paying service. Everything for them went downhill. Not only that but with fines reaching shared users these days it has scared a lot of people from using programs such as limewire, and even if they did they would turn off the sharing feature that makes searching for music and such easy. Now its hard to find resources to download a file like when we did back then. I used to use limewire as the "other" program with the passing of napster, but after all the dud files I got from limewire, I turned to website sources for my downloads now. I found that the website resources gives me much better download speed than if I was to search on limewire, not only that but the quality is also better. Limewire files seems to have too many washed and depreciated quality in mp3 formats. I have learned to use google in a way to search for all my music that I look for, next thing you know RIAA will probably work with google to stop the search for mp3 formats, till that day happens I will probably just continue to download as much as i can before that day happens which it eventually will. Because like everything in life nothing lasts forever and you should appreciate while you still have it now.

[iGuest 3]

Sten made a very good point it would not be legal simply because Artists would not give away there song for free! Why dont people just pay by iTunes!

[Brian010011405241556 0]

I agree with what you guys or girls are saying. Limewire is both legal and illegal. Its all up to how you use it. There is oviously illegal music, vids, files ect... everywhere but its all up to whether or not you choose to use or download them. Its like how here in Canada you can get on a bus from the back doors and they wont say anything. They will even let you by opening the doors for you but getting on without paying is illegal. So its solely up to you whether or not you pay for your music. I personally think you should because i know it sucks having to pay and i hate it to but by paying that few dollars a month or whatever currency you use you keep music alive. I know as an artist that its hard to pay for everything when people don't support you. There is alot people downloading don't concider. I have to pay for my software licences and the equipment and other expences to make the music i make. Hope that helps.

[superJazz 0]

The software is legal, the server is legal, but the uploading and downloading side isn't. A company cannot sue Limewire for anything it's users have done. However, it can sue the users for using the service. If the software you download has been made commercially available via Open Source, then you are OK. If not, then it is illegal.

[skedad 0]

I remember back in the day, ok like the 80's and early 90's. When CDs were first being manufactured, not everyone had a CD player... they had these little cartridges called cassette tapes.... and you didn't connect it to the PC... hmmmm, so had did you get a chance to listen to the new music!? You waited until it came on the radio, and you recorded it through your light pink boom box... It also did not have definition sound... and it also wasn't paid for... So like, if someone found out you were listening to Color Me Bad for free, did they take away your boombox!? How do you take away sound waves from a radio station....Yes, downloading music not from iPod and Apple is illegal, but isn't it the same that if you didn't buy the cassette tapes and recorded it from the radio, and made a copy for your pals to jam to... Isn't that the same idea, but with different media!!??... think real hard about that one...Maybe it is just easy to be very critical about it, now that it can be traced...(This is an opinion... it obviously does not change the rules any!) If people want to pirate music over the net, they are going to... the smart thing to do is not be one of these people, and you will not be in trouble!