Limewire, a popular peer-to-peer file sharing website from the early 2000s that went defunct in 2010, is making a re-entry in the market with a digital collectible marketplace at the hands of its new owners.
LimeWire, the go to peer-to-peer (P2P) platform for 90’s kids looking to download movies, movies, games and software, is looking to make a comeback at a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in May this year.
The infamous platform, asked to shut down over a decade ago by US Courts for facilitating copyright infringement, plans on creating a legitimate iteration of itself this time around.
Rather than facilitating illegal downloads where artists get ripped off, the plan is to have a place where musicians can actually sell their music. According to the founders, most of the revenue will go to the artists with only a small cut coming back to the company. As of right now, the project is being funded by the Zehetmayr duo. The company may seek outside funding sometime later this year.
The LimeWire website is now live with an open public waitlist. According to the current timeline, the marketplace will launch sometime in May followed by an LMWR Token sale in Q4 of 2022.
Written in the Java programming language, LimeWire can run on any computer with a Java Virtual Machine installed. Installers were provided for Apple’s Mac OS X, Microsoft’s Windows, and Linux.
Support for Mac OS 9 and other previous versions was dropped with the release of LimeWire 4.0.10. From version 4.8 onwards, LimeWire works as a UPnP Internet Gateway Device controller in that it can automatically set up packet-forwarding rules with UPnP-capable routers.
LimeWire offers sharing of its library through the Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP). As such, when LimeWire is running and configured to allow it, any files shared are detectable and downloaded on the local network by DAAP-enabled devices (e.g., Zune, iTunes).
Beginning with LimeWire 4.13.9, connections can be encrypted with Transport Layer Security (TLS). Following LimeWire 4.13.11, TLS became the default connection option.
Being free software, LimeWire has spawned forks, including LionShare, an experimental software development project at Penn State University and Acquisition, a Mac OS X-based gnutella client with a proprietary interface.
Researchers at Cornell University developed a reputation management add-in called Credence that allows users to distinguish between “genuine” and “suspect” files before downloading them. An October 12, 2005, report states that some of LimeWire’s contributors have forked the project and called it FrostWire.
LimeWire was the second file sharing program after Frostwire to support firewall-to-firewall file transfers, a feature introduced in version 4.2, which was released in November 2004. LimeWire also now includes BitTorrent support, but is limited to three torrent uploads and three torrent downloads, which coexist with ordinary downloads. LimeWire 5.0 added an instant messenger that uses the XMPP Protocol, a free software communication protocol. Users can chat and share files with individuals or a group of friends in their buddy list.
