LimeWire - File Sharing - Comments

Bob, I have a friend whose family is constantly using LimeWire and after each session she said she has to scrub the garbage (meaning cookies, spyware, etc.) out of her computer. My two sons who are IT Techs say this site provides a lot of pirated software programs.

EDITOR'S NOTE: LimeWire isn't a site, per se. It's more of a co-operative, wherein individuals can make ANY type of file available for sharing. So yes, pirated software, movies and music may be found there. And sometimes the pirated software is modified to include malware.

I have downloaded things from Limewire but I have also found that a lot of stuff on there is not what you think you are downloading. And you can most certainly get trojans and virus's from the p2p. You have to be very careful. If you are downloading a game and it is only 228 kb, there is a problem there.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I didn't say that one couldn't download a virus, spyware via LimeWire. You most certainly can! I did say the the LimeWire software is safe in the sense that it contains no malware. So you CAN use it safely if you stay away from executable files and copyrighted material.

What about copying CD's to you home computer so that you can listen to your favories while surfing and then emailing a song here or there to a friend? Is it the file sharing with strangers thru a website or a co-operative that is illegal or any kind of exchange at all? Does a program like Musicmatch Jukebox report back to "big brother" when files are copied?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Some argue that occasional "sampling" of music like this actually drives more sales, by exposing people to a new artist. Although there's no technical difference between this and downloading in bulk from a P2P service (in terms of copyright violation) it does seem less onerous to me, and there's little or no likelihood that anyone will ever know.

Don't know about malware, etc., but my son who is raising a 12 year boy, found his computer had slowed to a near halt. Dad to the rescue. Found that LimeWire was accessing the internet and gobbling up 100% of CPU cycles. Killed it!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Was it perhaps downloading a huge file, at the request of the 12-year-old? :-)

Near on every program you may want to download from Limewire is a full blown virus,also the extension MOV is the same video all the time.my virus checker is the Avast and it never lies,so dont use Limewire be warned ...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Once again, it's not LimeWire that's the problem. It's the CONTENT (files) that malicious or uninformed users choose to make available to other LimeWire users. I would strongly advise people NOT to download any executable from a non-trusted source.

Most filesharing services have very aggressive sharing turned on by default - and encourage you to share with others by giving a lower download priority to "leechers" (those who don't share). Moreover, the download directory is often shared by default - meaning that if you download a particularly popular file for your own use, you may not realize that you're sharing it out to thousands of others even once the download is complete. The program often stays 'alive' in the background even after you have exited it, and you end up sharing content whenever your system is connected to the internet.

If your kids (or you) have installed Limewire, Bittorrent, Kazaa, or another such filesharing application, CHECK THE APPLICATION'S SETTINGS and make sure it's not set to share out any more than you want it to. And make sure they EXIT IT COMPLETELY once the download is complete.

Why? As noted in an earlier comment, sharing files out can negatively affect your internet bandwidth and performance. Furthermore, if you're downloading (and sharing) copyright-protected content, keep in mind that that activity is very PUBLIC. Copyright owners DO contract organizations to check popular peer-to-peer filesharing services for copyright-protected files, and they DO followup with a user's internet service provider or even followup with a lawsuit. I manage a university network, and I regularly receive complaints from copyright-holders regarding filesharing activity by our users.

You say "a digital download of a song you've already purchased doesn't cost or deprive the artist or the record company at all." But I don't see how this is so. If I transfer the song from someone else's computer instead of buying another copy from the store, both the artist and the record company lose out. I bought the song that was on the CD that the dog ate, not the digital file on someone else's computer. How is this not depriving the producers of income?

EDITOR'S NOTE:I think you're splitting hairs. In a world where the digital equivalent was not available at the click of a button, your argument would make sense. Wouldn't it be nice if the recording industry provided a legal way to download a digital copy of something for which you had a proof of purchase?

Bob, your wording and description of the copyright situation I think is one of the better ones I've heard. I even used to be a 'no copying no matter what' kind of person but some scenarios you describe seem to me to hold validity.

Your last comment in particular really covers it whereby a song is effectively a piece of software which you have purchased via the medium of a CD. Just because the piece of plastic the software came on is now no longer functional doesn't take away from the fact you have paid for the priviledge of accessing it's contents.

Also, I guess if there are artists who are happy to have their material shared in this way you can't really argue with that and therefore, share away! I guess the cloudiness this can add to the whole issue though isn't great in terms of which material can and can't I share.

Sorry, what are we talking about here... Limewire, oh yeah that's right ;-) Personally any file sharing software like this is something I would stay well away from, I can do/get all the things online that I need to do/get without it, so why open up a gateway to my precious PC no matter how well secured it's meant to be.

Bob, the first time I became aware of Limewire was when I all of a sudden saw a stream in my iTunes source overview. The stream included the userid of a co-worker, in my case that would be wolffrm. We have a windows nt environment and an ethernet network. I could see what he was down-loading. No idea if this is indicative of a privacy/safety breach that could be used by wrong-doers, but thought it might be interesting to mention.

EDITOR'S NOTE: My guess is that he was downloading to a network shared folder. But I can't see how your system is configured, so can't be sure.

This brings up the same issues that the movie people had years ago when the VCR and when the cassette player first came out. Is it legal to tape a song off the radio and to tape a movie for viewing later? If so, why can't you "download" a song you heard on the radio?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Isn't "viewing later" quite different than "keeping permanently" in your library?