[ 13. The LimeWire Website | Software ]

[ The LimeWire Website www.limewire.com ]

LimeWire is a free Peer-to-Peer filesharing software for the Java Platform, which runs on the Gnutella Network, linking users and enables them to share files between one another. The software has a very wide reach, increasing the size of its already global network and thus, the more people who download it, the more files are available, which means that more people download it. The audience is not a specialised demographic, but LimeWire’s main audience is tended to the younger generation as these are both the audience who would like to use it most and actually know how to. LimeWire replaces mail and attatchments, and physical interactions between people, of USB-pens or CDs, etc.

[ In Detail ]
LimeWire fundamentally allows the consumers to share whatever file they like directly over the internet, the only catch is that they cannot specify who they send it to, thus if one person can see and download it, so can everyone on the network, which hosts hundreds of thousands of people at any one time. The proliferation of high-speed broadband has aided LimeWire, allowing faster downloads and the progression in programming techniques and programs allows for a better software package.
LimeWire has come under some criticism for its clear breaches of copyright, as it is primarily used by the great majority of users to exchange music for free. LimeWire has considered closing down the network and ceasing downloads of the software in light of the MGM [ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ] decision against Grokster in the US supreme court stating that P2P companies Grokster and Streamcast could be sued for inducing copyright infringement for acts taken in the course of marketing file sharing software. This has been called the most important intellectual property case in decades.
LimeWire is a very good example of reach, audience distribution and horizontal integration.