Is LimeWire back from the dead?
TorrentFreak reported on Tuesday that a "secret dev team" has resurrected the beleaguered peer-to-peer site as LimeWire Pirate Edition (LPE). The new site is based on LimeWire 5.6 beta, which was released earlier this year but pulled amidst legal troubles.
"All dependencies on LimeWire LLC's servers have been removed, all remote settings have been disabled, the Ask toolbar has been unbundled, and all features of LimeWire PRO have been activated for free," a source told TorrentFreak. "LimeWire Pirate Edition should work better than the last functioning version of LimeWire (5.5.10), and it should keep working for longer. There's no adware or spyware: the piratical monkeys are doing this for the benefit of the community."
LimeWire said it is not involved in LPE. "We are not behind these efforts. LimeWire does not authorize them," a spokesperson said in an e-mail. "LimeWire is complying with the Court's October 26, 2010 injunction."
In late October, a court-ordered injunction forced Lime Wire LLC to block its LimeWire service from the Gnutella P2P network. LimeWire had to "disable 'the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality, and/or all functionality; of LimeWire's P2P file-sharing software," the company said at the time.
In an updated notice posted to its Web site Tuesday evening, LimeWire demanded the LimeWire Pirate Edition cease operations.
"We have very recently become aware of applications on the Internet purporting to use the LimeWire name, such as the LimeWire Pirate Edition," the notice said in part. "We demand that all persons using the LimeWire software, name, or trademark in order to upload or download copyrighted works in any manner cease and desist from doing so. We further remind you that the unauthorized uploading and downloading of copyrighted works is illegal."
The LimeWire shutdown is a consequence of a June suit filed by the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA), following a similar suit by of 13 record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which also sued LimeWire for copyright infringement. The judge in that case ruled for the RIAA.
Days after the shutdown, the RIAA said in a blog post that LimeWire's accomplishments were nothing to write home about.
"The operators of LimeWire continue to tout how 'proud' they are of their service," the RIAA wrote. "To be clear, for the better part of the last decade, LimeWire and its operators have violated the law, and in doing so, enriched themselves immensely."
The RIAA declined comment.