What is "limewire"

LimeWire was a free peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) client program that ran on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other operating systems supported by the Java software platform. LimeWire used the gnutella network as well as the BitTorrent protocol. A freeware version and a purchasable "enhanced" version were available. BitTorrent support is provided by libtorrent.

On October 26, 2010, U.S. federal court judge Kimba Wood issued an injunction forcing LimeWire to prevent "the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality, and/or all functionality" of its software in Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC. A trial investigating the damages necessary to compensate the affected record labels was scheduled to begin in January 2011. As a result of the injunction, LimeWire stopped distributing the LimeWire software, and versions 5.5.11 and newer have been disabled using a backdoor installed by the company. However, version 5.5.10 and all prior versions of LimeWire remain fully functional and cannot be disabled unless a user upgrades to one of the newer versions. The program has been "resurrected" by the creators of WireShare (formerly known as LimeWire Pirate Edition).