For years, people have been illegally downloading media for free through LimeWire. LimeWire is a program that allows for peer-to-peer transfer of files. To put it simply, people upload their media and other people attain copies of them through LimeWire; completely free. Earlier today, the US court shut down LimeWire saying it infringed copyright laws on an enormous scale. People all over the world are wondering what to do. The US court thinks that people will switch to actually BUYING their music. However, a few of my friends have already found alternatives programs that work similarly to LimeWire. For example, FrostWire, BearShare, and Ares are all variations of peer-to-peer file transfer programs. The deactivation of LimeWire by the US Courts was a useless decision. I don’t think this action will help the music market much since people will just search for other ways to download music for free. Downloading free music has been done so much in this society that it is a norm even though it is illegal. LimeWire’s “customers” will just flock to alternatives. LimeWire shut down? No big deal.
In class, there has been some discussion on businesses and their competition. The shut down of LimeWire sheds a little light on the competition of the music industry and competition that exists between peer-to-peer programs found on the internet.
SOURCE: TELEGRAPH