File-sharing service LimeWire, which shut down in 2011 under fire from the music industry, is making a comeback as a digital collectibles marketplace for art and entertainment, initially focusing on music.
LimeWire is a discontinued free software peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) client for Windows, OS X, Linux and Solaris.
LimeWire uses the gnutella network as well as the BitTorrent protocol.
On October 26, 2010, U.S. federal court judge Kimba Wood issued an injunction ordering 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.
As a result of the injunction, LimeWire stopped distributing the LimeWire software.
Launched in 2000, LimeWire became the world's biggest outlet for people to share music, movies, and TV shows free of charge over the internet, attracting 50 million monthly users at its peak popularity.
Blaming piracy as one of the main reasons for declining music sales, record companies sued LimeWire in 2006, forcing it to shut down five years later.
But now LimeWire plans to start NFTs.
While NFTs would allow artists and musicians to have more control over digital copies of their work, the nascent market is rife with scams, fraud and market manipulation.
LimeWire said it will partner with the music industry and the artists, who can sell pre-release music, unreleased demos, graphical artwork, exclusive live versions, as well as digital merchandise and backstage content.
The new LimeWire team, spread over Austria, Germany and the UK, plans to launch the service in May that would allow music fans and collectors to buy and trade a variety of music-related assets.
It plans to give up to 90% of the revenue to the artists and looking to onboard one million users within the first year.
Source: Wikipedia, reuters