Lime Wire tells Congress its P2P software is safe now

In response to the reopening of an investigation into inadvertent file sharing with peer-to-peer software, an executive for Lime Wire told Congress in a letter on Friday that the new version of the program is "the most secure file-sharing software available."

The main investigative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives reopened a probe of Lime Wire and other peer-to-peer file-sharing companies last week, citing data breaches blamed on the technology.

In February, a security firm alleged that information about President Obama's helicopter was breached via P2P. There have also been reports of inadvertent exposure of consumer financial data and medical records over peer-to-peer, according to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

In a letter sent Friday to the Committee and congressional members, Mark Gorton, the chairman of Lime Wire parent Lime Group, said LimeWire 5, released on December 8, was designed to eliminate inadvertent file sharing in response to privacy concerns.

LimeWire 5 by default does not share documents, it automatically un-shares documents a user may have shared using an older version of the software, and by default will not share documents regardless of whether they exist in a folder that has been shared or whether a user shared the document in an older version, said Gorton's letter, a copy of which was obtained by CNET News.

"In short, there is absolutely no way to access a LimeWire 5 user's documents unless that user affirmatively elects to make them available," he wrote. "LimeWire 5 does not share any file of any type without explicit permission from the user."

Meanwhile, the company has no specific information about the reports of data breaches that the Committee had mentioned, Gorton said.

The Committee initially launched its probe into inadvertent file-sharing with P2P in mid-2007 and had called Gorton and others to testify.

Meanwhile, another congressional subcommittee is planning to hold a hearing on P2P technology. The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection has scheduled a hearing for Monday at 2 p.m. EDT on the "Informed P2P User Act," introduced by California Rep. Mary Bono Mack, a Republican, her office said.

Scheduled to testify at the hearing are the Federal Trade Commission, the Business Software Alliance, the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Distributed Computing Industry Association, Tiversa, and the Progress and Freedom Foundation.

Lime Group's letter assures Congress that its new peer-to-peer software eliminates inadvertent file-sharing.

(Credit: Lime Group)

[contentcreator--2008]

It's nice he's being so helpful. I must have missed the part where he said he would work equally hard to ensure that users do not inadvertently share copyrighted information of which they are not the copyright owner.

[Maccess]

It's a pity that Limewire hasn't developed that rights determination--it would have made it a great platform for creators sharing previews or excerpts of their work.

Quick question: What's harder than finding illegitimate MP3s and movies on the Net? Answer: Finding Legitimate MP3s and Movies on the net that artists have released for digital distribution.

e.g. lets say I'm looking for the original P2P released movie trailer of a certain movie, searching on the net turns up dozens of copies, most of which are not the original, some have viruses or malware. Having some kind of rights confirmation system wuld help me find the legitimate copy.

[unknown unknown]

Installing the new limewire takes you through a sharing setup and unchecking the boxes labeled video and audio quickly take care of that problem.

There is only so much you can do to save users form themselves.

@Maccess you can set it to return only works with a license attached. Since Limewire has integrated Creative Commons licensing.

[Aaron.Walkhouse]

"It's nice he's being so helpful. I must have missed the part where he said he would work equally hard to ensure that users do not inadvertently share copyrighted information of which they are not the copyright owner."

Actually, you did. Several years ago LimeWire added a license check mechanism in the software that referred to servers in New York whenever a user wanted to download a file and confirmed whether it was permitted by the copyright holder.

The big labels refused to put it to use, chose to sue LimeWire instead and have been in court ever since, trying hard to keep their self-inflicted predicament out of the public eye because LimeWire has been holding their business practices up to the light and the court wouldn't shield them from scrutiny.

In the meantime, Maccess, the fight against the spam goes on and even without the rights check (which you can still turn on at any time) the spam problem will start dying out as more people upgrade to version 5 and as this new version matures.

[money-matters]

Wow, its been so long since i used this software im surprised to see its still alive...

[subsider34]

What exactly does the "Informed P2P User Act" entail?

[unknown unknown]

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.1319.IH:

[JCPayne]

Why does Congress keep calling in companies to scold them publicly? Isn't that job supposed to be done by the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission or Department of Justice???? If those agencies are seen as not being able to handle those tasks any longer perhaps they should disband those agencies and pass on the financial savings with a tax cut. Since Congress likes to call in every company they are un happy with for a tongue-lashing perhaps they don't have enough work to-do themselves and they can take that up as a full time role...

[JCPayne]

If the DOJ, FCC, or FTC can't be seen as able to handle their role perhaps they should make it a post that gets voted on by the American public instead of a Presidential appointment.

[og_gta]

You see... people need to be educated. If people knew how to work a tool and/or somebody would teach them how to use it, then they can do so many things with that tool. If people educated themselves, then people would know how to use that education for themselves and educate themselves without somebody doing it for them.

And if people knew how to use a program, even reading the FAQ or looking at what they are doing, and people seriously need to RTFM, then things like these mistakes wouldn't have happened.

But meh that's how some people get a paycheck, right? lol

[nashville2]

What the heck is Congress doing in the software business anyway? Or the music business? Or the movie business? Or the banking business? Or the insurance business? Or the car business?

Atlas will shrug.

[JCPayne]

Another one too... Baseball players and steroids... I would think as a private body the MLB should have dealt with that.

[unknown unknown]

It's called grandstanding, in this case at the behest of certain large copyright holders who will do anything to cast P2P technology in a negative light.

[markdauvid]

the one thing about lime wire is even after you uninstall it it is not uninstalled and you can't uninstall and there is no way to contact lime wire to ask them how to uninstall lime wire after you have uninstalled it.

[Aaron.Walkhouse]

Come to the support forums and you'll get plenty of help with that. They are still at forums.limewire.com and I am easy to find once you get there. ;]

[Trifrian]

I have a thought. Don't download it in the first place and risk the legality of your name and the function of your computer? Gez, thinking sure does help sometimes.

[Aaron.Walkhouse]

Possession of LimeWire is not a crime, nor does it mess up your computer. Keep on thinking past that first thought, because stopping every time you have a thought always leads to error. :p

[Trifrian]

Yeah, sure, Limewire isn't illegal, but downloading and purloining illegal content is, which is the primary purpose of Limewire, and I beg to differ about your virus comment. Limewire download details are not specified when you download material, thus you are left with your incompetence triumphing over basic instinct. On another note, I am an open person, and logical reasoning can stop me from doing a foolish thing, such as downloading illegal copyrighted music, I don't see why you think that Limewire music and videos are legal, it's clearly not. I will go out on a limb when I feel safe, secure and prepared, and trust me, that has got me places, such as 3rd in my high school class, high honors every term for all of my 4 years in high school and a secure job as a owner of thriving company. Please, just think.

[donjr43]

need musici

[aaasolanki]

Just tried to use Version 5 a few days ago and I must say it is pretty much infested with trojans/malware.