LimeWire
Year First Appeared
2000
Creator
Mark Gorton, Greg Bildson, Chris Rohrs
LimeWire was a free peer-to-peer file sharing client that allowed users to search for and exchange digital files across a decentralized network using the Gnutella protocol. Launched in 2000 by Mark Gorton, it became the most widely used file-sharing application of the mid-2000s before being shut down by court order in 2010.
Importance in Internet Culture
LimeWire was the flagship application of the post-Napster P2P era. At its peak in 2006, the application had nearly 4 million daily users and was responsible for an estimated 3 billion music downloads per month. Its landmark legal case, Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC (2010), established inducement liability for file-sharing platforms, fundamentally reshaping copyright law and ending the era of centralized P2P sharing.
Interesting Fact
LimeWire's founding CTO, Greg Bildson, initially didn't realize the product was being built at his company, he was focused on winding down a previous project (Lime Objects) when he discovered an engineer had been experimenting with the Gnutella protocol nearby. The name LimeWire came from Gorton's plan to build a suite of Lime-branded companies. They considered LimeNode but rejected it as too close to a competitor called ToadNode.