Opinion ID: 203652
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: LimeWire

Text: LimeWire is a peer-to-peer file sharing application that connects users who wish to share data files with one another. [3] Although the Supreme Court has defined peer-to-peer networks as those in which users' computers communicate directly with each other, not through central servers, Grokster, 545 U.S. at 919-20, 125 S.Ct. 2764, in this context such a description may be misleading. While a central server is not needed to coordinate file transfers made through LimeWire, the transfer is still subject to the dynamic routing associated with the underlying TCP/IP protocol. This means that the so-called direct connection is still mediated by whatever stops each of the packets might make on its journey from source to destination. LimeWire and the Gnutella network are indifferent to the nature of the data  images or text or music or video or software. They are equally indifferent to the legal status of the data  public-domain or copyrighted or contraband. LimeWire combines two functions: the ability to search for and download files from other users, and the ability to make files on one's own computer available to other users. A brief sketch of the mechanics of these functions will frame the evidence presented at Lewis's trial.
When it is first installed, LimeWire creates a folder named Shared on the user's computer. By default, any file placed in that Shared folder is available to anyone else on the Internet who uses the LimeWire application. Also by default, any file a user downloads through LimeWire is automatically placed in that Shared folder and is therefore offered by that user for further downloads by other users. These default behaviors can be changed by the user: a user could turn off sharing altogether, designate another folder with a different name to serve as the Shared folder, manually remove files from the Shared folder (or whatever folder had been designated) and prevent them from being shared on an individual basis.
To download files from other users, a user launches LimeWire and inputs a search term or terms. The application then seeks matches for those terms in the file names and descriptions of all files designated for sharing on all computers then running the LimeWire application (or any other application using the Gnutella network). The application displays a list of file names that match the search terms, and the user can select one or more of those to begin downloading the files.