LimeWire never had a 'lifetime' membership. Originally it was 6 months Pro support. Then 2-3 years ago they increased this to 12 months support option.

But last I read, yes it does appear that to keep the company itself afloat, they are considering going down the same road as BearShare & iMesh who also sold out to the RIAA. ie: a program that will not even run on Gnutella network but a commercial network instead.

The Gnutella community is still here. There's still Gnutella programs to use. Still versions of LW you can use. Still versions of other Gnutella programs you can use. Not as many actively developed gnutella programs as there used to be. FrostWire & Phex are two. There is an adaption of the old BearShare program being developed.