As a new user, I was wandering, is Limewire an authorised affiliate? Are the downloads free once you purchase the software?

LW is just the medium. The files you dwnld are from other peers just like yourself. That's why it's called peer to peer (P2P). The LW program is 100% legal. But what you do with it is up to the user. LW has 2 versions, the free version & the pro version which costs $18.88 from here: http://www.limewire.com/english/content/download.shtml