LimeWire Pro for Free? (Don't delete, mods please read)

DiZzyBonne · #1 (**permalink**) March 15th, 2008

I have a simple question. I've seen LimeWire Pro for free online, and I'd like to speak to a mod directly about this. I obviously don't wanna post the website for the public, so if a mod can please chime in, so I can PM you, it'd be greatly appreciated. I'll just post what's in their About page, and their README.txt

Quote:

LimeWire PRO is a peer-to-peer file sharing client for the Gnutella network. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License. Limewire was the first file sharing program to support firewall-to-firewall file transfers, a feature introduced in version 4.2, which was released in November 2004.

Written in the Java programming language, Limewire runs on any computer with a Java Virtual Machine installed. To facilitate installation for casual users, installation packages are available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and in the RPM format for Linux. Support for Mac OS 9 and previous versions has been dropped with LimeWire 4.0.10. The Windows version of the LimeWire installer includes a version of Sun Microsystems' Java installer which will download and install version 1.5 of the Java Runtime Environment if it detects the machine does not have a recent version of Java installed.

LimeWire uses the SHA-1 and tiger tree hash cryptographic hash functions to ensure that downloaded data is un compromised. Although researchers have identified possible vulnerabilities in the SHA-1 algorithm, because LimeWire does not rely on SHA-1 alone, these vulnerabilities do not have many adverse implications for LimeWire's verification of downloaded files.

There are two versions of the program; a basic, free version, and an enhanced version LimeWire PRO sold for a fee of US$24.95, or available to download for FREE from this Web site, which the developers claim offers faster downloads. Prior to April 2004, the free version of LimeWire was distributed with a bundled program called LimeShop (a variant of TopMoxie), which was considered by computer security experts to be spyware. Among other things, LimeShop monitored online purchases in order to redirect sales commissions to Lime Wire LLC. Un installation of LimeWire would not remove LimeShop. With the removal of all bundled software in LimeWire 3.9.4 (released on April 20, 2004), these objections were addressed.

Being open source, LimeWire has spawned several forks, including LionShare, an experimental software development project at Penn State University, and Acquisition, a popular Mac OS X–based Gnutella client with a proprietary interface. Researchers at Cornell University developed a reputation management add-in called Credence that allows users to distinguish between "genuine" and "suspect" files before downloading them. An October 12, 2005, report states that some of LimeWire's open source contributors have forked the project and called it FrostWire. The FrostWire project has a beta release, which is claimed to be equivalent in power to the paid version of Limewire. The FrostWire developers emphasize that they will never place any sharing-related restrictions on the client.

Remember to tell your family and friends about this Web site and let the fun of file-sharing begin!

That's from their About page.

Code:

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
         Limewire PRO 4.16.6
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
MD5 Hashes for the official LimeWire PRO 4.16.6 Installers: 
Windows:       971a3577b5036a847c3b6e02bd8528f0    LimeWireWin.exe
Mac OS X:      0729476338c64cfd13778ccbb152110c    LimeWireOSX.dmg
Linux Ubuntu:  53831e977eebdb5d7a15ad9a577a6e55    LimeWireLinux.deb
Other:         3ea4e1f0b98b82e90b735673252c2a2b    LimeWireOther.zip
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
This File Has Been Downloaded FREE From:
http://www.website-removed.com
Bookmark and check out the site for
Future Limewire PRO Updates!
IF THIS FILE HAS BEEN DOWNLOADED FROM ANY SITE OTHER THAN
http://www.website-removed.com
THEN IT MAY BE OUTDATED, MODIFIED, ALTERED or INFECTED!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
        !!! W A R N I N G !!!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
There are rogue/scam sites out there distributing
FAKE/TAMPERED LimeWire PRO installers bundled
With SPYWARE/ADWARE! Remember ONLY get your
FREE LimeWire PRO from our website!
If you paid for it, ask for a REFUND and Contact your Bank/Credit Card Company 
And Notify Them To Monitor Your Account for Unauthorized Charges ASAP!!!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Contact: removed@website-removed.com  *
http://www.website-removed.com        *
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

That's in their README.txt file.

How comes I see nothing on their website talking about it being illegal, and nor has it ever gone down? I haven't seen LimeWire do a thing about the website either (as far as I know,) so that's why I'd like to talk to a mod about it in PM, also so I can give him/her the link so they can see the website for him/herself.

I personally haven't used it, but I did download it just to scan it, and it comes up clean using http://virusscan.jott.org?

Lastly, are those the same MD5 Hashes as the ones from the official LimeWire Pro, downloaded from LimeWire.com?

Thank you.