What can I do with Limewire?

My 4th grade son tells me that his friends download music files from the LimeWire web page. How do you do this? Where do the files come from? Who owns them? How do I find them? Who has rights to distribute and copy them? Are there legal issues involved in this kind of file sharing?

Can someone offer us some clues?

Thanks.

well, for the legal opinion, that's for the lawyers.

LimeWire is a site that offers software that allows individuals to find and share each other's files. This is known as "p2p" software, for Peer to Peer file sharing.

LW doesn't decide what files people share, so as you can imagine or see for yourself quite quickly, some people share files that are illegal--the kinds eagerly discussed in Gr 4 playgrounds. Many share legitimate files, but legitimate uses of p2p software don't get much press or attention.

Click on the LimeWire icon at the top of the page to read more and evaluate the software.

As far as I'm concerned (like you I started learning about the p2p a few months ago), the LimeWire project that is developing the way for people to share the files they choose is fascinating and very worthwhile.

So there's a very rough answer for what it's worth.

Cheers