After Napster, many music lowers started to panic; they feared that they would never be able to download free music anymore. Fortunately form them, their fear was completely unnecessary because lineups of other options of free music downloads appeared in addition to those that already had been on the web, even before Napster verdict. Today there are lots of music download sites both for paid and free downloads. However, the market is dominated by a few websites that are preferred by most music lowers as a source of music. One of these are Limewire.



After reviewing other so called free download sites, the Limewire free music download software almost meets all the criteria of the pre-Napster disaster. Limewire declares itself as a peer-to-peer software which allows you to share commonly held audio, video, photos and software between two servers or computers. This even means downloads, as long as you have a legal license or if you don't care about a license. You can do this without a subscription until you upgrade to Limewire Pro which is a meager $18.85. This upgrade allows faster download and uploads. It segregates binary material by the speed of the internet connection, T1, T3, DSL/Cable, or Modem. You can separate material on the basis of adult and other movie rating criteria.

Limewire is a file sharing application developed in the Java programming language. It is open code and open ware produced by the GNU General Public License and used on the Gnutella network. After Napster vs. RIAA defeat in the USA; Canada, France and Holland have rendered solid findings against the RIAA position.

The French Parliament voted to allow peer-to-peer sharing of internet software, audio, graphic and video media. The Dutch Court ruled in the Kazaa BV vs. Burma/Stemra case that file-trading developers were not liable for copyright infringement. Canada holds that peer-to-peer file trading falls under the copyright extension of the original owner and is therefore legal and acceptable. RIAA won its case through an unproven premise; RIAA claimed that it had lost CD sales because too many college students and others were obtaining free music on the internet through such companies as the Napster. The Canadian based, Toronto Star published in 11/29/2004 that the decline in CD sales was only 9%.

This they attributed to the increase in sales and popularity of the DVD. It appears from this position that free music downloads will continue in Canada and elsewhere, even if it doesn't in the USA.