Anyone know anything about limewire.co.uk?

[pesha]

My dp has suggested i download limewire so we can get lots of free downloads apparently but he doesnt seem to know much about it and nor do i. I know its a file sharing thing but im bit worried bout other people getting access to my files.
How safe is it?
And if it is safe is it really as good as it seems or are there catches?
Im especially cautious as my computer got a virus last year and i've only just got a new computer and i dont want to lose mumsnet again!!!

Please, please don't do it! I have posted this a few times before but my DH used Limewire, thinking he had been smart and he had switched off the file sharing feature but unbeknown to him he was still file sharing as I don't think it is actually possible to turn it off. We received a writ suing us for £10,000 from the BMI. In the end had it dropped due to a technicality but it was a very stressful and worrying time. Napster do a good monthly deal.

blimey stepback ....!!

dont bother downloading limewire as first of all its so crap! and secondly its full of porn!!

Message withdrawn

thanks for this thread
I have been having an ongoing battle with ds about it.
so having read this I have unistalled it.

Oh God.... DS has put Limewire on his new birthday pressie laptop. Does this mean he's porn viewing all the time?? I heard DH having words with him a few weeks ago about sharing music files and something about 'the record industry will be down on us like ton of bricks'. Thought he was just frightening DS.

Thank you for all your replies i will definately steer well clear, i thought it seemed bit too good to be true.
I'm so happy to have mumsnet back!!

basically the way it works is that if you file share, i.e. allow others to download from your computer, then you are in breach of copyright. If you have file sharing turned off and you download you're technically not breaking the law - the person you are downloading from is iyswim. But obviously if you're not able to turn off file sharing then that means that people can download from you all the time without your knowledge.

With regard to porn/viruses etc, a lot of "free" music download sites also have spyware attached and some have lots of pop-ups. There was a lot of talk some years back that the record industry were actually responsible for putting a lot of viruses in files to deter people from downloading.

I make no secret of the fact that I shamelessly downloaded music for years from kazaa, winMX etc but I never file shared and now most of these sources have been shut down so I'm faced with having to pay for my music :O

My BIL uses The Pirate Bay. Is that as bad?

am not familliar with it but the name would indicate that it advocates piracy. These days a lot of the file sharing sites have gone legal and charge a fee for their software, be careful though as I paid such a subscription for kazaaGold and my credit card was cloaned.

ds had downloaded stuff from limewire for his mp3 and the quality was crap. back to buying cd's now. tbh much more fun