NewsForge: LimeWire: Open Source Brings Commercial Success

“LimeWire, the popular cross-platform P2P client for the
Gnutella network, has been growing in popularity thanks to its
promise that it contains no adware or spyware–a fact anyone can
verify because the application’s source code is open.

“The first client for the decentralized peer-to-peer Gnutella
network was released by AOL’s Nullsoft division in 2001. It was
quickly withdrawn a couple of days later when AOL realized that it
could be used to facilitate piracy. That did not stop others from
reverse-engineering Nullsoft’s client and releasing their own
commercial and open source versions with added features. It was not
long before a number of clients, such as LimeWire, BearShare,
Shareaza, Gnucleus, and others, were unleashed upon the
world…”

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