While most of us think that using Limewire can’t get people into trouble, be warned, after Kanawha County Metro 911 was arrested thanks to some nifty police work using Limewire. The sicko, James Curtis Sorgman, has been accused of possessing indecent images of children, including his own daughter.

The offending material was located on his computer using Limewire. A police team was able to find an image and download it using the filesharing service. They were then able to trace the IP of the user and move in to arrest Sorgman.

While most of us are not criminals on the same level as Sorgman, it’s clear that there are a lot of bad people using filesharing services and giving other filesharing users a bad name. The Limewire community should not have to put up with users like this. You have to wonder how many other sickos there are sharing files over Limewire.

There are only two large filesharing development firms still operating in the US: Limewire and BitTorrent. BitTorrent has done well to avoid being taken out by the music and movie industries, while Limewire has found itself in hot water and in the firing line of record companies for some time now.

Limewire recently filed a motion to dismiss the legal case against them. With so many other filesharing services falling victim to lawsuits, Limewire has stuck at it through thick and thin. Filesharing services such as BearShare, WinMX and MetaMachine have all closed down in recent years. Ares Galaxy took the bold step of becoming open source.

Limewire, on the other hand, has just kept on going, largely thanks to the large amount of money the filesharing service generates, meaning that Limewire won’t be bullied by large corporations and record labels.

The RIAA lawsuit against Limewire has progressed slowly and the whole thing is treading water at the moment. There’s a lot of legal jargon being thrown around, but we hope that Limewire comes out on top and lives to fight another day.

A Florida grandma may soon rue the day she bought her granddaughter a computer after the baffled granny was served with a lawsuit by the RIAA for download 400 illegal music downloads.

Without much of a clue how to even use the computer, Ellen Sayor says she doesn’t know what she would do if she were to be found guilty of obtaining music downloads illegally. We don’t know what she would do either.

With 400 songs on the table and a possible fine of $750 per song, Ellen faces a fine of up to $300,000, which is even more than Jammie Thomas, who was last year ordered to cough up $220,000 for illegal music downloads.

Although it’s unclear at the moment, it looks as if the granny’s granddaughter may be the the one responsible for the music downloads, or, of course, Ellen Sayor could be a sneaky old lady with a fondness for Barry White. You never know.

More students are set to be targeted by the RIAA for illegal music downloads. This time, the lucky students are the guys and girls at the University of Wisconsin. The RIAA last week filed a lawsuit to attain the names of students accused of using filesharing networks to share copyrighted material.

A total of 48 people are under the filesharing spotlight this time. The were monitored throughout 2007 and the start of this year.

The RIAA currently only knows the IP address of the students, so it will take a lawsuit to force the university to reveal the names, at which point the RIAA will issue its famous pre-litigation letters.

Similar lawsuits have been filed by the RIAA with mixed success. There has been no response by the university with regards to the filesharing matter. We’ll keep you posted if we hear any more.

Apple’s iTunes has officially taken over the world with its legal music downloads. America’s top resource for legal music downloads, iTunes now boasts sales of more than five billions music tracks. Apple loves reaching these landmarks as the computer giant receives bragging rights and gets to gloat about how great it is.

Yes, Apple, you are great. Well done. We heard you the first time. Apple’s iTunes also boats movie rentals and sales, which, according to Apple, makes it the world’s most popular online video store.

Apple is in bed with all manner of media companies, such as Lionsgate, MGM and New Line Cinema, so you can be assured that there will be more to come and more for Apple to brag about.

While we do love Apple’s iTunes store for its ease of access to legal music downloads, we do get a little tired of hearing about how great Apple is instead of hearing about innovations in the way people access the Web.

Perhaps it is time for Ares Galaxy – the old stalwart of Ares P2P filesharing software – to give up its crown. Here we have one of those situations where newer versions of Ares, versions like Ares Ultimate, Ares Ultra and Ares Vista, are all proving to fare better than the original Galaxy in many ways.

Ares Galaxy is living of its name and its reputation somewhat, but this façade of modern competency must surely be about to crumble.

As a result of more years of technological advance and the power of hindsight, the newer versions of Ares noted above are generally just better (allowing for exceptions like Ares Gold and Ares Destiny which, as well as being a step backwards from Ares Galaxy are also packaged with some pretty horrible adware). As well as an improved customer experience (i.e. these versions have some customer support, something never seen in Ares Galaxy) there are also a wealth of advanced features that I’ve never seen on the older Ares Galaxy.

Ares Galaxy was – and still is – a competent version of Ares, and it served to introduce many of us to the world of P2P filesharing. Now, though, old boy, is the time to relinquish this particular throne in favor of a more worthy version.

The Times newspaper recently documented that the average student has about 800 illegal music files on his or her hard drive, most gained through P2P filesharing services, such as Limewire. Other files come from swapping music with friends or family.

Given that MP3 players usually hold about 1,500 or so songs, you start to see that 800 is a significant proportion of the number of songs students are listening to. While most people understand that filesharing can be illegal, the vast majority of people don’t give two thoughts to copying a CD or swapping music, even though it’s still illegal.

It’s bizarre to think that borrowing a CD from your buddy and then copying it to your hard drive to listen to is illegal. It’s things such as this that really cloud the whole issue of music piracy. Where does it end and where does it begin? Can you be taken to court for record a cassette just as you can for using Limewire? The whole scene is so uneven.

Most users of filesharing services are aware of the dangers involved in downloading files. However, how much thought is actually given to the harm that files can do to your computer? McAfee has announced that the world is currently experiencing the most significant malware outbreak in three years.

There have been half a million detections of a certain Trojan horse, which is disguised as a media file. Filesharing services such as Limewire have been used to spread the infected file. The file triggers a download that then serves adverts to an infected PC.

Filesharing users have been downloading this file en masse thinking that it was a song. The file is a serious threat and is still being downloaded, thanks to the widespread nature of filesharing. It’s unknown how many unreported incidents of the file there are around the world.

Although this file is not that damaging, there is serious concern that a more harmful file could be unleashed over filesharing networks.

Peter Garbriel’s subscription-based service for music downloads launched recently. The music-download club offers users a new album per month with high-quality files that offer CD-quality sound.

The lossless tracks offered for music downloads will be optimized for fast downloading. This music club sounds like a great idea, although it’s unclear at the moment how many people will hop on board.

Gabriel’s service is promising users an eclectic selection of music to choose from by established artists and new stars in the scene. Gabriel always seems to be a step ahead of other artists of his generation, and this fresh approach to music downloads is a welcome addition to the Internet.

Membership starts at a hefty 23.95 GB pounds (about $45) a month, so the service doesn’t come cheap, but you will have access to exclusive interviews, downloads and podcast. Worth the price? We’ll leave you to decide.

Head over to We7.com and check it out.

Comcast, America’s largest ISP, has made a move to stop government regulation of the Internet, with the proposal of a filesharing bill of rights.

Despite being under investigation for meddling with users’ connection to filesharing networks, Comcast is keen on the idea of a “bill of rights and responsibilities” for users of filesharing programs like Limewire.

Comcast has already promised to stop interfering with access to filesharing services. This bill of rights would lay out what is an acceptable sue of filesharing technology. Comcast says that the move would help filesharing companies.

This could be a step forward in the battle to legalize filesharing and have it regulated. Whether or not this will be good for filesharing and free music downloads remains to be seen.

The main reason why Comcast is doing this is because the company desperately wants to avoid government intervention when it comes to filesharing.