Remember LimeWire? You probably do if you, ahem, ever tried to download pirated music and videos in the early 2000s. Well, after going out of biz in 2010, it’s back. And yep, it’s gone crypto.

The former peer-to-peer file-sharing company, which has new owners, has announced it’s relaunching in May as an NFT marketplace focused on music, art and entertainment digital collectibles.

According to its new website, the platform is attempting to “bring digital collectibles to everybody” with its own native token LMWR supporting its operations. That said, all items bought and sold on the marketplace will be denominated in US dollars.

An official NFT drop, incorporating the token-reward system is reportedly being planned by the company for later this year.

LimeWire’s new owners, brothers Julian and Paul Zehetmayr, told Bloomberg of their hopes to leverage nostalgia for the well-known brand and revive it with a fresh pivot into the Web3 era.

“LimeWire is returning as a platform for artists, not against them,” said Julian. “On LimeWire, the majority of the revenue will go directly to the artist, and we will be working with creators to allow full flexibility, ownership and control when it comes to their content.”

The original platform has a controversial past, attracting lawsuits from various music labels upset with the pirating of their songs. Back in 2011, the Lime Group, which developed the first LimeWire system, settled a US$105 million payment out of court to 13 music firms. That figure, however, was significantly less than the billion-dollar damages bill that the Recording Industry Association of America tried to squeeze the company for.

According to the Zehetmayrs, this time around, though, LimeWire is focused on doing things the right way and building a digital collectible marketplace that helps empower artists, and the music and entertainment communities as a whole.

 

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