Using Limewire to pirate Limewire Pro
And it was GPL, so it wasn’t even copyright infringement.
I have never used Limewire, but if they had distributed binaries that you should pay for, it is a copyright infringement, even if you could technically compile it yourself. There are applications that do this and it’s compatible with GPL license.
And when you downloaded “Yoursong.mp3.exe” you knew you were about to have the best day ever!
(To this day it amazes me how so many people don’t pay attention to file types and keeps them hidden.)
I blame Windows, as it (I believe) hid file extensions of known file types by default. Was it, because it was aesthetically more pleasing? I dunno but it sure was a hazard for the unaware user.
Their entire security model depends on knowing file extensions, but they still hide them. Even if you enable it, there are some extensions that still won’t show, like .lnk (shortcut file). You can absolutely have executable code, and therefore malware in a .lnk file.
I believe there were also files like “yoursong.mp3 .exe” (not sure how this will render, but lots of spaces before the .exe so it would be hidden by the UI even if extensions weren’t hidden).
Custom icons didn’t help either, since they could just use the default icon for the spoofed file type. Though using a different program that changed the icon would negate that and make any of them obvious.
Also helps to use a method other than double clicking the file to open it, like drag and drop. Which was my usual flow with mp3s anyways because I generally added them to my massive playlist and double clicking risked replacing my playlist (that might have not been saved in forever) with a playlist with just that single song.
I liked it when winamp added the media library. Took me forever to rate my songs, but eventually my “new song flow” was move the new album folder to the artist’s folder in my music folder then tell winamp to rescan for new files, and then import my 3+ star or unrated songs as my playlist, played on shuffle. And occasionally grab a new format plugin if the album was encoded as something new and rescan until the new songs show up. Then give any noise or gag tracks 1 or 2 stars so they don’t make it to my main list after the first listen.
I believe there were also files like “yoursong.mp3 .exe” (not sure how this will render, but lots of spaces before the .exe so it would be hidden by the UI even if extensions weren’t hidden).
Replace your double-quotes with backticks, like this:
yoursong.mp3 .exe.
And most porn was that middle eastern dude getting his head cut off.
I remember actually searching that one out to see. Strange what you’ll do when you’re a teenager.
Was that the Chechen rebel video because I hated that
Among many other misattributed MP3s I downloaded off LimeWire, I remember downloading an mp3 of a “new leaked Nine Inch Nails song” called “Digital” that even had an intro read by a some DJ on a radio station (supposedly).
It ended up not being Nine Inch Nails, but I loved the song anyway, and had no idea what it was until a decade later when I found it again online. Still fuckin rocks too:
Boom Boom Satellites - Push Eject
I also remember a Tetris Theme remix by Aphex Twin that was very much not Aphex Twin.
I also remember downloading the Aphex Twin remix of Beck’s "Devil’s Haircut"and the remix was so bad I thought it had to be fake (it’s not).
Somewhere in my files I still have the file of a hoarse, cracked male voice singing along to Ricky Martin’s “Bailamos”, purportedly recorded from Martin’s mic by a sound tech when he was lip synching live on stage.
Probably fake, but I want to believe.
Dude what is this Tetris one. I remember this too.
I also remember some some that was by a dj called dj triangle and it was a super high tempo song with all kinds of songs mixed in. Haven’t found it since those days.
I actually still have songs in my playlist that I discovered the same way. A lot of the saints were incorrectly labeled so it was hard to make sure you got the right one without listening to it. Found a lot of unknown artists this way.
Fake system of a down - link song was golden.
Duuuude. I just decided to look this up on chatgpt. I had no idea that was NOT system of a down. Sounds exactly like serj lol. I used to crank that shit. Link. He come to town. Come to save! The princess Zelda!
haha that’s funny. Sorry to break the news though.
please don’t “Look things up” on chatgpt, use an actual search engine…
🙄
I’m not conducting surgery here, a minor curiosity. Who gives a fuck. Also it has sources. Also if I cared enough about something like this, I’d click them and evaluate them. Also Chatgpt is trained on shit like reddit… AND “GOOGLE”.
Lol, like google?
But I agree, chatgpt is not a search engine. It’s a waste of time using it as one
Weird the hate for it. It saved me so much time clicking through links and skipping past the first 14 bullshit paragraphs of something talking about a life story just to get to a recipe for example. If it was something that actually mattered, sure, but in this example, if chatgpt get the recipe wrong I use a different one next time. Nobody died. Big deal.
Link - he come to town He come to save - the princess Zelda
Download Worms.exe
I just wanted to play worms
We all on here pretending Napster wasn’t the OG? The transition to kazaa was painful.
Napster was so early that most folks didn’t have the bandwidth and CPU speed to deal with decent-quality video yet, so it initially only did MP3s. I think some folks forget about it because they didn’t get into the piracy scene until they could get TV shows/movies/software etc.
I vividly remember spending twenty minutes downloading a single song over my 56k modem 🥲
No, the real problem was that Napster had central servers that could easily be taken down via litigation. Limewire was fully P2P so there was no single point of failure.
That’s why Napster went away (possibly before people late to the party had a chance to use it), but it didn’t stop it from being “the OG.”
I still have a few folders of music from Napster.
It was FREE.
But at what cost?
EVERYTHING!
I feel like I have more availability to get what I want now, than when I was using Limewire/Kazaa/Napster/eMule/etc.
If it was super popular, you could get it. If it was obscure, uncommon, niche, and other synonyms, if you did find it 90% of the time it was simply given an incorrect name and wasn’t actually what you wanted.
I used to have a demonoid account and kept my seed ratio high just because that private tracker had the biggest collection of random ass music and movies you couldn’t find anywhere else. Unreleased shit and whatnot.
Private trackers have gotten way better. I think they’ve figured out how to retain obscure and rare things. At least RED, GGn, OPH, BTN and PTP have. I’m sure there are others.
Come back to torrenting if you feel trapped by subscriptions and enshittification. There is a bar to entry, but it ain’t too bad.
I do miss the weird fake tracks. There was a whole 3rd “Portishead” album that fake.
I kinda wanna look up who actually made that “Link, he come to town!” song. Because it sure as hell was not System of a Down. lol
Know anyone with invites to acid lounge? I let my account lapse for like 5 years, and cannot get back in, bo matter how many attempts at requesting.
I used to have a demonoid account too! Back then I could just torrent anything without a care…
Now I would need a VPN and a ton of reading to even begin. Sad times.
Define free? Constant viruses, trauma from seeing killings and executions. Was it worth it? Sure but it wasn’t free
Or dumb songs with swooshes in them lol
Can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Learning to torrent is what greatly increased my computer literacy when I was a kid.
Came here to mention soulseek
FUCK, YEAH!!!
Still can brother 🏴☠️
For those wondering check out Soulseek clients like Nicotine+. Even better, these days most of the files are well tagged.
Soulseek is an ad-free, spyware free, just plain free file sharing network for Windows, Mac and Linux. Our rooms, search engine and search correlation system make it easy for you to find people with similar interests, and make new discoveries!
It’s good that Soulseek exists, but it’s way more finicky than LimeWire was and it’s significantly less user friendly
I’ve literally never had a problem with it.
I downloaded Nicotine, made an account, selected the folder for media, then searched for the movie I wanted and hit download. It puts the movie in the folder I selected and then once it’s downloaded i put it on my movie drive.
Soulseek is very good to grab rare music and other stuff difficult to find on mainstream medias/markets
Misattribution killed Limewire. Downloading a song that turned out to be something different was annoying, but downloaded porn sometimes turned out to be actual CP.
Weird Al Yankovic - Oops I’m Pregnant Again (REAL).mp3
lots of free viruses too.
