It's not like this wasn't easily predicted, but following the judge's order to shut down Limewire, and the recording industry's immediate and premature declaration of yet another "significant blow," anyone who's followed this space for any amount of time had to know that most users would just move on to other options. And, of course, they have. But perhaps even more interesting, is the fact that a group of anonymous developers have jumped in and resurrected Limewire by creating their own "pirated," version - the Limewire Pirate Edition (LPE). They actually claim that the new software works better than the old software (and has no adware either).

We've pointed out that those who think they're "winning" the battle against the distributed nature of the internet really don't know what they're up against and this is just one more example. Whether you agree with the efforts or not, these sorts of things are becoming more common and each time this happens, it takes users to offerings that are less and less interested in working with the existing entertainment industry. Napster, Grokster, Streamcast and Limewire all tried to work with the music industry - and all were sued out of business. The next generation of file sharing offerings was still somewhat open but definitely less interested. And these days, the folks involved simply have no interest in working with the industry at all. All the industry has done is driven consumers further and further and further underground.