In March of this year, they launched an iTunes-esque music store. Now, according to the LA Times, LimeWire plans to add more social features to its service. Better late than never.

"Users will be able to create their own private file-sharing networks with friends and/or family members, with greater control over what gets shared with whom. In a recent interview, Kevin J. Bradshaw, Lime's chief operating officer, described it as the ability to create a 'personal publishing platform' that delivers photos to family members or homework assignments to students."

Clearly, the social features are less about being social and more about being anti-social. It doesn't take a huge intuitive leap to realize that this new feature set also offers the ability for users to step out of the larger sharing community and form trusted sharing networks with other users.

The question is: will these smaller networks truly protect users who are sharing the types of copyrighted content that draws the ire of the RIAA? Or will the desire to get the latest and greatest music and videos continue to expose these smaller networks to the same problems that have plagued the larger community?

Other P2P services have tried a variety of ways to avoid litigation. So far, at least as far as the "-sters" go - Napster, Grokster, and Aimster - none has met with a great deal of success.

With current economic conditions causing even the most successful companies to reduce expenditures, can LimeWire continue to fend off the legal eagles and make a success of its service? We'll just have to wait and see.

LimeWire Store

The site claims that they will be adding thousands more tracks per day, but the big question is: from where?

It wasn't that long ago that the RIAA went after LimeWire's P2P service, claiming "LimeWire has sat back and continued to reap profits on the backs of the music community." LimeWire countersued, claiming antitrust violations among other things, claims which the judge in the matter promptly dismissed.

And today, the RIAA case against LimeWire continues (Arista vs. LimeWire). The current status has fact depositions and expert reports as needing to be provided to the court by March 31st, 2008; rebuttal reports are to be provided by April 30th and expert depositions by May 31st. By the looks of it, this case will be ongoing for quite some time.

So where does LimeWire expect to get all the tracks from? It seems highly unlikely that the same industry that is still involved in a hot lawsuit against LimeWire's P2P software is going to hand over rights to songs that will soon be integrated with that very same P2P software.

Even Napster, which re-launched with support of the recording industry offering legit tunes, has yet to pull off a successful online store. As of January 2008, the company was showing a nearly $10 million loss in the most recent quarter, giving it only 18 months to until it will need another cash infusion or go bankrupt. (It's also a bad sign when the CFO resigns, as did Nand Gangwani in Dec. 2007).

So, LimeWire expects to not only do what Napster could not, but do so without the support of the record labels and while being sued? Who are they kidding?

My advice, stick with Amazon for your DRM-free tunes, but if you must sample LimeWire, at least forgo the subscription plan. Something tells me they aren't going to make it.