The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a committee operating inside the U.S. House of Representatives, has reportedly decided to reopen a case involving federal scrutiny that was placed on peer-to-peer file sharing program LimeWire in 2007.
"These reports indicate that very significant risks continue to plague P2P file sharing networks," according to lawmakers who wrote a note to the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. "Therefore, under Rules X and XI of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, we are reopening our investigation of inadvertent file sharing on peer-to-peer networks, including LimeWire."
LimeWire has been in the political cross hairs for several years now -- most notably when NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark spoke during a Congressional hearing and disclosed that several employees who installed LimeWire on their work computers accidentally shared classified government information with other materials.
Mark Gorton, Lime Group Chairman, testified in front of the Committee on Oversight -- promising changes to the way its P2P software worked -- but those changes have yet to occur, the government believes.
"On July 24, 2007, you testified before the Committee on Oversight ... in a hearing on 'Inadvertent File Sharing on Peer-to-Peer Networks,'" the letter to Gorton says. "It appears that nearly two years after your commitment to make significant changes in the software, LimeWire and other P2P providers have not taken adequate steps to address this critical problem."
It should be very interesting to see how this issue develops, especially since LimeWire has undergone numerous upgrades and modifications since July 2007.
