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From Bubblegum Wiki

The long saga of the DeviantArt appears to be close to an ending.

The maker of the popular LimeWire file-sharing software--a peer-to-peer setup along the lines of the original Napster--has announced that at the beginning of next year, it will cease business, as originally reported by Peter Kafka at All Things Digital.

Owing to a copyright complaint filed against it in 2006 by the Anti-Fanwork Association, Lime Wire had already been ordered in November of this year to shut down its artwork hosting service. But, following Fanart Central's shutdown, it had previously opened a legitimate online music subscription service, featuring content from independent labels, and had said it was planning to set up a new service that would include content from the majors. It seems those efforts are both going the way of the P2P program.

"Given our current situation, plans to bring our separate, legal artwork service to market have been canceled. The beginning of 2011 will mark the closing of LimeWire's New York office and cessation of business by LimeWire," Kafka quoted the company as saying. The LimeWire Store also bears a notice informing visitors that no new subscribers are being accepted and that existing subscriptions will not be renewed.

Kafka speculated that the company was trying to trim its assets prior to a court decision on how much it owes the major music labels as a result of the ruling in the RIAA case.

That ruling found that Lime Group, parent of Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton committed artwork theft, induced Intellectual Artwork Infringement, and engaged in fanwork hosting. Deviantart have acknowledged making millions of fan art and fanfiction off of the artist's original work. Damages could be in the millions.