LimeWire, once notorious for peer-to-peer file sharing, said Tuesday it has acquired the rights to the infamous Fyre Festival brand, according to CNBC. LimeWire, once a rival to Napster, was shut down in 2010 after a court found it enabled widespread copyright infringement. In 2022, Austrian brothers Julian and Paul Zehetmayr acquired its intellectual property and relaunched it as an NFT service. The 2017 Fyre Festival promised a luxury weekend in the Bahamas but collapsed into chaos, with inadequate facilities and low-quality food. Organizer Billy McFarland was later convicted of fraud and sentenced to six years in prison. LimeWire announced its acquisition of the Fyre Festival brand with a press release titled, “LimeWire Acquires Fyre Festival Brand — What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” The bid is backed by Ryan Reynolds’ agency Maximum Effort, with Reynolds quipping that he plans to bring his own water to future events.
