FrostWire is a peer-to-peer file sharing program for the Gnutella and BitTorrent protocols. FrostWire is written in Java, and is a fork of LimeWire, another popular Gnutella client. Released under the GNU General Public License, FrostWire is free software.
The project was started in September 2004 by members of the LimeWire open source community, after LimeWire's distributor considered adding "blocking" code, in response to RIAA pressure and the threat of legal action, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd..When eventually activated, the code could block its users from sharing licensed files.