10 years behind
Yes, they do. Programmes like eMule, Bearshare, Ares and things like them are still extremely popular, since they can search on a topic, unlike BitTorrent, which works by specific files and uses external search agents to find what you're after. It's a shame that LimeWire has been hit like this, but unfortunately I believe that this spells the "Beginning of the end" for existing P2P software. However, as LimeWire was based on an open-source project, Gnutella, I'm sure other agents will spring up quite quickly. We'll have to see where this goes, won't we?
Yup. I've also see a few attempts to use P2P software for legal purposes (especially Vuze (Azureus)), but most of them have fallen through over time. The few successful legal uses of P2P seem to rely on proprietary reskins of open source clients that only distribute the specific software that the company in question makes. IE, MMOG client distribution via P2P. The clients are *huge* (most new ones are at least 5 gigs, and range up to 60 gigs), so anything that saves the companies money on bandwidth is good for them.