When I paid my $18.88 no mention of renewal fees were seen, in fact, even today I have extracted this from LW's website :-

"LimeWire is a software application. The one-time payment for LimeWire PRO is a payment to purchase a copy of the program. PRO purchasers also receive Technical Support via email and up to 6 months of free updates. "

Indicating that, "ONE TIME PAYMENT" are the key words here, should you choose, no further payment is required!

I must also question the following :-" and up to 6 months of free updates." So, after 6 months the PRO user has to PAY yet AGAIN to get any, quiet frequent, update? And the BASIC user......... oh yes, they get them FREE!!!!! Now let me see.......how fair is that???????