Eastern students will no longer be able to download music from the popular music and video sharing website, Limewire.

After 10 years of providing users with free, downloadable music, movies and files, Limewire has been shut down after a four-year battle with the Recording Industry of America.

“Music is a big part of the college experience, especially the night life,” said Devin Dismang, a junior kinesiology and sports major. “So, when music isn’t changed up, people eventually get sick of the same music.”

For Eastern students living on campus, Limewire was disabled while it was up and running, preventing students from downloading files.

Eastern’s policy on file sharing can be found in the Technology Student Guide stating, “Any copyright violations traced to students will be referred to the Office of Student Standards for adjudication as a violation of the Student Code of Conduct. Copyright violation penalties may include the loss of network connectivity, community service and monetary fines.”

Eastern’s policy did not stop students from downloading at home while on break and bringing those files back to campus on their computers.

Nicole Towns, a sophomore special education major, said she used Limewire regularly at home. Now that Limewire is unavailable, she has simply found a torrent to download her music from.

Many students are reacting to the shutting down of Limewire by use a new file-sharing outlet or other methods of getting new music.

Caitrin Jones, a sophomore special education major, recently deleted Limewire from her computer after she caught a virus on her laptop.

However, Jones continues to get her music free from friends.

“My friend usually e-mails them to me, although I don’t know how she gets them,” Jones said. “Then I just download them and they automatically go to my iTunes.”

Matt Block, a sophomore special education major, said he believes that the government’s efforts to ban all file sharing websites is an impossible task.

“A lot of kids are either going to get caught or just keep switching sites,” Block said. “Or if I have a CD that people want, I can make a copy or just send them the music.”

“Some websites deemed as “piracy sites,” have been given permission by an artist to make their music available by downloading them directly for free,” Dismang said. “Some piracy sites are run by actual DJs and some artists do give out music for free and have it downloadable through several kinds of sites.”

Mark Gorton, a former Wall Street trader, founded Limewire in 2000.

A federal court in New York issued a permanent injunction against the website, indefinitely stopping its 50 million monthly users from file sharing and downloading.

“No matter what the government does, it’s clear that music will always be leaked somehow,” Dismang said.

Alyssa Ullrich can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected]