By Jacob Hirsohn

Many Limewire users pulled up their favorite file sharing program on Oct. 27 only to be horrified when they found it had been shut down.

“This is an official notice that Limewire is under a court-ordered junction to stop distributing and supporting its file sharing software,” read the legal notice on the Limewire home page.

A New York judge ordered the end of  the distribution of the Limewire program, according to CNNmoney.com.

Judge Kimba Wood cited the fact that Limewire encouraged copyright infringement, and attracted the former Napster users that were already known for copyright infringement.

Limewire CEO George Searle said the company will continue to do business in other areas not related to file sharing.

While the music industry celebrates the death of Limewire, they still have a lot of work cut out for them.

The file sharing industry is still huge, and there is no reason to believe users will start paying for music because Limewire is gone.

“I just switched over to Frostwire,” junior Cooper Jensen said. “Its exactly the same thing,”

Frostwire, a program used for file sharing, has a very similar setup to Limewire. It is likely that many former Limewire users will switch to Frostwire.

According to the Pop Herald, Taylor Swift’s new album “Speak Now” is benefiting greatly from Limewire’s absence. “Speak Now” has become the fastest selling album in history, selling more than 1 million copies 1,047,000 in the first 10 days.

There is a reasonable argument Limewire is legal, and that the court ruling was unfair.

“It’s not really fair, Limewire is just like burning a CD,” said sophomore Charlie Perschau.

As for those who are truly loyal to Limewire, there is still a version of the program floating around the Internet, even though the company itself is working on getting it removed.

Some former Limewire users aren’t upset by the court decision, having already found other ways to get free music.

“I used to use Limewire in like eighth grade, before I discovered torrents,” said senior Krissi Waters.

Torrents are another method of downloading music, which is much more efficient and has a lower risk of virus.

“I download all of my music off of torrents because its more convenient and inexpensive,” said junior Zack Bethel.

The world of illegal music sharing is thriving, but the death of Limewire could be a huge step towards the end of the business and a huge movement towards legal music.