The well-know file sharing site, LimeWire, was sued four years ago for a massive copyright infringement by the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA)which consists of theeight biggest music publishers in New York.Four years later, LimeWire has been shut down permanently. The site displayed a legal banner on its website stating, “This is an official notice that LimeWire is under a court-ordered injunction to stop distributing and supporting its file-sharing software. Downloading or sharing copyrighted content without authorization is illegal.” LimeWire was permanently shut down on  Friday, Nov.6.LimeWire, formally called a file sharing site, is commonly used as a way to illegally download music without charge. However, such acts interfere with copyright infringement because some LimeWire users download music and claim it as their own, or sell it to the public as their own.The New York District Court also demanded that LimeWire shut down its entire operation, including all searches, uploading and downloading that occurs through their software client, according to TechFreqNews.com.Besides its closing, LimeWire is also being fined $150,000 for each song distributed through its service illegally, according to The Inquirer. “Whilethis is not our ideal path, we hope to work with the music industry in moving forward,”  said LimeWire CEO George Searle, in a recent blog post. “We look forward to embracing necessary changes and collaborating with the entire music industry in the future.”So how does this interfere prior LimeWire users?”I don’t think shutting down the site will change much,” Marla Checchio, a freshman undecided major said. “There will always be another site or [a] way to go around it.”LimeWire’s closing will actually have a negligible impact on music piracy. There are many other services that acted similarly to LimeWire, such as Frostwire, MP3Rocket, BitTorrent and direct ownloading sites.However, LimeWire was the largest and most convenient target among those services.In 2007, LimeWire’s file sharing software was installed on 36.4 percent of all PCs in the United States, or 1.66 million desktop computers, according to ZeroPad.com. At the peak of its career, LimeWire had 50 million monthly users.LimeWire would not have been shut down if it had not been for the copyright infringement suit the RIAA filed in 2006. Copyright infringement is a major obstacle for music pirates. Files spread like wildfire over the Internet and can be so easily claimed that anyone or any company can claim the files as their own.In the case of LimeWire, users were downloading music from the company’s file sharing application and selling it for their own profit, thus violating copyright laws.The legal status of downloading music through services like LimeWire is questionable. Downloading files from LimeWire to sell as one’s own and earn profit is illegal, as is music sharing via CD. Many people give homemade music CDs as gifts. If these people downloaded the music from LimeWire, burned it to disc, and gave it to someone as a gift, their actions would be illegal.”I definitely think it’s illegal, just [be]cause it does break infringement [law],” Kristin Vogt, a freshman undecided major said.However, LimeWire may not be permanently closed. According to an Associated Press article printed on Oct. 26, LimeWire is creating new software that will comply with copyright laws.”Even if LimeWire doesn’t open up again, there will be another system that just operates the same, “said Shane Conley, a freshman undecided major.Regardless of whether LimeWire makes a comeback or not, the unresolved issue is that illegally downloading files will not be stopped in this current time.