by Ryan Coulter ‘12

 On October 27, the one event that teens hoped and prayed would never happen occurred: the shutdown of LimeWire, which had previously provided people with free music. The thing is, LimeWire should have been shut down years before, for it had revealed itself to be a damper on the music business as a whole. Now, people may argue that Lime Wire provides a site where music is shared and increases the popularity of bands that are having trouble making a record deal, but what many do not realize is that Lime Wire is helping to destroy the music business. Artists cannot continue to create music if they are not making money off their albums. If albums do not make money, recording labels drop such artists. Therefore, fans that obtain their music through file-sharing sites such as LimeWire are basically stealing from their favorite artists and are depriving them of their jobs. The shutdown of LimeWire should be considered a landmark for the music business. Now, artists will earn the credit and money they truly deserve.