After RIAA began distributing lawsuits to NIU students for illegally downloading music, many have started taking alternate routes to find music.

The three students who had civil lawsuits filed against them all used Limewire, a peer-to-peer file sharing network.

Senior marketing major Tyler Swanson said product quality factored more into his move away from Limewire than the threat of a lawsuit.

“I used to use Limewire, but then it frustrated me because of the terrible quality of a lot of the songs and a lack of some lesser-known artists,” Swanson said. “Now I use iTunes. I used to hate the idea of paying a dollar for a song, but now it just sort of seems like it’s a convenience charge for me.”

Junior geography major Connor Cronkhite said the lawsuits have not changed the way he obtains music.

“I’ll just use torrent sites,” Cronkhite said. “It usually takes too long, so I really don’t do it.”

Cronkhite said he still goes out and purchases CDs from artists he likes.

“If I really like it that much, I’ll just go out and buy it because I want higher-quality stuff,” he said.

Sophomore meteorology major Raitis Bocka said he still utilizes Limewire because he does not like to purchase entire albums for one song.

“Only sometimes I’ll buy some songs from Wal-Mart or from iTunes,” Bocka said. “I want so many songs, so I just download from Limewire.”

Bocka says the suits are not fair to students who already own the album.

“If you have vinyl and don’t have a CD convertor, I don’t see anything wrong
with it if you have already purchased the album,” Bocka said.

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