Music; it is constantly around us, filling the silences of everyday life.  For some, music is an expression, for others, a way of life.  Yet, for others still, music is nothing more than a background noise or a jingle on the television.  However one experiences music in his/her life, it does not change the fact that we as a society are regularly exposed to music on a daily basis.

But how do we as modern individuals seek out music?  How do we listen to the songs and melodies that touch each one of us personally without shelling out hundreds of dollars for cds and other music media?

For many Americans, we turn to music downloading software. 

What seems like many years ago, Napster reigned over the illegal music downloading kingdom. Via the internet, individuals could download music and software from other users, avoiding the costs of purchasing; that is until Napster was sued out of existence in 2000.  But after a brief stint of no music downloading, Americans feared no more; LimeWire took Napster’s place as the hot music downloading forum. 

But is LimeWire following the steps of Napster to closely?Recently, after a long court battle that began in 2006, LimeWire has lost to record companies’ copyright infringement claims.  Currently, LimeWire is the leading file-sharing software program, with over 200 million copies downloaded.  But does this mean that LimeWire will be no more?  The companies will be going into a long agreement process and the world will have to wait to see if LimeWire becomes the next Napster