Music is one of the most important things in a person’s life. But for our lives at Quinnipiac, an important source has been taken away.

The Direct Connect music share program has allowed Quinnipiac students to download over thousands of songs over the past two semesters. This was the only music share program that students could use because others, such as Kazaa, are blocked by a firewall.

In the middle of the spring semester, Direct Connect was taken off the web, leaving students without an outlet for music.

“I’m not happy about Direct Connect being shut down,” said sophomore Chuck McGrath. “Now I’m going to have to find another source to download music from.”

Direct Connect was created by freshman Yusef Qasim, who shut down the program after seeing the trouble students at other universities were getting into.

“I shut down Direct Connect myself because of the students in the other universities that were getting sued by the Record Industry,” Qasim said.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, four students were sued on April 13, 2003, for offering access to music files within their institution’s networks. The lawsuit asks for $150,000 for each of the thousands of songs each student allegedly used in an illegal manner for their programs.

Qasim orignally set up the website as a service for Quinnipiac students. At the time, he did not know what he was doing was illegal. He shut down the site before he was caught.

“I didn’t know it was illegal,” Qasim said. “I just wanted to download songs and help other people to do the same.”

Sophomore Jen Hsiao is not happy about Direct Connect being disconnected because students have little options left now.

“I’m a little upset because the school has a firewall that prevents us from using other music exchange programs,” she said.

As for Direct Connect, do not expect to see it on the web anytime soon. According to Qasim, the site will not be making a comeback to the Quinnipiac network.

“Schools and the Record Industry should be more considerate about students downloading music,” Qasim said.

Sophomore Ryan Peterson was disappointed that the website was shut down, but is confident another site will soon be accessible.

“I’m pretty used to music sites being shut down around here,” he said. “But there always seems to be another alternative for downloading music, so I’m not too worried.”