Among the thousands of users who went without the popular file-sharing network Direct Connect this weekend, one student took the shutdown the hardest, receiving multiple threats after being publicly blamed for reporting the network to university officials.

The student’s name, which he asked to be withheld for his own safety, was posted on the file-sharing services’ main page when it shut down early Friday, leading several students to harass him over message boards on Facebook throughout the day, which continued until he contacted police.

Better known to most students as DC++, Direct Connect is a file-sharing network run on the university network that for the past five years has illegally provided copyrighted media to users. This is the third time in the hub’s history it has been shut down.

The first two shutdowns occurred after Recording Industry Association of America lawyers sent complaints to university President Dan Mote. Office of Information Technology officials said more than 250 such letters have been received since July, but this shutdown appears to be prompted by a personal disagreement rather than RIAA pressure.

Direct Connect’s main administrator, who also asked to remain anonymous to avoid legal consequences, said he shut down the site after he received a series of e-mails from the unnamed student, who vowed to report the site to OIT.

The threatened student denied he sent any e-mails, but both agreed the site closed primarily due to a personal feud.

“This has entirely to do with an argument,” the student who was threatened said.

“He and I have personal problems with each other,” Direct Connect’s administrator confirmed.

Before the officials in OIT could intervene, the site’s administrator voluntarily dismantled his hub.

“As much as I enjoy furthering the freedom of information, I’m not willing to sacrifice my own academic career for those things at this point,” the administrator said. “I didn’t want to be put through a bureaucratic rigmarole. That’s not what I want to be doing during exams.”

Officials from OIT declined to comment, saying an investigation is ongoing.

The student accused of reporting DC++ received a variety of threats on Internet forums from angry students who had come to rely on the network for access to free music, movies and software. Some students proposed sending him mass text messages to run up his phone bill, while others were more serious and threatened physical attacks, according to messages posted on a Facebook group.

But the creator of the Facebook group, sophomore business major Jake Butt, said he never intended any action against him.

“It was an in the moment thing,” he said. “I was pissed off at this guy and obviously a lot of people felt the same way. I don’t not want people to act out against this guy, that’s not why I created this group.”

Instead, he said the group was meant to unite frustrated students who enjoyed the services of what they felt was a privilege and tradition for students.

“I feel betrayed,” he said. “DC++ was an unwritten thing that students agreed to. Before I even came to Maryland I had heard about it.”

When the hub’s administrator saw the threats the student received, he said he immediately removed his name from the service’s main page, and Facebook workers quickly terminated the group posting threats against the student.

“I don’t like him, but I don’t want anyone to hurt him, that’s just not worth it,” Direct Connect’s administrator said. “I’m glad people want to show their support but I’d rather they do it constructively.”

After the student contacted Prince George’s County Police, he said the threats subsided. Still, despite the explicit threats on the Internet, he was never too distressed and never took the threats very seriously, he said.

“I feel harassed but I can shrug it off,” he said. “I feel fine. My friends are joking that I’ve turned into a celebrity over night.”

As for the future of Direct Connect on the campus, the system’s administrator predicted that hundreds of students on the campus had the computer knowledge to set up a new hub.

“It’s very easy to set up a hub,” he said. “It’s not as easy to set up a stable hub. But it doesn’t require very specialized information.

“It will come back because people have begun to appreciate how much their computer and their media are a part of their lives and they don’t want to change how they consume their media,” he added.

Contact reporter Ben Slivnick at slivnickdbk@gmail.com.