is it legal?

Question

is it legal to download music from limewire for personal use at home. Also, how does the system work in simple terms?

Answer 1

No, it is not, It is a copyright infringement.
You share files with other computers. When you want a file, your computer asks a number of others if they have it, and they search their neighbours. When the file is located, a link is established so you can download it.
Since there is no organisation storing files for you to download, it is very difficult to catch anyone.
But BE WARNED, they industry knows about it, and liberally salts files in it with Viruses, which is their way of getting back at you for steeling their copyright stuff.

Answer 2

No it's completely illegal.

By downloading files from limewire you automatically create a copy of that file which infringes the Copyright, Design and Patents Act of 1988 which states,

"it is illegal to copy software without the permission of the person or company that owns the copyright for the software. The copyright holder is usually the author of the software or the company that the author works for."

I used an AS ICT site which shows you what it is illegal to do:


"· It is illegal to copy software.

In other words those of you that have copied a game are breaking the law.


· It is also illegal to run copied (pirated) software.

So those of you that have used a disk (floppy or CD) and then actually put that software onto your computer at home and then used it are just as guilty as those who copy the games in the first place.


· It is finally illegal to transmit software over a telecommunications line.

This is simply a way around making a copy of a game onto a disk. A game could be put on a website, and then you could click on an icon and be able to download that program from this site. There is no physical disk involved and it would take ages using a standard modem. However with new broadband technology becoming available then in the future it won't take as long for you to download programs from the Internet, this type of crime is likely to increase in the future.



Illegal copying of software reduces the income of software companies. Having invested money in producing the software in the first place these companies need to earn income from software sales to recover these costs and make a profit.


There are some very serious sanctions which a court can impose on anyone breaking the law. These are :

The copying or sale of copied software is punishable by a prison sentence of up to two years and a large fine.
The possession of a device designed to copy software is punishable by a prison sentence of up to six months and a fine of up to £2000. "

Answer 3

I'ts not legal unless the copyright owner has given permission for his/her song to be downloaded - this is highly unlikely and is only ever really done for promotional purposes.

Answers saying it is legal are completely wrong, as are those saying it's legal in Europe or for personal use only.

The bottom line is that EVERYTHING is copyrighted and it's an automatic process. You hold the copyright to your question, I hold the copyright to this answer and so on. ALL copyright infringement is illegal and the only exceptions are in respect of certain government documents, educational purposes and abstract things such as shapes, thoughts, ideas etc.

Also, as others have said, if you do use Limewire you're asking for virus problems and the like - not good.

Answer 4

Its not legal. Just be careful what you download in limewire there are LOTS of virus problems with the files because they have little mean viruses waiting to be downloaded that are stuck to other files. If i were you i would use something else. I hate limewire. Too many adds. My safest download program i used was kazaa lite

Answer 5

It's OK...But I use Emule.
It's called P2P no sever actually has the whole file so they are not doing anything wrong by linking all the people that have all the " parts" of the file.
It's a give and take thing that if you upload parts of files it allows you to download parts of files.
If you download more than upload you get blacklisted.
So if there is a file you really want and it's slow then just let people upload from your computer for a few days ( while pausing your downloads) and then your file will download quickly (when resumed) because you have "points" accumulated.

Answer 6

Limewire is legal but downloading files on it is not. The program prompts you (when you start a download) with a warning that the download isnt legal, but it's fine as long as you don't keep files on your shared folder.

Answer 7

I use limewire...yes its illegal as heII....2 people in my city got busted downloading movies & songs...they was fine $10,000 per song and movie...so the best thing to do...is to delete your shared folder. thats how the feds trace it ;)


Kazaa or Kazza lite is the worst programs out there.
I have been using Limeware for years...and it doesnt come with anything bundled....and of course you can still get virus/trojans just like from any other p2p software....the smart thing is...never download a .exe or .rar program...ALWAYS download a .zip one so you can scan it before you open it ;)

Answer 8

It's not legal to download unless you have an original, but people do anyway. basically peer 2 peer is filesharing from computer to computer. say you wanted a song and someone in scotland had that song on their computer you can download it straight from their computer to yours with limewire (or kazzaa or bearshare etc.)

Answer 9

It depends where you live.

In Europe its ok to download songs as long as you don't send songs to people. Canada goes by the same rules.

If you use Microsoft Windows then it's fafer just to avoid peer2peer programs althogther. Windows is far too vulnerable to spyware and viruses. Ubuntu if probably the safest operating system for ythose types of program as it is not easily infected: http://ubuntu.com

Answer 10

Don't use limewire. I had to reformat my computer because 90% of the files on there are infected with a trojan horse virus! Also, it comes loaded with spyware and malware.