When is downloading Music from the Internet Illegal?

Question

Well I know about illegal downloading sites and all, like Limewire, but I don't want that! I just want some legal music. But the problem is I have no idea when it's legal or not. I know Limewire is legal. Paying for it makes it legal, right? Does it have to be payed for to be legal? A friend of mine said that downloading mp3 format songs is illegal, but downloading wma formats and others besides mp3 is legal. So is this true? Too confused....and PLEASE DON"T SAY THAT I SHOULD USE LIMEWIRE, MORPHEUS, OR BEARSHARE! Thank you very much...

I really want to know if you can convert walmart into mp3. If you don't know that's okay. Also tell me straight out. What kind of music can you get from Limewire for free that is LEGAL! I must add that I am using Yahoo! Music Unlimited now, but i can't insert tracks for my podcast, so please tell me what's free or VERY CHEAP. Not Just iTunes and walmart and yahoo. I mean what's cheaper than 79c but at the SME TIME STILL LEGAL! I appreciate the help greatly.

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Answer 1

Actually, Limewire went to the court to get the music downloaded to be legal. Limewire is a legal program as long as you do not share it through e-mailing playlists, selling the music/ cd's burned, or post it up on a website. You must keep the music you download to your own use.

Answer 2

There is no single fool-proof method to identify illegal music downloads.
Downloading music in itself is not viewed as illegal but the content you download would most probably be copyrighted, which means, someone else created that content and wanted to sell that to make money. (there is free content out there as well, copylefted stuff, but you would find very little of it for music as such)

A simple rule of thumb I can give you is, almost all famous artistes' music is paid content and if you manage to get it for free, you are most probably downloading it illegally.

Paying Limewire is not an indicator of the legality of the content, because Limewire is essentially a peer to peer client, which means it facilitates content sharing and doesn't have any content of its own.

WMA (Windows Media Audio) is a format for encoding audio like mp3, ogg vorbis etc. File formats are not indicators for legality of the content, someone might easily encode copyrighted content as WMA and you might dowload this and use it, in which case you are breaking the law. There again, the law on this subject is very dicey and varies between countries. But if you are in the US, I can say for sure its illegal to download copyrighted music from illicit sources like P2P, BitTorrent or by going to seedy sites. AFAIK, there are no legal copyrighted content available as torrents or on a peer to peer network.

If you are keen not to break any laws in downloading music, you can do so by going to popular music sites like

iTunes Store : http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/
MSN Music : http://music.msn.com/
Yahoo Music : http://music.yahoo.com/

These sites feature paid content that can be downloaded easily but would also be copy protected and would impose some restrictions on their usage. Read the individual site terms and conditions to understand what they offer and make your choice.

Answer 3

Maybe. If it's "loose", as in a starter band who's publishing their song without spending a dime down load, then it's NOT unlawful. If it's copyrighted fabric - whatever that's SOLD - song, systems, e-books, whatever - then sure, it's unlawful. If it's on the market someplace - like iTunes, Amazon, Best Buy - then pass purchase it.

Answer 4

We download from Walmart.com. The songs are like 88 cents apiece and they are legal, no problem.

Answer 5

whenever its done in any country that says its illeagle