Is downloading music from Limewire Illegal?

Question

I ask because I have it, but I paid for a year membership but someone told it was still Illegal even if I paid for the membership! I'm just curious!

NOTE: I AM JUST CURIOUS AS TO WHAT YOU THINK OR KNOW ABOUT THIS....IF YOU DON"T LIKE THE QUESTION... DON"T ANSWER! THANKS FOR YOUR REPLYS

Answer 1

You can answer all your questions here:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/is_limewire_illegal.html

Answer 2

The site itself isn't illegal, but you are probably downloading illegally from it, even though you paid for a membership and with that said, I think it's a ripoff. Besides, you can get a whole bunch of bad stuff like viruses and spyware from it.

Answer 3

It's mind-boggling to see the amount of ignorance shown by people in response to this question. The simple answer is that yes, downloading any material covered by copyright law without paying for it and without the express permission of the copyright holder is illegal. It's a violation of international copyright law, and the fine is $750.00 - $150,000.00 per song (or movie or software application) that is downloaded. It doesn't matter if you're simply downloading and not sharing. It doesn't matter if you're not charging people for it. It doesn't matter if you've paid a limewire subscription (which just gives you network access rights). The RIAA has filed almost 20,000 lawsuits against people for sharing music and for downloading music. Obviously the fines would be too high for anyone but Bill Gates to pay, but they generally settle for around $10,000.00.

Here's some info on the subject if you'd like to have some outside sources that would be a bit more authoritative than a bunch of confused people at Yahoo Answers:

http://mp3.about.com/od/isitlegal/a/riaalawsuits.htm
http://www.musicunited.org/2_thelaw.html
http://info.riaalawsuits.us/howriaa.htm
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/3588642.html
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/31561.html
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1128675912177
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/7152.cfm
http://www.drmwatch.com/legal/article.php/3625736
http://www.chillingeffects.org/piracy/faq.cgi
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html
http://news.findlaw.com/wsj/docs/ip/umgmyspace111706cmp.html
http://www.riaa.com/issues/copyright/laws.asp
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/universal-music-sues-myspace-copyright/story.aspx?guid=%7B996022C6-18CF-436B-B075-1B1394195555%7D&siteId=
http://www.wiredsafety.org/law/copyrights/riaa/dlm8.html
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/16562037.htm
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6102509.html

Answer 4

Im about 80% sure that DOWNLOADING isnt illegal. What i think is illegal is the sharing of music; which means, that when you download music, the person sending it to you is the guilty one. When your music goes into the shared folder from limewire and is sent back around the net, thats illegal. I could be wrong, but from what i hear about the illegal SHARING of music, thats what i get from it.

Answer 5

Yes in America but not in Canada, since they allowed the use of p2p and have not put any laws on Kazaa or Limewire or Bearshare.

Answer 6

The music industry is settling lawsuits for $5000. Any download of copyrighted music for free is illegal.

Answer 7

Not only is it illegal but you run a very high chance of getting a virus or trojan. It's not worth it. Try legalmusic.com, 9 cents a song and no viruses!

Answer 8

No, it's a file sharing downloadable, so you're not stealing. You're just getting it from someone else, when they share them on limewire....

You could have answered then yourself, limewire is pretty old and I'm sure even the president has used it...what makes you think it's illegal???...

Answer 9

downloading songs from lime wire is not illegal coz it is a file sharing software and it does not steal music from the internet but instead thousands of lime wire users upload music on the basis of which u get more sources and which determines the speed of the music downloading.LIMEWIRE IS NOT ILLEGAL IT IS A REGISTERED FILE SHARING SOFTWARE...

Answer 10

I'm not quite sure but what I do know is that you can't burn CDs with lime wire because I have had it before. If you want to burn CDs go to ares.com or blubster.com because they are both legal and they are faster in my opinion!!

Answer 11

Yes..but even worse than that.....every time you log onto Limewire your computer is getting filled up with spyware and viruses.........so keep at it....have fun and don't cry when your PC slows down to a halt!