LimeWire: is it illegal?

Question

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Answer 1

There's nothing illegal about the program, its just what you donwload. if you download copyrighted music, you are looking at an illegal act.

Answer 2

No, the musicians own their music, not the corperate record companies. If the musicians are fine with music sharing then the record companies should butt out. The record companies are only greedy and want money they are not concerend witht he artist, the fans, or the possibility of expanding exposure, they are only worried that they could have made a few extra dollars off of it and they didn't.

Really they are holding on to and tryng to prolong a dieing form. New forms come and go, track to casset to cd to online, they need to hop on board becausee someday cds will be obsolete. Just like they have on demand tv statiosn the same will be for music. Liek the type writter, old products jsut get phased out no matter how much they try to prevent it.

Answer 3

Depends what your asking, the program LimeWire is very legal, all rights paid, and every measure taken to keep them from being shut down. The music you download however, is not protected by said laws and rights which makes every byte of music on LimeWire illegal unless the copyright is reserved by the producer/copyright holder of said music.

Answer 4

Using Limewire or any other P2P file sharing program such as Kaaza or Bearshare, to download any copyrighted music, movies, software etc. in illegal in the USA.

It is rare, but people do get sued and fined for using these P2P programs. Such as this girl here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/09/the_riaa_sees_the_face/

Also, many of the files that are downloaded using these programs are bundled with viruses, trojans, spyware, and adware. Always scan everything you download using any P2P program with your anti-virus and anti-spyware software before you use then.

Answer 5

Technically the act of using Limewire/Kazaa/Morpheus or any other P2P file sharing system IS PERFECTLY LEGAL. However, the act of sharing copyrighted music is what the authorities will prosecute for, as you are allowing other users to download something which they should pay for, for free.

The act of downloading music which is being shared by other users, is illegal, however the authorities will prosecute those who are sharing a "significant amount of music" - like drugs they will go after the DEALERS not the USERS.

Answer 6

Using it (or anything else) to download material that's under copyright (like music, movies and software) is a violation of international law, punishable by a fine of $750.00 - $150,000.00 for each song/software/movie illegally downloaded. Read up on copyright law at http://www.chillingeffects.org/piracy/faq.cgi

Limewire itself was sued by the RIAA and many other major media companies for allowing massive criminal activity on their network. The trial goes to court this summer, but based upon previous court decisions, Limewire is expected to lose and face hundreds of millions of dollars (or even billions of dollars) in fines. There's an article on the case at http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6102509.html as well as http://www.zeropaid.com/news/7783/Arista+va.+Limewire+lawsuit+gets+a+schedule/

Answer 7

Yeah it is illegal even though you aren't uploading the songs but just downloading them you are still contributing and that is illegal; unless you live in Canada since they dismissed to bill allowing ISP's giving out peoples names who were using P2P so it is perfectly fine in Canada.

Answer 8

The program is perfectly legal. Using it to share music or anything else that is copyrighted is illegal.

Answer 9

LIme wire is not illegal
it is in the EULA
you can only download music that you already own/bought
anything that you download that you don not own must be DELETED FROM YOUR COMPUTER WITHIN 24HRS

Answer 10

No, if it were illegal, it would have been shut down by now.