Downloading Internet Music Legally ?

and it's pretty legal and you can preety much get all the music you might be looking for? Or is it what someone else is sharing? A little confused on this.

husker wrote:

and it's pretty legal and you can preety much get all the music you might be looking for? Or is it what someone else is sharing? A little confused on this.

Of course it is legal! The songs are shared, yes, but you can keep
them in your list as long as you want. Plus, I can transfer them to
iTunes.....

"Legal" in what sense of the word?

What is LimeWire?
The Fastest File Sharing Program on the Planet
LimeWire is a file sharing program running on the Gnutella Network. It is open standard software running on an open protocol, free for the public to use. LimeWire allows you to share any file such as.mp3s, .avis, jpgs, tiffs, etc. Limewire is written in Java, and will run on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Sun, and other computing platforms. Publish your original content to the world without setting up a website!

Why Should I Use LimeWire?
At LimeWire, we are working on developing the future of open peer networks and the digital commons. Our goal is to build users a tool that allows them to easily publish content to the world. LimeWire's elegant user interface is like no other Gnutella application available. LimeWire is capable of multiple searches, available in several different languages, and is most famous for its ease-of-use and cross platform compatibility. LimeWire offers two versions of the software: LimeWire Basic which is free of charge; the other is LimeWire PRO which costs a small fee, features faster download speeds and better search results, including up to 6 months of free updates and customer support via email. Neither version contains ads.

Limewire's Legality

Limewire and other file sharing software is legal. Using it to upload or download copyright protected media - music, videos, images, software - without the copyright holder's consent is illegal because it is theft.

Here are more opinions and tips:

* Limewire says its legal because technically its just a "file sharing" service and it is not held responsible for the files that are downloaded onto the system. Only the users are responsible. That's why when you download songs from Limewire, it's legal for them, but NOT for you.

* If you are not paying some sort of fee to download, it is illegal.

* Don't be fooled by the fee you pay to use the pro version of Limewire. The artists of the songs you download don't get a penny of that! ("LimeWire offers two versions of the software: LimeWire Basic which is free of charge; the other is LimeWire PRO which costs a small fee, features faster download speeds and better search results, including up to 6 months of free updates and customer support via email.")

* Even if you download a coyrighted song for your own personal use, it's still illegal. Perhaps one could skate around the issue if they already own a legal copy on a CD, but then why download it if that's the case. Any fees paid to Limewire are for purchasing the software and that's it.

* Lime Wire is not illegal software. All it is is file sharring. However many people abuse this by sharing songs without the copyright. For example if you have produced a song, then share it on Limewire, anyone else can legaly have it for free. But when you haven't made it, but an artist has, who has copyright on that song (which they all do) downloading that song without permission from the producer, it is totaly illegal.

* Basically, yes, downloadig music from any free service is probably illegal. You may be paying Limewire for the software, but that's just for the software, so the money goes to Limewire, you are not paying for the song. To be safe, do not download music for free. If it's free, nobody has paud the artist.

* Downloading songs and other copyrighted material is illegal, but if you wanted to share a music file of you singing or playing an instrument, then that is perfectly legal.

* LIMEWIRE IS ILLEGAL! Although with Limewire you will probably never get caught, if you even bring your computer in for a repair and a worker sees the program or any music you downloaded from Limewire, he is ordered BY LAW to tell his boss, and you will get a fine (I had to pay like 200 dollars.) It's not pretty. Although we all want Limewire to be legal, it isn't.

* The Limewire software itself is not illegal - that is why the site is still up and why you can still download it. However - if you donwload a song from the program and you do not pay copyright on it then that is illegal. Songs from the 1950's or before are legal to download because their copyright has expired. Anything from after that is illegal to download. However - you are all going to do it anyway so this just makes you aware!

* Downloading songs on limewire is illegal and always has been. However, as for the legality of the program itself, its confusing. The program is legal, but I believe I read somewhere that the supreme court recently ruled that file sharing services can be held accountable for sharing music.

* Is Limewire illegal? No It is not. It CAN'T leagally be held accountable for what it's users do. Let's put it like this. A major virus takes out the whole internet. But when they trace the source, it leads to runescape servers for example. Runescape is an online game that gives its users access to its servers, kind of like limewire. Now are the people owning runescape responsible? Nope, but its users ARE. Same thing with limewire. My advice to you, do not use it to access "free" music, or "free" programs...images...and so on and so forth. I have had my fare share of songs i got from limewire and if I could, I would return them to the artists and companies that worked hard to make them.

* Here is some info regarding P2P software and filesharing. If people would just take the time to read the fine print. I've visited the websites of a few popular filesharing software distributors and looked for disclaimers, TOS, End User Licenses, etc. I have only quoted bits of relevent information to give you an idea of what to expect. For more detailed info follow the links I've provided or visit the sites yourself for the full text. Continue reading to see what I found.

* Congress has not yet passed a law which makes file sharing illegal. File sharing is all Limewire is. You give access to your computer and thousands of other people who in turn give you access to their computer in order to share media files.

* It's been said again and again. Yes, LimeWire is legal. But not everything you choose to do with it is.

Songs from the 1950's or before are legal to download because their copyright has expired.

Before the act, copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship; the act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and 95 years respectively. The act also affected copyright terms for copyrighted works published prior to January 1, 1978, increasing their term of protection by 20 years as well.