Bearshare sux, but I think he's talking about downloading via a web browser.
Bearshare has a user selection to turn off sharing to web browsers, you can see the file list, but can't download from a browser, but if you also run bearshare or gnucleus client that allows drag and drop, you can drag the selected file from your browser and drop it on to gnucleus and it will be put into download.
It is misleading when someone brings up a menu of files but then can't download them. There should be a big, BIG warning when the user has his browser access off.