Well, i am feeling the same as you about all of this stuffing around. I wasted x amount of dollars to purchase the Limewire program (which i think i may have been duped of) and have since been using Kazaa instead. Am not sure how compatible this is with Macs but i am finding it fine to use and it costs nothing. If you are only looking at downloading music, dvds, programs etc, this is the way to go.
Good luck - hope this helps.