Sharing copied music
 

Hello,

I have posted this question before, but as I read the information about Limewire, I want to make sure of this rule. If I have Limeware Basic and locate music that I like, which is copyrighted, can I download this music without the risk of it being a illegal download? If this download is OK, how does it get around the copyright laws that are out there when copying music without paying anything for it.

Depends on the copyright laws in your country. But if you can buy such things in a shop, chances are you are breaching local copyright laws. So if you do download such material, you do it at your own risk.

If you search for copyright music, good chances you will probably find it.

But there's lots of files on gnutella network that are not copyright.

Thanks for your reply. So, basically if someone creates a song or some type of film, and it is posted, we can download. If someone uploads a song from a popular band, then we run into copyright issues.

Plesae confirm this for me.

In principle yes. There is some free to share / non-copyright material on the gnutella network. That was the original purpose of the network. However songs you have heard played on the radio or from TV, have a strong chance of being copyright. So if you choose to download them, you do at your own risk. :)

I share some music from a band I was in several years ago, as does another moderator on this forum sharing both music & video clip of his own band. :)

If you have a copy of a song on a particular format, say an LP or tape (remember them??) you have purchased the right to play that song. Now obviously I can't stick an LP into my laptop to play it, but I can convert that track to an electronic format to play it. This is nothing different to ripping a cd to my laptop and then placing that song onto my iPod.

In essence then the act of downloading is not necessarily illegal. The problem comes from 2 main areas:

1. What EXACTLY does your local law state?
2. Do you have the funds to prove to the music industry that you were not screwing them over??

My example, if accepted on legal grounds, gets very fun - what if you had bought the LP in 1970 and the LP was stolen, what if you buy a game and the disk is damaged? I'm sure you can think of other examples.

How often do you take an original CD and rip it onto a writable disk to play in your car. I do it all the time so that if the disk is accidently damaged, I still have the original in perfect condition. I have, strictly speaking, broken copyright law in that I have copied the original song and now have two copies. Again, nothing different to the 1980's when we copied LP's onto tape to play music in our cars.

There is a legal principle in many countries in that the plaintiff (music industry) must prove intent - in other words you willingly and deliberately wanted to cause harm and commit a legal offence.

Back to point 2 - how much cash do you have to stop the music industry screwing you if you are unfairly accused of illegal downloads??????

I recently heard some poor broad was hammered with a lawsuit for millions for something like 14 downloaded songs.

Why do songs have to be out of print on the sites where you can purchase songs?There is no inventory to store as if it was in cd or lp format.It would stop a lot of the illegal downloading.