What is legal and illegal?
 

:( I still don't know what's legal and what's illegal. Can someone help.

What is illegal?
 

BrownDeathSquad

It's very simply really, owning and using P2P software as well as sharing non-copyright stuff is perfectly legal. However, sharing copyright material, such as music that can be bought on CD disks, is illegal and you can be prosecuted for it.

Taking this one step further, some newcomers seem to believe that this forum is about sharing and cracking software programs, it is most definitely not because that is also illegal and people or organisations that participate in such activity can also be prosecuted.

So, sharing copyright stuff is illegal, sharing non-copyright stuff is perfectly legal.




UK Bob

PS. Just a thought, people usually fall prey to scam sites because they believe you can pay a one-off fee, as advertised by the scam sites, for all the music or films you want. This, of course, is a lie, no company or organisation can offer unlimited music or films for just an admin fee. Copyright owners demand a set fee for every piece of music or film that is distributed.

chances of getting caught
 

If you have only downloaded 50 songs are there good chances of getting caught by the RIAA or whoever? P.S. Thx for the help ukbobby

See Organisations trying to connect via Port 6346 for one way of stopping organisations such as the riaa picking up on you.

check out what this UK lawyer has to say here http://p2pnet.net/story/4207 and then search for his posts on www.slyck.com

US
 

I live in the US. But thx for your help anyway

The major clue about the legality of any proposed download is the source. If you have accessed a legitimate site which authorises your proposed download, it is usually legal (unless, of course, it is a scam site). One of the signs to look out for is the label "Open Access" or a reference to incorporate this site: http://creativecommons.org/ which promotes its own license as the basis of legal sharing. Equally, if you have registered with a site owned by musicians who, for promotional or other purposes, make some or all of their music freely available, then you can safely download those tracks and passing them on to other people on the net will probably be covered by the terms of your original download. But, if you have accessed a user who offers identified tracks only available from current albums and not from authorised download sites, then you are likely to break the law if you download them.

Under American law, it is not a defence that you were ignorant of the law nor that you were scammed. Downloading even one track protected by an existing copyright exposes you to potential liability. However, you might find it interesting to read the forum's sticky on "Piracy".