Is downloading music on limewire legal?
 

Is downloading music on limewire legal?

I download about 25 tracks a week and need to know if downloading music on limewire is illegal. I live in the uk and already 30 or so people have been fined £2000 for using p2p file sharing programs.
Is there a way to combat being caught if it is illegal?
Any help would be appreciated..

You should be able to find this info on the internet! Here is a few links that might help, but I'm not sure what the law is in your country?

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/...ownloading.asp

http://www.answerbag.com/c_view.php/521

http://www.whatsthedownload.com/what...ong/index.aspx

Hope this helps
;)

ARE YOU REALLY THAT STUPID TO EVEN ASK THAT?

Did I say something wrong? Only trying to help! Why are you being so rude?

Don't be a dick. I happen to have the very same question, though I live in the states.

Well, guys, what a way to treat Joe501!

Joe, this is the answer you were looking for and I hope it helps all the others who read this thread. I am referring to UK law as it currently stands.

Having P2P software (Limewire, Ares, whatever) installed on your computer is perfectly legal

Searching for files using that software is also legal

Downloading files, oddly enough, is also legal

Using the files for your personal use - making CD's for the house or car stereo etc, as long as it is YOUR own use - is also legal

So what is the illegal bit?

Redistribution of the files is illegal, be it by digital, electronic or physical means - IE, emailing a song to someone, sharing it with people over the internet via Limewire etc, or making CD's which you either sell or give away. The redistribution breaks copyright law since the ONLY situation in which YOU can do that legally is if the OWNER of the copyrighted work has given you express (not implied) permission to do so.

Hence, when you download using P2P software, you are ok, but the person(s) you are downloading from are acting illegally.

In another thread UKBob has mentioned the other dangers of the activities of the Music Industry by employing agents to monitor people with vast collections of tracks they are sharing, and the distribution of useless silent "tracks" and even trojans and virus's contained in "tracks" deliberately unleashed by the unscrupulous music industry.

Bottom line is, everyone can learn something from this situation, and make progress and move on... what could that be? simple! if the Music Industry dropped the "maximise profits" stance and started charging realistic prices for CD's many more legal copies would be sold, and far fewer people would bother downloading in this way. But, the music industry never learns, does it!

Ross.

Sorry to reply to my own reply...! I forgot to say one thing for nervous people like joe...

If you are that worried about being caught do this..regularly

Set limewire to close completely on exit, and to NOT share partly downloaded files - use the limewire options to achieve this.

(first time you do the following, start with step 3)

1. use Limewire to download a file (juse one file)

2. as soon as it is 100% completed, close limewire immediately and fully, make sure it is not still running in the system tray. you can set the options for this within limewire so you only have to click on the large X in the window corner to close down completely.

3. Use windows explorer to move the file you just downloaded into another folder, one which is not set for sharing - note the first time you do this you should move ALL files out of this shared folder before starting limewire at all!

4. check your "incomplete" folder and delete anything in there too.

in future only ever download one file at a time, and then close limewire, move the file to an alternative folder before restarting limewire - this will mean you are sharing 0 files and the music industry cannot accuse you of sharing which is the essence of the copyright breach problem.

Ross.

How about Bootlegs?
 

Doe anyone know if The Music Industry has a view on the sharing of Bootlegs? And BTW thanks fto most :-) of the posters above for the useful information!

That is a good idea "Nervously sharing", moving files like that so a person can't share -only take. Its called freeloading! If everybody did that Limewire wouldn't exist... Sorry but if I couldn't share my files with the Limewire community then I wouldn't use Limewire... If a person takes, the least they could do is give something back.

For shame...

Hi again! yes, Mr AB for shame! you are quite right, this is a community program, but you have to remember that it's use is primarily the sharing of copyrighted material... I personally keep a small number of files in my share folder and move them out in batches when they get to about 25, dropping them to about 10 and then download some more.

I am led to believe that the music industry is targeting people with large numbers of share files, eg, over 800! so for most people this is not going to be a problem and they can continue to share, until or unless the industry decides to ramp up the action and pursue people with ever smaller numbers of files over time.

These guys are businessmen pure and simple, and if they want to take everyone to court, then they can! But it does make you wonder WHY they dont just reduce the high prices of CD's (particularly in the UK) so that many more people will just buy the damn things.

There is another point - when you buy an artist's CD, unless it is a classic, or a compilation, then it is going to contain tracks that you don't like, or want in many cases. If you pay £10 ($18) for one single CD album, and then find that out of nine tracks, you only like seven of them, that makes the CD cost 20% more, if you think about it!

Finally, my previous posting on the subject in this thread was answering the original question of legality, and then I went on to explain how to maintain legality for the more paranoid among us. I hope this won't deter many people from sharing, but I suppose those who are nervous already, are unlikely to be the kind of people who had much in their share folders anyway.

Ross - apologetically

thanks alot for all of your help, this has been really useful and reassuring, could someone sticky this so that I can show people, because this thread is quite useful

thanks again everyone :D

Re: Is downloading music on limewire legal?
 

all music is copyrighted, so the honest answer is "no it's illegal". But the people you referred to - the 30 who have been prosecuted - had an average of 2,500 files each and they were prosecuted for SHARING them ie for uploading. The BPI won't bother with you if you're only sharing a handful of files. As long as you don't go overboard and share all the tracks on the UK Top 75 week in, week out you'll be OK.

In other words, don't worry...

Robbie

"copyrighted" may be true - eventhough such a word doesn't exist. Basically, every time you create something, you have the copyright for it. Of course, if it's derived from other people's work, the copyright is shared - unless you never had permission to use their work. However, that does NOT mean that there isn't free music you may download and redistribute! Just for example, music from these sites can be shared on Gnutella freely as long as you keep the filenames and comment tags as-is:

http://remix.kwed.org/
http://www.ocremix.org/

That may not be your kind of music but there are similar sites for any kind of music. You know, not everybody makes music to earn money or even if they do, they may release some of their tracks for free. It's similar to free software. "free" doesn't imply worse or cheap. A lot of free music and software is even much better than the one you have to pay for.

I haven't listened to any stuff from the "charts" in 2 years or so because I don't use radio or TV any longer. The CDs I bought were not promoted and will probably never be widely known, simply because the kind of music is not played on the radio or elsewhere which doesn't imply that there are not millions of people all over the world that like it or would like it if they only knew it.

Is Downloading Music on Limewire legal
 

First let me say that since I can remember, I have always recorded music from the radio to a tape recorder. No one ever complained about sharing or stealing from the record labels. Is it also illegal to have a group of friends outside and listen to music together? NO NO NO. The records labels need to understand that most artist gain more fans through sharing through p2p networks. There are even some artists out there that appreciate the free publicity they get from people who file share. Most artists don't realize they make most of their money through tours, not on selling CDs. They get about $0.01 per CD that is sold.

It is so true that most people don't enjoy an artist's whole CD. Very few artists have CDs that you would enjoy all the titles.

I wouldn't even think of purchasing a CD unless I knew it was worthy of $15.96. Most aren't worth $5.00. I have found so much music that I enjoyed just because of a title and I chose to download just to see and BAM...we had a winner!

The bottom line is this....if we can records shows through Tivo and VCRs, then we are only supposed to use them for our own use, then why would it be any different with music. The same is said from recording off the radio or making "back-up" CDs. If we weren't supposed to do it, why would they make CD burners? Record Companies just want to keep getting richer and screw with the fans that make it happen.

I say to H*ll with the companies and HELLO to the p2p networks and their software. Thanks.:D

Janis Ian: Singer and music industry critic
 

A while back someone posted a link to Janis Ian's site and her views on the music industry. Sems a good time to repeat this. It's a long read but well worth it:

http://www.janisian.com/articles.html

Read: Ethics In The Music Industry
and

Fallout: followup to The Internet Debacle

And If you don't own "Between The Lines" Go out and BUY it!! :-)

How come none of the Limewire mods or staff have replied to this?

They claim "Limewire does not encourage piracy" but that's all that P2P is used for these days.


It's all ILLEGAL, so be carefull, or just don't do it at all. Is it really worth downloading music and going to jail for some words and sounds put together?

I was just checking out the forums...I don't se limewire or p2p.


____________

Some people say Limewire is your # 1 ilLegal source.

You don't happen to work for the music industry by any chance? :-)

Is it really worth downloading music and going to jail for some words and sounds put together?


Is it worth anything? I don't think so and that's exactly what you get: Nothing.

Just for the record:
the questions in this thread have been answered by many earlier ones. The genuine requests have already been answered.

Using LimeWire or any p2p for sharing music and other files can be quite legal (at least in most free countries).

Here's a quick test case: all these uploads from last night are legal. The people downloading them are safely participating in p2p. Correct?

limewire
 

limewire is illegal u dont pay for the copy right of the song do you.

Dan, with your thinking, ownership of a car is wrong, because it is capable of breaking the speed limit. Ownership of a kitchen knife is against the law because you can use it to kill people. and the least said about gun laws in the United States the better.

I can use my Opera browser to down load copyrighted material and I can spam it to whoever I want. Does that make Opera Illegal

OK OK there are differences with p2p but I can assure you that there are many many of us who do not use Limewire for the distribution of copyrighted material

Limewire is not illegal, and hundreds of users do not use it illegally. There are proper crimes being comitted daily, go sort them out!



Any way how did you find this thread ... it last saw light of day weeks ago!

lime wire
 

i was searching through google and it brought this up

what did it bring up ... can you paste a link to your post?:confused:

does any1 no the current law on limewire in the uk

plz write back

:xeri_ok1ani:

You may find the following to be of interest...

http://www.gnutellaforums.com/lounge...w-changes.html

yh thanks 4 that but i dont really no wot any of that really means

:confused:

wb