Illegal Downloads

Limewire and many other engines and sites have downloads that in short are illegal and break Copyright law. Also if a musician says its OK to illegally download their music, is it?

What do you think?

“its OK to illegally download my music” doesn’t make much sense, pedantically. If a band was okay for their tracks to be distributed will-ye nil-ye then they would formally release it under a public license, and it would cease to be illegal to download it.

Illegally downloading music is theft of intellectual property, and is just as illegal as stealing anything else.

Besides, it’s cheaper in the long run to actually buy your music legally. If you get caught with illegal downloads on your computer, there is a ridiculously large fine per download. If you want discount music, buy secondhand albums off Amazon. Amazingly cheap, and entirely legal.

Yes, random police searches for illegally obtained music are rampant. Do it legally or face the consequences.

Who would catch you though? Its not like police are going to break into your house and say “WHERES THE MUSIC!” or do they hack it or something?

bq.“its OK to illegally download my music” doesn’t make much sense, pedantically. If a band was okay for their tracks to be distributed will-ye nil-ye then they would formally release it under a public license, and it would cease to be illegal to download it.

I understand what you’re saying but I’ve seen two artists saying its alright to download illegaly.

Btw, make italics with <i> or <em> or underscores.

Another alternative to getting it legally whilst protecting yourself is to encrypt the stolen data, or even stick it in a versioning repository and retrieve as necessary. :)

I understand what you’re saying but I’ve seen two artists saying its alright to download illegaly.

Then those artists were making the same mistake.

Who would catch you though? Its not like police are going to break into your house and say “WHERES THE MUSIC!” or do they hack it or something?

ISPs will sometimes give that information to the police to cover themselves legally, although this is a rare occurrence.

But yes, I get your point; getting caught is unlikely. It does happen though.

Heres an article about how people get caught downloading music.

I understand what you’re saying but I’ve seen two artists saying its alright to download illegaly.

This may be a cliche, but if I told you jumping off of a bridge was safe, would you do it?

I think the reason Limewire, for example, is still around is because its p2p. Unlike Napster USED to be. If I remember correctly, Napster was always free. Limewire could get away with it by saying “We have a PRO version. We cost money!”

I’m glad at the response I’ve got to this thread. To be honest I think it should have stayed with CDs. The radio station that I listen to, Capital Radio, has the chart top 40 of downloads instead of CD sales which I think a lot of stations are doing now. I don’t get how, if they are counting the downloads, how do they find out how many ilegal downloads there have been! I mean if they do why don’t they prosecute the people who have put it on the internet. I’m only 13 so I guass thats why I don’t understand it much.

Originally posted by moomanmatt:

Also if a musician says its OK to illegally download their music, is it?

What do you think?

I think that if it is illegal, it probably is not ok in a legal context. Just saying.

They would take the statistics from websites that allow legal downloads of tracks. Illegal activity is generally ignored in such listings.

Where do they draw the line to persecute someone?

Aaron_’s article says that someone (probably something) monitors your bandwidth usage. Who deems too-much as too-much?

And I would assume that a band’s music usually belongs to the publisher, not to the band. So unless the band acts as their own publisher, they cannot say their music is free.

Anyone seen the South Park episode about the downloading music?

Limewire could get away with it by saying “We have a PRO version. We cost money!”

That’s not the reason Limewire can continue to exist legally.

Peer-to-peer networks (like Gnutella, which Limewire is a frontend for, or BitTorrent) are perfectly legal. The server tracking data (if there is one) doesn’t itself hold anything illegal. In the case of Limewire, the people acting illegally are those uploading and downloading copyrighted material, not the company which supplies software allowing users to interact with the network.

Incidentally, the only thing the free version of Limewire is good for is pirating Limewire Pro.

Is it people who puut stuff up for download on limewire or limewire put it up? also technically, isn’t it the person that is putting it up for download commiting crime not the downloader?

It’s also illegal to download copyrighted material, in case you didn’t notice.

Limewire is a frontend for the Gnutella file sharing network. The company behind it doesn’t host files itself.

Originally posted by moomanmatt:

also technically, isn’t it the person that is putting it up for download commiting crime not the downloader?

Whether you steal goods or accept stolen goods you are breaking the law.

Also if a musician says its OK to illegally download their music, is it?

lol, reminded me of the System of A Down album called “Steal This Album” (2002)

I illegally download major label music, Independent label and all that other stuff I buy becuase I need to support the artist so they can get a tour going. But big stars bitching that they cant afford a surround sound system on their private jet becuase people illegally download their music? I say fuck them.

As far as I know (which isn’t that far, granted), in some countries downloading/streaming is illegal even if the band/artist gives permission for it.

I dont care if its Illegal or not, I am a pirate and Im proud, it is my little F U to the corporate music industry.

If the copyright holder gives permission for it to be downloaded (by licensing it as a public-domain work or similar), then it’s not illegal to download or share it, unless the work itself is illegal.

If the copyright holder gives permission for it to be downloaded (by licensing it as a public-domain work or similar), then it’s not illegal to download or share it, unless the work itself is illegal.

That’s what you’d think. I don’t know the details, but this site (www.metalstorm.eu) had to pull the plug from their metal sampler because of the Estonian law. Even though they had permission from every artist/creator involved.

but this site (www.metalstorm.eu) had to pull the plug from their metal sampler because of the Estonian law

Source? Nothing on it

Even though they had permission from every artist/creator involved.

Often, artists signed with a record label don’t hold distribution rights to their published works. And so permission from them doesn’t actually count if there isn’t also permission from the record label.

Furthermore, licensing a “sample” to a particular website is very different to actually releasing a work as public-domain.

If you have a CD but want to take the time to download it on your computer rather than ripping it, is it still illegal? You have bought the CD legitimately, and you want to be able to burn another CD for the just in case the original gets broken, or you want to preserve the original in its original wrapping (for those hardcore collectors). Is it still illegal to download the songs that are featured in the CD you bought?

Ethically, I don’t see how anyone could argue you are doing anything morally wrong.

Legally, though, it’s pretty clear-cut. You’re not allowed to download illegal copies of copyrighted works, whether or not you hold a legal copy of the work yourself.