Is saving streaming music from the internet illegal?
407024
Not yet. But if the senate passes this bill, it could be even illegal to stream music on the net. If the RIAA succeeds in doing that, fortunately only music under a Creative Commons license will be available : )
1178810
The program itself is legal. However, you can do illegal things with it, like download music and burn it on CDs and distribute that. But the program itself is legal.
535023
Limewire's Legality:\n\nLimewire and other file sharing software is legal. Using it to upload or download copyright protected media - music, videos, images, software - without the copyright holder's consent is illegal because it is theft. \n\nHere are more opinions and tips: \n\n\nLimewire says its legal because technically its just a "file sharing" service and it is not held responsible for the files that are downloaded onto the system. Only the users are responsible. That's why when you download songs from Limewire, it's legal for them, but NOT for you. \n\nIf you are not paying some sort of fee to download, it is illegal. \n\nDon't be fooled by the fee you pay to use the pro version of Limewire. The artists of the songs you download don't get a penny of that! ("LimeWire offers two versions of the software: LimeWire Basic which is free of charge; the other is LimeWire PRO which costs a small fee, features faster download speeds and better search results, including up to 6 months of free updates and customer support via email.") \n\nEven if you download a coyrighted song for your own personal use, it's still illegal. Perhaps one could skate around the issue if they already own a legal copy on a CD, but then why download it if that's the case. Any fees paid to Limewire are for purchasing the software and that's it. \n\nLime Wire is not illegal software. All it is is file sharring. However many people abuse this by sharing songs without the copyright. For example if you have produced a song, then share it on Limewire, anyone else can legaly have it for free. But when you haven't made it, but an artist has, who has copyright on that song (which they all do) downloading that song without permission from the producer, it is totaly illegal. \n\nBasically, yes, downloadig music from any free service is probably illegal. You may be paying Limewire for the software, but that's just for the software, so the money goes to Limewire, you are not paying for the song. To be safe, do not download music for free. If it's free, nobody has paid the artist. \n\nDownloading songs and other copyrighted material is illegal, but if you wanted to share a music file of you singing or playing an instrument, then that is perfectly legal. \n\nLIMEWIRE IS ILLEGAL! Although with Limewire you will probably never get caught, if you even bring your computer in for a repair and a worker sees the program or any music you downloaded from Limewire, he is ordered BY LAW to tell his boss, and you will get a fine (I had to pay like 200 dollars.) It's not pretty. Although we all want Limewire to be legal, it isn't. \n\nThe Limewire software itself is not illegal - that is why the site is still up and why you can still download it. However - if you donwload a song from the program and you do not pay copyright on it then that is illegal. Songs from the 1950's or before are legal to download because their copyright has expired. Anything from after that is illegal to download. However - you are all going to do it anyway so this just makes you aware! \n\nDownloading songs on limewire is illegal and always has been. However, as for the legality of the program itself, its confusing. The program is legal, but I believe I read somewhere that the supreme court recently ruled that file sharing services can be held accountable for sharing music. \n\nIs Limewire illegal? No It is not. It CAN'T leagally be held accountable for what it's users do. Let's put it like this. A major virus takes out the whole internet. But when they trace the source, it leads to runescape servers for example. Runescape is an online game that gives its users access to its servers, kind of like limewire. Now are the people owning runescape responsible? Nope, but its users ARE. Same thing with limewire. My advice to you, do not use it to access "free" music, or "free" programs...images...and so o
1170984
Probably not, for download sites to be legal, the artists must get the profits off songs that are downloaded, if the music is free the artist isn't getting any money, and its basically like stealing. The best thing I've found is Napster, you pay a montly fee and you can download as many songs as you want without the 99 cents fee, although some songs aren't available for "free" download, and must be bought for 99 cents.
680277
Limewire, it is illegal though.
900487
If the website doesn't explicitly allow you to do so, that's stealing bandwidth and in many cases illegal (and in all cases, unethical).\n\nNot to mention copyright infringements..
705886
They are legal as long as you trade files you\nown copyrights and distribution rights.\nDistributing "commercial" music and videos is\nillegal.\nDistributing music you have composed yourself\nor your own interpretation of music that is in the\npublic domain (i.e., classical music) is legal.\n\nEven if Limewire or Bearshare are found to be\n"illegal" in the sense to been found cooperating\nwith people distributing illegally "commercial"\nmusic or videos, that wouldn't affect you if you\nwere not part of that infringement.\n\nDisclaimer: IANAL (I am not a lawyer).
1046992
Limewire the program is not illegal, "Can you do illegal things with it?" is another question.\n\nYou can do illegal things like downloading music, movies, and games with it.\n\nOnce again, the program is not illegal, but downloading copywriting music, games, software, and cinema is.
555654
Try researching a bit of copyright law..\n\nIncidentally, not all music downloads are illegal, there's a great deal of live recordings available, and many bands and artists are all for this as it stops bootleggers making a profit.
611272
It is not illegal to use limewire per se - it is a file sharing system, just as if you put some files on a flash drive, brought it to your friend's house and loaded the files onto their computer. The system is not illegal, but it can be used to breach copyright, which is illegal.\n\nif you own the copyright to a song, then you are free to let anyone download it. \n\nhowever, downloading mp3s without the express permission of the copyright holder is definitely illegal.
777976
You cannot unless there is a free video or song available.\n\nDownloading free music can lead to piracy and it is against the law.
987998
The limewire website itself is not illegal, nor is it illegal to download Limewire.  It is, however, illegal to use the Limewire program to download copyright-protected materials.
470169
It depends on where your downloading from. You are more likely to be caught if you're downloading off of a shared internet connection (ie: dorm internet, apartment internet, etc). The likelihood also goes up the longer you leave downloaded files in your shared folder. The least likely way to get caught is to bring your laptop to a wireless hot-spot and download using that.\n\nNow, on to the underlying ethical issue. Downloading music without paying is illegal. I'm not here to say it's wrong, but it is illegal. When you download illegally, you are stealing money from record labels, NOT artists. Don't use this as an excuse, but a reason. These record labels are stealing money from the artists. They give them a million dollar record deal but they charge them $990,000 to actually get the record made. In most contracts, the artists are charged for the studio time, instrument rental/purchase, the cost of manufacturing the CDs and Jewel Cases, promotional expenses, and a large number of incidental expenses. In the end, an artist may wind up owing money on an album that does platinum.\n\nI won't go out and say that I download these files, but if I did, these would be the reasons why. Personally, I just listen to the radio.
456071
Well as the others say, yes, technically, in probably most cases, the music is will be copyrighted material and so it is illegal to take it for free, or indeed to give it out (share it) for free - without the copyright-holder's permission. Despite some high-profile cases where individuals have been, successfully of course, prosecuted by record companies for illegal filesharing, this is obviously a scare tactic by the record companies, and we are talking about a handful of individuals being prosecuted - out of, I imagine hundreds of millions of file-sharers - so the risk to you is really extremely small.\n\nAs regards what Mr. Edwards says about viruses, well I have to say it seems like he is anti-filesharing and therefore he would say that to put you off - although I may be wrong(?). In reality I would say, although he is right there are many viruses on filesharer's computers, the risk is no greater really than that associated with using the rest of the internet - I mean to put it in perspective, if you don't use filesharing because you're worried about downloading viruses through it then you shouldn't really use the internet either.\n\n**This is not to say of course that you shouldn't be careful** Take all the precautions that you do with the rest of the net - make sure you have proper anti-virus, firewall, anti-spyware software and use it! Virus-scan your downloads - you'll find, handily that many popular filesharing software - this may help you choose - will have a setting in the options to *automatically* scan all incoming files using you installed anti-virus software.\n\nAnd if you do get a virus etc through filesharing, just bear in mind it could *equally* happened through email, browsing etc.\n\nRather an essay there but hope that helps!
727489
The website itself is not illegal, but some of the downloads are illegal. Such as Copywritten Movies, Music, and Software. Just stay wary of what your downloading, and be smart. :-D
987963
The music (songs and albums, if you can get them) on music sharing peer-to-peer networks are usually unauthorized illegal copies of music.  Downloading copyrighted music from these sources constitutes theft.\n\nSubscription music services allow you to rent and play songs and whole albums on your PC for as little as $5 a month.  For as little as $10 a month, you can transfer these songs to a compatible MP3 player (PlaysForSure subscription compatible).\n\nI have over 1300 songs on my player that I'm renting which works out to about a penny a month per song.  That is darned near "Free" and it is completely legal.\n\nCheck out Yahoo Music Unlimited To Go, Rhapsody To Go, or Napster To Go.
944844
Limewire is legal.  Downloading the music, that is the illegal part.