Do you think it unethical to download music / movies for free?
918589
No.\n\nFirst of all calling it stealing is a misnomer.  It is negative spin put out by the recording industry.  Stealing is when you take something from someone, and deprive them of it.  If you download some music that you were not going to buy anyway, you have not cost the artist anything.\n\nLet me give you an example.  In 2003, I wanted to make a dance mix for my car.  I used some software called Mixmeister to produce a beat mix recording.  I downloaded a bunch of music that I used to listen to, and used some of it to make a mix for my personal amusement.  If I had purchased every song I downloaded it would have probably cost me $500 or so.  Often I would download tracks that I thought was the right one, only to find it was not.  Some of the tracks I already owned.\n\nIf downloading was not an option, I would never have even attempted to make this mix for myself.  So did my mix CD cost the recording industry anything?  No.  Of course not.  But technically, I broke the law and stole from them.\n\nLet me give you another example.  When Eminem first came out I heard one of his songs on MTV.  I then downloaded a bunch of his other music to see if I liked it.  I liked it and ended up buying several DVDs and every album he released.\n\nIn another example I used to use an illegal download site that is now closed.  It had a facility to suggest songs I might like.  Since I  had downloaded some Radiohead it suggested a band I had never heard called Muse.  I later went on to purchase three Muse albums and some additional Radiohead.  I would never have even known about Muse, were it not for this download site.\n\nWhen it comes to downloading the reality is that record companies are out of touch and unwilling to get behind new technology.  If they had been looking out for fans rather than their personal greed, they would have cashed in on the whole Internet downloading thing years earlier.\n\nLet us also not forget the reality here.  You talk about the poor artists losing money.  But that is just a line put out by record companies.  If you download a song, you are not hurting anyone.  The only time you are hurting an artist or a record company is if you ONLY download stuff and never buy it.  If everyone did this, there would be a problem.  But most people I know who download, always buy the CD or DVD if it is good.
33845
It was never wise to do.  In addition to being illegal, it was also a mecca for hackers.  P2P has become one of the leading "release points" for computer virus.\n\nIn addition, both RIAA and MPAA have joined forces to catch people that use these services.  Early on, they concentrated on people who were shareing files.  However, they are more and more doing "reverse stings", where they themselves put something out to share.  They then sue anybody who tried to download it from them.\n\nStay safe and legal, use a "fee" based legal system like emusic, itunes, or something else.
1100751
Personally i would make sure that the song, movie, ect. has been publically released in your area first, we don't need pirating!
227151
Yes, but if you do it to friends only, who is going to tell.  If you keep your enterprise small, you should be ignoired, but yes it is illegal.\n\nYou can always tell your customers that the movie is free but the delivery and pickup (or handling) charges will be $$?
438172
For me, not with music\nMy friends said they got trouble from .zip files on limewire
1107530
I download and share with anyone who wants it. I don't make money off of it. Am I breaking the law? I do the same thing with movies. Music and movies cost way to much to buy from the stores. Blank discs are cheap. When will big companies wake up and realize it is time to lower the costs?
857714
the software is not (for now) but if you download things that you do not have a right to (most mp3 song files) or software, movies that is illegal\n\nKaty beat me to it
434516
yeah kinda what he said: its not illegal to own limewire but it is illegal to download music, video and programs as its counted as piracy i dont think it matters with downloading pictures though but again there are so many people that do it you probably wont get caught ever. so go nuts --- Fizzy
928769
as long as u dnt not pay for the copyright, and u download it without permission, it is illegal....
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.
493853
As the others said - downloading is piracy which is illegal.  The money made from piracy is used to fund illegal activities such as gun running, child pornography, money laundering and terrorism among other things.  The place to see a film is at the cinema - where it's designed to be seen and heard at its best.  If people don't see them at the pictures, then money won't be made and the films we do get to see won't be as good.  If you can't afford to go out to the movies, rent the dvd when it comes out - UK libraries are the cheapest place to rent just out movies (much cheaper than Blockbusters).
1154952
Oh what a lot of bull....   it has nothing to do with conspiracies, dictatorships or the government...\n\nWhen you say "downloading", you're talking about getting a free copy of a commerical product.   Somebody made that product, and expects to get paid for doing so.    What you're doing is stealing...  but it's happening in such numbers that it's just not practical to prosecute every individual who scores a few bootleg movies...\nThe movie. music and game industries are directing their energies to proscuting the people who turn theft into a big business.... they steal the product and pass it on because they think its cool to "beat the system", or because they have some convoluted political agenda...\nNow, can I come by and take somehting that you worked for? Your car?  Is it OK If I take that and give it to a stranger on the street?  You wouldn't mind?  It is, after all, politically correct ...  :-)
987553
You may download whatever is provided over the internet for your own usage.  You may not redistribute it to other people.
460133
That's illegal stuff there downloading it using ANY P2P network, if you get caught downloading you can get heavily fined..
920892
It depends. There are some ways of getting free music off of the internet, but some are illegal and will get you into trouble. However, there are altenative ways off getting music such as saving the link or recording the sound.
86355
Technically downloading any copyrighted work whether it be software, music, movies, et al is illegal.  That being said those that get in trouble only get in trouble because they were sharing the files they downloaded or already had, that's how they (the government) finds you.  If you just download but don't share it becomes next to impossible to find you.  And most of the people we are talking about here had servers with many copyrighted works on them.  Generally speaking the individual user is fairly safe but there are exceptions.\n\nNo, Kazaa is not okay, because the free version of Kazaa is full of spyware.  Since you have probably heard of it, LimeWire, http://www.limewire.com/ is great but I have since moved to FrostWire, http://www.frostwire.com/ which is the open source free version of LimeWire Pro.  And FrostWire is based overseas so it would be harder for US laws to affect the software.  I'll reiterate that if you share your files you are at risk of getting in trouble so it's just best if you DO use it to just download and not share anything.\n\nWhen you download files from ANY P2P network always, always scan them with your anti-virus software before running the files.  There is always the possibility the file you downloaded could contain a virus and if it does most AV programs will detect them because it is probably an old virus to which your AV software will have definitions for.  Zero day attacks are not likely to occur on a P2P network.  If you don't have a virus scanner, AVG Free is an excellent one, http://free.grisoft.com/\n\nThere is no guarantee, it is 99.5% safe.  That is, there is only a >1% chance you will actually get caught, there is a slight risk but it is mostly safe.  Mostly being the operative term.
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.