Is limewire legal or illegal use?

Published July 5, 2010

Question by mmk: Is limewire legal or illegal use?
I’m planning to put some music onto my iPod, but I hear that it’s illegal and all that..

I want to put like at least 10-20 songs.

and what’s with the file sharing and all that? how do I adjust it so I won’t get into trouble

How do I use limewire without any massive problems?

Best answer:

Answer by CanadaRAM
Limewire and BitTorrent programs / downloading protocols themselves are legal.

However the vast majority of items available for download (movies, TV, software) are covered by copyright, and copying them and sharing them without the copyright owner’s permission is not legal. (not to mention the prevalence of viruses and trojan horses in the material).

If the items have not specifically been granted to free downloading by the author / owner, it’s not legal.

Pay for your commercial entertainment and software, don’t download pirated versions.

There is lots of music that the performers have released to be freely listened to. Check
MP3.com http://www.mp3.com/free-music/?tag=topnav;freemusic
Download.com http://music.download.com/

These will not be the top 10 hits though, you generally have to buy the popular commercial music.

Also check the official sites of bands you like to see if they offer any.

There are also streaming music feeds available from internet radio stations, such as LastFM http://last.fm and Live365 http://www.live365.com and subscription services from Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic, SpiralFrog http://www.spiralfrog.com and others (these are subsciption songs which you may not download and keep after the subscription expires).

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