Law and Lime Wire
 

Hey all,

How can Lime be leagle? Or is it not? Can you not get a big fine for downloing MP3's and things like that?? Any advice on this would be brill.

Many thanks Jez

In brief:

It's illegal to distribute copyrighted material without the owner's permission.

It's not illegal to simply own or use a file-sharing program like Limewire - there are lots of things that can be shared freely.

It's very like it being illegal to run people over in your car, but not illegal to own or drive a car.

So you should not really download music?

There are a few artists who allow thier music to be downloaded for free, and a larger number who offer a few of their less popular tracks to be downloaded in the hopes you'll buy the stuff they haven't made free.

If you're not sure, the best way to check is to check an online music seller; if the track you're thinking of downloading is for sale then there's a very good chance it's not meant to be downloaded for free.

so by using limewire I'm setting myself up for a potental lawsuit? Fan-freaking-tastic.

If you use limewire to download copyrighted material then you are breaking the law in many countries, yup.

However, not everything available on p2p networks is copyrighted. Using a tool such as limewire to download material that isn't copyrighted is perfectly okay.

mate dont worry bout it unless they do a random-police-harddrive check they cant even find out u have limewire. They cant waltz up to microsoft and get the details because then we could sue microsoft for breaking thier privacy stament :rolleyes:
*sigh* i know to much...