thanks alot for all of your help, this has been really useful and reassuring, could someone sticky this so that I can show people, because this thread is quite useful

thanks again everyone

all music is copyrighted, so the honest answer is "no it's illegal". But the people you referred to - the 30 who have been prosecuted - had an average of 2,500 files each and they were prosecuted for SHARING them ie for uploading. The BPI won't bother with you if you're only sharing a handful of files. As long as you don't go overboard and share all the tracks on the UK Top 75 week in, week out you'll be OK.

In other words, don't worry...

Robbie

"copyrighted" may be true - eventhough such a word doesn't exist. Basically, every time you create something, you have the copyright for it. Of course, if it's derived from other people's work, the copyright is shared - unless you never had permission to use their work. However, that does NOT mean that there isn't free music you may download and redistribute! Just for example, music from these sites can be shared on Gnutella freely as long as you keep the filenames and comment tags as-is:

http://remix.kwed.org/
http://www.ocremix.org/

That may not be your kind of music but there are similar sites for any kind of music. You know, not everybody makes music to earn money or even if they do, they may release some of their tracks for free. It's similar to free software. "free" doesn't imply worse or cheap. A lot of free music and software is even much better than the one you have to pay for.

I haven't listened to any stuff from the "charts" in 2 years or so because I don't use radio or TV any longer. The CDs I bought were not promoted and will probably never be widely known, simply because the kind of music is not played on the radio or elsewhere which doesn't imply that there are not millions of people all over the world that like it or would like it if they only knew it.

First let me say that since I can remember, I have always recorded music from the radio to a tape recorder. No one ever complained about sharing or stealing from the record labels. Is it also illegal to have a group of friends outside and listen to music together? NO NO NO. The records labels need to understand that most artist gain more fans through sharing through p2p networks. There are even some artists out there that appreciate the free publicity they get from people who file share. Most artists don't realize they make most of their money through tours, not on selling CDs. They get about $0.01 per CD that is sold.

It is so true that most people don't enjoy an artist's whole CD. Very few artists have CDs that you would enjoy all the titles.

I wouldn't even think of purchasing a CD unless I knew it was worthy of $15.96. Most aren't worth $5.00. I have found so much music that I enjoyed just because of a title and I chose to download just to see and BAM...we had a winner!

The bottom line is this....if we can records shows through Tivo and VCRs, then we are only supposed to use them for our own use, then why would it be any different with music. The same is said from recording off the radio or making "back-up" CDs. If we weren't supposed to do it, why would they make CD burners? Record Companies just want to keep getting richer and screw with the fans that make it happen.

I say to H*ll with the companies and HELLO to the p2p networks and their software. Thanks.

A while back someone posted a link to Janis Ian's site and her views on the music industry. Sems a good time to repeat this. It's a long read but well worth it:

http://www.janisian.com/articles.html

Read: Ethics In The Music Industry
and

Fallout: followup to The Internet Debacle

And If you don't own "Between The Lines" Go out and BUY it!! :-)

How come none of the Limewire mods or staff have replied to this?

They claim "Limewire does not encourage piracy" but that's all that P2P is used for these days.


It's all ILLEGAL, so be carefull, or just don't do it at all. Is it really worth downloading music and going to jail for some words and sounds put together?

I was just checking out the forums...I don't se limewire or p2p.


____________

Some people say Limewire is your # 1 ilLegal source.

You don't happen to work for the music industry by any chance? :-)

Is it really worth downloading music and going to jail for some words and sounds put together?


Is it worth anything? I don't think so and that's exactly what you get: Nothing.

Just for the record:
the questions in this thread have been answered by many earlier ones. The genuine requests have already been answered.

Using LimeWire or any p2p for sharing music and other files can be quite legal (at least in most free countries).

Here's a quick test case: all these uploads from last night are legal. The people downloading them are safely participating in p2p. Correct?

Attached Images

shares.png (66.5 KB, 160 views)

limewire is illegal u dont pay for the copy right of the song do you.