Can You Get A Legal Music Download?
Friday, February 23rd, 2007Downloadable, top quality music is a really appealing concept to many people, but many of us want to stay the right side of the law. There are some compelling reasons to download music: it is a great way to check out a track or two from an unknown artist before splashing out on the CD; it offers the downloader unrivaled ease - a few moments after deciding on a track, it is yours. And streaming songs are sometimes available for instant listening.
So what is the deal with the law? Many people will remember Napster being taken to court for encouraging file-sharing for free among peers. This court case judged that people sharing files in this way are breaking the law - the fact that money isn’t changing hands and no- one is profiting from it does not matter. Of course file sharing still goes on over peer to peer (P2P) networks (though not via Napster). Interestingly, recent research has shown that P2P is increasingly being used for legitimate file sharing - photos, files and so on - and not just for swapping copyrighted material.
If you want to stay the right side of the law, you should not download copyrighted material from the Internet. But the fact that this practice continues shows how many people think downloading their tunes is the best way to go. So if you want the convenience and ease without transgressing, how do you do it?
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Tags: Music
