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<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='font-family:Times'>To whom it may concern,
:o What I would really like to know is the facts! :angry: Ok, I understand "sharing" downloads are stealing from music companies worldwide, thus the goverment goes after the people instead of the site? Is it legal to download the music, as long as you do not share?
<_< Amanda :swear: </span></span>
'Copyright Infringment'. They call it stealing to make you sound like a shoplifter, which you're not.
The government doesn't go after anyone. It is the owners of the copyrights, or their representatives, which in the American music industry is the RIAA.
It is only legal to download or share music with the permission of the copyright owner. For example, buying music from iMusic (which you can now apparently also resell, although there's a lot of difficulties in doing so).
They are going after users instead of Kazaa because the courts have decided that Kazaa has no control over what is shared on the FastTrack Network. If a website is offering songs for direct download, you can bet it'd be down as soon as the RIAA found out.
In the UK its illegal to share the music (downloading it in the 1st place is legal...its the people giving you the file that are breaking the law).
The reason that there is confusion, is that Laws change from country to country...so if you ask a legal question you should also say which country you are refering to.... in this case, USA.
Im sorry, i dont know US law, so i defer to the above post ;)