most likely all illegal
by ktreb - 3/9/08 11:25 AM
In Reply to: legal??? by xx_zoe.f_xx
If you're getting popular music/artists, and even the not-so-popular ones, chances are what what you've downloaded is illegal. You do know that 360 Share Pro is a peer to peer file sharing network (such as Limewire and the old Napster before they went legitimate)? So when you're getting music, you're not getting it from the company that makes 360 Share Pro. You're getting it from someone's share files on their computer. And other people may be getting their music off your computer. Whether you do share or not depends on your settings, I guess. And the only way any of this is legal is if they or you are the copyright owners (they/you wrote, published, or performed the songs or own them because they/you are the record label that puts out the songs).
Merely paying for the program doesn't bypass any of this. Somewhere toward the bottom of the homepage of their website is this statement or something close to it:
"The purchase of a membership, however, is not a license to upload or download copyrighted material. We urge you to respect copyright and share responsibly. Click here for info on using p2p safely."
This little statement is an attempt to absolve their company of any liability.
Chances are you won't go to jail for it. Chances are you won't get caught. You never know. But the music industry, especially in the United States, want to prosecute people in civil court as a deterrent. Their usual tactic is to initially sue for millions of dollars then try to settle out of court for a fraction of that.
Read this recent case which made news late last year about Jammie Thomas in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammie_Thomas
I have yet to hear of a case where actual big money or even small payouts happened. But if you get sued, you have to get a lawyer, and that costs money, time, and a mess of headaches.
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