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limewire illegal or not?
every i look theres peple saying oh limewires illegal bla dee bla but i was thinkin the other day if its so illegal why is it still on the internet to be downloaded? surely the gov't would have taken it off by now. also its not illegal to send songs through msn and isnt limewire just like msn but on a much larger scale its all file sharing (you can chat with people on limewire btw if ya didnt know :P) so whats exaclty classed as illegal from limewire because the only decent excuse i can think of is its ok to download as long as you dont broadcast it on like public TV
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limewire is illegal
but its like one in a bajillion chance they will catch you because, when you first download limewire they can't track you down because you never gave them any info about yourself, but if you get limewire pro, its most likely you'll get caught, so just dont worry about that illegal thing & try not to buy limewire pro. =)
♥kay
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yeah limewire is illegal , why im not 100% sure but one of my friends got caught with it and she had like a $2,000 fine. most people use it still though , my aunt whos a lawyer and her husband have it and her husbands a state troopper. so its not a super huge deal if you have it
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Razhie, imagine I have a magical device that created an exact copy of things. Now if I used this device on your car, would I be stealing your car? No, I would not. The car company would be very upset because they didn't get any money, but I'm still not stealing the car. There's nothing unethical about doing that, and there's nothing unethical about downloading music. It would be unethical if I copied your car(or music) and sold it, because then I profit off of the company's R&D investment. So while it certainly is illegal(it's not called stealing or piracy, it's copyright infringement) to download copyrighted songs, it's not unethical.
No P2P application(like limewire) is illegal. The only way it would be illegal is if:
-It's only possible use is to infringe copyright, or
-The creators promote copyright infringement. Saying, for example, "download the latest songs, for free!"
Limewire LLC. is located outside of the USA anyways, on some small island, I think.
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Limewire is not illegal, and as you pointed out, neither is MSN that can do the same thing. But using either of the programs to share copy written material is piracy and it is illegal.
It is theft, plain and simple, even if you think it's okay. But it's the same way people don't make guns illegal, it's just illegal if you use them to shoot people. People, not programs, break the law.
EDIT: I really REALY wish people would learn to do their research:
Under US law the legality of such things were established a LONG time ago. In 1984 a company developed the first video recording device, called Betamax, an early VHS recording device. Sony took them to court, and the decision was this: that copying "technologies" are not inherently illegal, if substantial non-infringing use can be made of them.
When MGM took Grokster to court in 2005 the decision, although not in favor of the P2P software, was still similar. It was the fact that Grokster was proved to ‘induced’ or encouraged people to use the software for illegal means that got them in trouble. To quote the judges decision directly: “One who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, … is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.”
Limewire dodges this by simply requiring users to agree to the statement "I will not use Limewire for copyright infringement.” As long as Limewire, as a company and software continues to NOT FOSTER or ENCOURAGE the use of their software for illegal downloads, they remain legal software.
Now, that doesn’t mean that the record companies won’t go after them, and that doesn’t mean that Limewire, or all P2P softwares, won’t be declared illegal in the future, just that, in the US at this time, Limewire is not illegal.
Limewire is also not illegal in Canada. All P2P software is, in my understanding anyways, illegal in Spain, and several countries in the European Union but there have been no cases against individuals for using the software as of yet.
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