Whether
or not music
file sharing programs are
legal, the actual act of sharing
the file is NOT legal. Record
companies are proving this to be
true in the courts every day,
suing average people for
downloading music. And they're
winning.
Bottom
line, if you join a file
sharing program and
download an Mp3 song, even though
you paid to be part of the
sharing network, you did not pay
for the music you are enjoying
and the artist does not receive
one single penny for it. Even if
you did buy the CD, you do not
have the right to make a copy of
it (or create an Mp3 of it) for
the purpose of giving it away to
someone else through a file
sharing netowrk.
There is
however, a way to download
your music legally without
having to buy a physical CD. You
still get the benefit of only
paying for the songs you want for
a fraction of the cost. We only
feature legitimate web sites that
have legal contracts with artists
and record companies. These sites
offer direct downloads from a
compilation of music.
We only
feature what we consider to be
the top
legitimate mp3 download sites, but the
list is longer. If you are
downloading a program that is not
part of the following list, you
may be part taking in illegal
file sharing. The following is
almost a complete list, but we
reserve the right to be corrected
if we've missed a legitimate
site. Please email us if you know
of a site that you know is legal
but was missed: eMusic.com,
iTunes, Real
Rhapsody, MSN
Music, Yahoo!
Music,
Musicnow, Napster,
Sony-Connect, Buy.com,
MusicNet, Walmart,
Virgin-Digital, PureTracks, and
MSN Music.
Click here for a
review of Legal Music Download
Sites.
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