are file sharing programs, like limewire, illegal to download from? i have heard both sides of the story and i want to know the truth.
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Limewire itself is LEGAL, but if you use it to download copyrighted matireal, ex. Music, Movies, Programs that usually cost you money, then it IS ILLEGAL and you can be heavily fined.

If you don't have to pay, it's probably not legal.

Not true..


File sharing programs such as Limewire, Frostwire, Bittorrent, Vuze, uTorret, etc. are not illegal. What you download with them such as pirated movies is illegal.

so why do SO many people use it?

P2P file sharing is generally illegal. Yes, you can use it for legal uses but we all know most people use it illegally.

Because it's free and they run a somewhat low risk of getting caught.

is it even possible to get caught? if yes then how?

Your ISP could in theory track you doing it.

oh. then how come you dont hear of a lot of people getting arrested for that?

because it's not really anybody's top priority.

What incentive is there for your ISP to get you into trouble while your paying the bill to them?

yah because i've seen people who really stay away from trouble and dont break the rules with limewire. also like 80% of people with ipods/mp3s dont pay for it.

That's not true. A lot of people I know actually don't use pirated files. But then again. it depends on the person. some people see it as dishonest because your not paying for it, but others look at it as the same thing as borrowing a CD from a friend.

say you bought an ipod for $300, it holds 2000 songs which is another 2000$. i dont know a lot of people willing to pay that

Wohoo uTorrent!




The program itself is LEGAL. Downloading stuff is ILLEGAL

So most distributions of Linux are illegal? Sometimes if you pay content is still illegal.

Downloading stuff is not illegal, downloading stuff illegally is.



Thats why she said probably.

Downloading things are legal UNLESS you download illegal things.Downloading things such as music (for free) is against the law although a lot of people do it due to the low risk of getting caught.It is also illegal to download cracks or get serial numbers so they can get things for free. (Photoshop Cs3 is notorious for that).