is limewire legal? how? or why not?
535023
Limewire's Legality:\n\nLimewire and other file sharing software is legal. Using it to upload or download copyright protected media - music, videos, images, software - without the copyright holder's consent is illegal because it is theft. \n\nHere are more opinions and tips: \n\n\nLimewire says its legal because technically its just a "file sharing" service and it is not held responsible for the files that are downloaded onto the system. Only the users are responsible. That's why when you download songs from Limewire, it's legal for them, but NOT for you. \n\nIf you are not paying some sort of fee to download, it is illegal. \n\nDon't be fooled by the fee you pay to use the pro version of Limewire. The artists of the songs you download don't get a penny of that! ("LimeWire offers two versions of the software: LimeWire Basic which is free of charge; the other is LimeWire PRO which costs a small fee, features faster download speeds and better search results, including up to 6 months of free updates and customer support via email.") \n\nEven if you download a coyrighted song for your own personal use, it's still illegal. Perhaps one could skate around the issue if they already own a legal copy on a CD, but then why download it if that's the case. Any fees paid to Limewire are for purchasing the software and that's it. \n\nLime Wire is not illegal software. All it is is file sharring. However many people abuse this by sharing songs without the copyright. For example if you have produced a song, then share it on Limewire, anyone else can legaly have it for free. But when you haven't made it, but an artist has, who has copyright on that song (which they all do) downloading that song without permission from the producer, it is totaly illegal. \n\nBasically, yes, downloadig music from any free service is probably illegal. You may be paying Limewire for the software, but that's just for the software, so the money goes to Limewire, you are not paying for the song. To be safe, do not download music for free. If it's free, nobody has paid the artist. \n\nDownloading songs and other copyrighted material is illegal, but if you wanted to share a music file of you singing or playing an instrument, then that is perfectly legal. \n\nLIMEWIRE IS ILLEGAL! Although with Limewire you will probably never get caught, if you even bring your computer in for a repair and a worker sees the program or any music you downloaded from Limewire, he is ordered BY LAW to tell his boss, and you will get a fine (I had to pay like 200 dollars.) It's not pretty. Although we all want Limewire to be legal, it isn't. \n\nThe Limewire software itself is not illegal - that is why the site is still up and why you can still download it. However - if you donwload a song from the program and you do not pay copyright on it then that is illegal. Songs from the 1950's or before are legal to download because their copyright has expired. Anything from after that is illegal to download. However - you are all going to do it anyway so this just makes you aware! \n\nDownloading songs on limewire is illegal and always has been. However, as for the legality of the program itself, its confusing. The program is legal, but I believe I read somewhere that the supreme court recently ruled that file sharing services can be held accountable for sharing music. \n\nIs Limewire illegal? No It is not. It CAN'T leagally be held accountable for what it's users do. Let's put it like this. A major virus takes out the whole internet. But when they trace the source, it leads to runescape servers for example. Runescape is an online game that gives its users access to its servers, kind of like limewire. Now are the people owning runescape responsible? Nope, but its users ARE. Same thing with limewire. My advice to you, do not use it to access "free" music, or "free" programs...images...and so o
458827
Have you tryed limewire?
1147810
Limewire is illegal under certain circumstances. I.E. When you download songs that don't have a license. But if you pay for the service (my friend says it costs a dollar a year), then it is legal. Most songs don't have a license so mostly everything you download will be illegal (I have never seen a legal download on it but there are some out there). But if you use it download your song(s) and then sign off as soon as your through that way it will be hard to track. Good luck!
325240
limewire, or lemonwire prabobly
577977
www.limewire.com   totally free, illegal though
216160
Well, no. Limewire Pro maybe, but not the free version. It has weaker virus protection. If you download anything other than music, really, such as programs, and especially pictures, viruses are bound to hit. I used to have it, but I don't anymore due to a problem in my computer, but not from Limewire. Unless you are confident and have a bit of luck, then yes, it could be trustworthy. Just don't overuse it, and don't download stuff if it says it's corrupted, unless you're desperate.
705886
They are legal as long as you trade files you\nown copyrights and distribution rights.\nDistributing "commercial" music and videos is\nillegal.\nDistributing music you have composed yourself\nor your own interpretation of music that is in the\npublic domain (i.e., classical music) is legal.\n\nEven if Limewire or Bearshare are found to be\n"illegal" in the sense to been found cooperating\nwith people distributing illegally "commercial"\nmusic or videos, that wouldn't affect you if you\nwere not part of that infringement.\n\nDisclaimer: IANAL (I am not a lawyer).
239191
Actually yes AND no. Downloading copyrighted songs from Limewire IS illegal, however, downloading songs that your neighbor recorded in his garage or local bands that don't care if you have their songs is NOT. That also goes the same for movies, pictures etc.
909975
Bit torrrent or Limewire all are same. They allow people to share files among them. As such there use is not illegal but if using them to copy a movie or song from other's person pc, then it is piracy which is illegal. (When u download through a torrent then u actually download from other people's PC)
281556
i asked that same question a couple weeks ago and i got Frostwire which is made by the same people as limewire but is based overseas so US laws cant touch it...its pretty great and completely free
781251
Downloading free file sharing software from www.limewire.com is safe AND legal. It's what files you choose to download and what you choose to do with them that can get you into less-than-legal territory. I personally use Limewire for particular mp3 downloads, but I have run into trouble if I try downloading games and other programs like that. Do make sure you have a good updated antivirus program running, and definitely don't download anything that looks fishy. That's pretty obvious. Limewire has served me well for lots of downloads of songs. It's easy to use and almost all the songs are easy to find.
688008
The program itself is not illegal.  Limewire has many legal things that you can do with it (For instance, to download linux ISOs, or indy music released to the public tobe shared).\n\nMany people will use this and similar applications to download copyrighted material, which is illegal in many countries.
739561
Well...if Limewire isn't working for you, you probably have a firewall blocking it.  Check that out.  Also remember that downloading copyrighted music without paying is a no no.  Sure there are lots of people doing it, but it's still illegal.  So just be careful :-)
944844
Limewire is legal.  Downloading the music, that is the illegal part.
1178810
The program itself is legal. However, you can do illegal things with it, like download music and burn it on CDs and distribute that. But the program itself is legal.
871470
Limewire is free, its what I use. Just download it and use it. Thats all. ;)
156235
The site is legal, users who download copyrighted material are acting ILLEGALLY (as if we give a fcuk, lol).\n\nYou can download music, videos, programs, documents... basically snything that it's millions of users choose to share. \n\nas with any p2p network, you can download infected files, especially if you don't know your stuff ( eg: you should know that a 4 minute MP3 @ 128kps is not going to be 281kb in size), so don't use it without frequently updated virus protection