If you download songs from other countries using LimeWire is it still illegal?

I am a musician and am very happy to have people download my music for free. How else will I ever become known??? Particularly as I write in the alternative genre in a country (Australia) without a huge industry.Way less than 1% of acts ever get signed and of those few earn any money from record sales. In fact it is common practice for companies to sign up bands and NOT promote them in order to stop competition with their existing bands.I could go on and on about the corruption of the recording industry (sony make a lot of money from weapons commmunications sales)I have started to self publish on Limewire to use it as a promotion tool.This is the only future for the recording indusrty, they need to get with it, music is a right not a privilege so yes you may be infringing copyright laws by downloading overseas music ( much like 'dubbing' onto cassettes was in the 80's)but only by lots of people doing it will the laws change....

Answer

Downloading any copywrited material from anywhere that you have not payed for is illegal, unless the artist has approved to free download. It is called stealing.

Correction: It is not always necessarily controlled by the artist, but more often by the licensor, such as ASCAP, BMI, or legal holding entities: attorneys, estates, trusts, etc. The artist in many cases prior to 1975 had/has little or no control over licensing terms. More recently artists have attained more control over licensing and some even promote free sharing of their work, even if limited by restrictions. Some examples include Dave Matthews and The Offspring.

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yes it is illegal but so many people do it and its not called stealing its just making the most of technology! lets face it no one goes out and buys every single in a shop - how much would that cost! and its not as if some of the artists need all the money the have anyway.

00st2

Answer

It's not just other countries, limewire is illegal. We had to get rid of it beacause it was sending us viruses, and imagine if everybody used it; artists would sing, bring out a single, one person would buy it, make it available to everybody on limewire and then they get it for free. That artist only gets £1.99 after working hard for a year to release that single. How would you feel? Any legal music download company would make you pay for each song you download-if you don't know any of these companies try Napster, Tesco Download store, MSN music, audible.co.uk, Wanadoo jukebox, Packard Bell music station or Tiscalli music. All of these have been aproved of and are definatley legal. If limewire was legel then why would it be such a ridiculous price for all the songs you want...in the world? Also, you could be fined from £1,000 to having your computer taken away. Who wants that. Think about it before you break the law and let down your country aswell as all the song artists out there who have worked hard.

First answer by ID1151060451. Last edit by Buysecondhand. Contributor trust: 50 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 86 [recommend question]

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