Will you get sued if you use Limewire?

LimeWire and Lawsuits

When a piece of work by an artist (in this case, a song) becomes available to the general public it is considered part of the 'Public Domain'. It can become part of the public domain for three reasons: (1) the term of the copyright has expired, (2) the orginal author failed to gain a satisficatory copyright, or (3) it a work belonging to the United States government.

There are numerous sites available with information for songs that are currently in the public domain. A google search with the following key words 'public domain' and 'music' will yield thousands of hits with information. One of the many useful sites is http://www.pdmusic.org/ which gives a list of genres, artists, and songs that are currently available for public use.

You are subject to lawsuits if you violate these copyrights. Here is advice and input on the question of whether you will get sued for using LimeWire:

• Seems like "sharing" and "downloading" are different. if you look into all these lawsuits, at LEAST the VAST majority are people that are allowing their computers to be used as "supernodes", and I would bet money that ALL of the lawsuits are against people that have a shared folder on their computer with copywrited files on it, and they are allowing people to download from THEM. If you don't SHARE the music that you DOWNLOAD, then these lawyers probably won't even give you a second look. They have MUCH bigger fish to fry, with all the fools out there sharing a million files a day off their "downloaded music" folder. (Of course, these are the same fools that keep programs like LimeWire and KaZaa from becoming a digital DESERT with no files on them, so I don't mean to sound UNGRATEFUL; I'm just saying those are the ones getting sued.)

• If you download a dummy file.

• There is always the chance that you will be one of the unfortunate ones who are caught and made an example of. You have to decide if using Limewire or similar software in an illegal manner - and sharing music, software, or any other copyright protected material IS illegal - is worth the risk. Personally, it's not a risk I would be willing to take. Remember, just because "everyone else is doing it" doesn't change the fact that it is legally, morally and ethically wrong. People DO get caught and they DO get prosecuted. You obviously know it's wrong or you wouldn't be concerned, correct? Do the right thing and you won't ever have to worry about getting sued.

• It seems to me that the record companies and their people are trying to intimidate everyone into believing that file sharing is illegal. If I own the CD, cassette, or vinyl LP, and if it is legal to download those songs - so I don't have to make MP3's myself, then everyone needs to know they can do that without threats from anyone. If that is not legal, then it should be a simple answer from the experts. What about X-mas music. Can the same song be copyrighted by many different people? What about classical music that was written 200 years ago. Copyrighted? Graphics, stories, spreadsheets and many many other documents are perfectly legal to share without interference from any law enforcement.

• You might get sued if you use LimeWire. The program is legal. However, if you use it to download music and other programs, it is illegal. If you were downloading uncopyrighted music, then the program would be legal. However, since almost all music is copyrighted, the program is very illegal. LimeWire and Kazaa are file sharing programs. This means that the files that you can download on these programs are files that are being shared with billions of other people across the globe. If you have downloaded these programs into your hard drive, they are still shared programs. Because these programs are in your hard drive, they are still being shared, so essentially, your hard drive is being shared as well. If you have done any school assignments on your computer, these have your first and last name on them. This opens up your identity to the public. Also, because these files are still being shared from your hard drive, law enforcement can target your internet connection by using your IP (Internet Protocol) address, and using these numbers (of your IP address), they can target you. To see what I'm talking about, and to see just how scary this is, click on the link. If law enforcement finds you, you will probably have to pay a fine to all of the recording companies or distributors of the songs/programs that you have downloaded, and you may be sued.

First answer by Adam. Last edit by Digable. Contributor trust: 107 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 256 [recommend question]

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