The main question here is not whether Limewire is illegal, but if mp3 sharing, or sharing of any files/applications for that matter, is illegal. There have been lots of lawsuits where the music recording industry have tried to serve hefty fines etc to the companies/individuals who encourage and facilitate the sharing of files between people. However in recent court cases the decision has been made that it is not plausible to adequately place blame on people, since all software such as Limewire does is act as a catalyst. The heart and soul of Limewire, WinMX and KaZaa is the people, like you or I, that download files and likewise make files on our own PC's available for others. In order to 'win', the recording industry would have to sue each and every one of us, which would simply be a too difficult and costly task. By taking software such as Limwire off the internet by way of force, all that would happen is that another group of individuals would come up with somehting new, and another head would grow in its' place. It's like trying to police an individual taking a new CD that he bought over to his friend's house and copying it on to his PC...virtually impossible. In my opinion file sharing is probably wrong, and should probably be illegal, but while it is still alive and well I will continue to share my files with others.

P2P software like Limewire, KaZaA, etc. always becomes a bit of a sticky issue when it comes to whether it is legal or not. I think as long as one doesn't intend to turn around and sell the music they downloaded, it should be a big problem. I do admit it's a major problem for the music industry to fight against...maybe it's a case of join 'em to beat 'em?

I dont mind downloading the occasional mp3 track off kazaa as i feel it is about time i got something back from the record producers who have sold their cds at hiked up prices ever since the cd format was introduced.

I do feel sorry that the artists are losing out a little , but their cut of the profits is minimal with regard to that of the record producers and govermental tax.

My brother works as a production manager of a cd manufacturing company , he tells me it costs 10 pence to manufacture a cd , that is cases and covers included , but sees the same cd in the shops for about £15 .... daylight robbery.

i have to agree depends on who is looking at the issue but to tell you the truth basically US is the only country who says its illegal the other countries don't get int othe hissy fit of the whole situation, plus its due to the fact that the elite of the elite are in Europe and pretty much all of asia so they don't even bother with it.

but yeah why pay for a cd that only has 1 or two songs that you like when you can get them individually.

The sharing of copywrighted mp3's is illegal. LimeWire is not technically illegal, but when it lists copywrighted mp3's up for grabs by anyone, then it is illegal.

of corse it's illegal. you arn't buying their music so they want to prosicute you for it. I personally don't think it's wrong because someone bought it and they are shareing it for free. But it is illegal because you personally didn't buy it. it does kind of screw the artist but ehats a few songs when they make millions.

Option 1: Download the few songs you actually like.

Option 2: Buy a 30 dollar CD with only a few songs that you'll actually like/listen to.

..yeah.

Well, I agree with most of what the others said, and it isn't LIMEWIRE that's illegal, but when you use it to download something like music or a movie or whatever that you don't own OUTSIDE of the computer, then it's illegal. YOU perform ''illegal acts'', the program didn't make you do it no?

If that didn' make sense, or come out the way I wanted, it's because I'm really tired, so yeah.

All of those programs are not illegal but some of the content is illegal such as mp3's that companies have produced that you must buy to own and that sort of stuff...

On another note you guys remeber napster it was the first of these few broadly used distrubuting programs...

Now most programs connect to a list of people and stuff its not like its hosted in one spot its hosted on evey computer running it with all together lol... so in all its impossible to stop unless u remove the internet...

so yeah thats how it works...

I normal buy at least a cd from each artist but i dl the rest elseware so they can have some of my money and credit for making it but ill dl w/e else i want....

As long as you use it to download copyrighted such as music and movies it's perfectly legal. But then again, who actually uses it in such a matter?