Sunday, August 9, 2009

Legal Music Downloads Will Cost You Money

By John Roberts

Millions of people download music from the internet but we all need to be careful that these are legal music downloads. It is easy to be tempted to download music for free on peer-to-peer sites but this practice can lead to a very massive legal headache and fines in the thousands of dollars range.

Although there are only two or three cases that actually made it to court, there are thousands of cases that have been settled out of court. Every time you download music for free it will be considered as one count of piracy. And every single time you share that song that is another count of piracy. So you can see how quickly this can grow into a substantial case for the record companies.

Depending on how much music you have pirated, you can end up owing the record companies thousand of dollars. Some people have even racked up over a million dollars in fines and copyright fees. Most of the people that are caught not using legal music downloads are college students or average citizens. The record companies will often settle out of court and have only made examples of a select few.

However, in today's economy who can afford several thousands of dollars in fines and court costs? The benefit of paying for a song or album is that once you pay for the music, it is yours. You can do whatever it is that you want to do with it. Most of the music sites have taken care of the DRM restrictions so that their customers do have to worry about what happens after the purchase.

Many people feel that the music industry makes enough money through the CDs, concerts and merchandise that is already purchased. The music artists and the leaders of the music industry live in big houses and drive fancy cars, so what is a $0. 99 song to them. Regardless of how you feel, downloading music for free is piracy and you are in the wrong.

Before the age of cyberspace and peer-to-peer sharing, the piracy laws were written that even buying an actual album and loaning it a friend was technically breaking the law. The music industry could not stop this, so they just had to accept the loss. They no longer do today and they are not going down willingly.

Since the age of the internet, everyone can be found sooner or later. So, it is best to pay for legal music downloads now. You are getting the better deal when you consider the alternative.

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