I was just wondering if using Limewire legal? Should I be worried about having this program on my computer?
Limewire is a legal program and it’s free to use and download. Although how you use Limewire may be illegal. Peer to Peer programs and bittorrent clients are great tools for sharing files and can be used for legitimate purposes. But lets face it the majority of people who use P2P programs use it to download copyrighted material like music and movies.
When you download another persons intellectual property without their consent it is considered stealing according to the law. Many people are facing civil lawsuits from the music and movie industry. Ridiculous fines are usually handed out.
So having Limewire on your desktop is not illegal, but using it to share copyrighted material is. It’s up to you how you choose to use it and whether or not you want to take that risk.
As the post said, Limewire is legal. But it is a P2P program, which means people share the files you download. Sometimes the things they share and you download may be illegally copied. So watch out for that.
Also, by using Limewire, you also run the risk of downloading a corrupted or infected file. Some people out there share their viruses for everyone to download. Be really careful, or just stop using it altogether.
The one thing I dont understand is that since limewire is “file sharing”, why is it illegal? The users are aware when they sign up that their songs may be downloaded into another users library. So why is that considered stealing if they understand how the program works and give their consent to share when they sign up?
Also, whats the probability that a user will get caught. I am aware that college students are fined freqeuntly but thats only because they download thousands of songs and they are easy to track. Just curious because I am use it a lot and I dont want to have to pay a $700 dollar fine for each song i may have downloaded illegally.