http://www.downloadlegal.com/

Looking to download Music, CDs, MP3s?
Don't get Sued or Ripped-Off By A Fake Music Website!
LEARN THE TRUTH!

Date: January 8, 2006

Let's not beat around the bush.

Whether or not mp3 file sharing programs are legal, the actual act of downloading copyright music through a file sharing is NOT legal. Record companies are proving this to be true in the courts every day, suing average people for downloading music. And they're winning.

Bottom line, if you join a file sharing program and download an MP3 song, even though you paid to be part of the sharing network, you did not pay for the music you are enjoying and the artist does not receive one single penny for it. Neither did the person you got it from. Even if you did buy the CD, you do not have the right to make a copy of it (or create an MP3 of it) for the purpose of giving it away to someone else. Artists and record companies don't spend thousands of dollars creating music and marketing it to only sell a few CD's that can be copied a million times over.

Stay Safe: Download the Legal Way

There is a way to download mp3 music legally without buying a physical CD in a store. You still get the benefit of only paying for the songs you want for a fraction of the cost. This web site was created out of a desire to promote true "safe and legal" music downloading. We only feature legitimate web sites that have legal contracts with artists and record companies. Some sites even offer free mp3 downloads as part of a free trial. Other sites offer a free trial with unlimited free downloads to your computer. Stay safe, don't get sued.

HOT TIP: Try before you buy! All the music websites below offer a FREE TRIAL. Since everyone has difference musical tastes, we recommend that you try all of them (Might as well, they're free!). Happy Downloading.

==========

Then, downloadlegal.com goes on to list ads for:

AOL
Rhapsody
E-Music
Napster
Yahoo

and YourMusic (a CD sale's site)

Downloadlegal.com finishes up the splash-page by again misleadingly saying:

" If you choose to shop around please take note:
Many sites say they are "legal" or imply they're legal but are not. Actually, the programs are legal but the act of music downloading is illegal if you're not using a legitimate site as listed on this page. "

--------

I just want to ask, are there "really" companies out there on the Internet who are spreading misinformation and lies?

--Shmoo

"the actual act of downloading copyright music through a file sharing is NOT legal"

Bullshit. There are more than 86,000 tracks available at DMusic. All copyrighted. All legal to share.

"Record companies are proving this to be true in the courts every day,"
They've proven nothing.

"...suing average people for downloading music."

Okay, they're proving that they're assholes.

"And they're winning."
Only because it costs 10 times as much to prove your innocence as it does to settle and have it go away.

"And they're winning."

sez who?

...and, w-i-n-n-i-n-g is NOT the correct way to spell "whining" ( - if by some chance they were attempting to state the truth in that sentance and it was what was really meant.)

"And they're winning."

Yeah, then why has the average number of people connected to filesharing programs around the world at ANY given time tripled since these dipshits started suing people?

And last I checked, they haven't "won" any of the lawsuits. They've settled most of them, but the few that have gone to court are turning out to be a huge thorn in their sides. Patricia Santangelo is winning. That single mother who sued them back is winning. You are not.

“I just want to ask, are there "really" companies out there on the Internet who are spreading misinformation and lies?”

Well, you know, it’s like a commercial. Commercials are always full of misinformation. As in, “Buy our product. Our product is better than our competitor’s. In fact, our competitor’s product is crap.” And their competitor has a commercial that says just the opposite.

The thing is, we are kind of the competitor here. So we need to put out our own commercial saying free downloading is good for this reason or that, and pay downloading sucks because of DRM and whatever.

“Whether or not mp3 file sharing programs are legal, the actual act of downloading copyright music through a file sharing is NOT legal. “

Heck, I knew that the first time someone described free P2P to me. But then, a lot of things are illegal. Pulling the tags off your mattress is illegal. Jaywalking is illegal. Saying, “Hey, the copy protection thingie won’t work if you hold down a certain key” is illegal. Laws are kinda like commercials. Some of them are so stupid you just couldn’t imagine anyone taking them seriously, let alone prosecuting you for them.

So, I don’t know. Maybe I figured the record companies had recognized the stupidity of trying to stop people from sharing music and had arranged some kind of blanket licensing scheme or something. I wasn’t too concerned about it. I mean, these sites were all over the place and everyone was using them. They had to be either legal or tolerated.

Tolerated, as in the way Japanese cartoon makers tolerate fan comics for fear of alienating the consumers they depend on.

But then we found out it wasn’t that way, and I said, “Well, shucks, if you don’t want me to have this music that bad, I can do without it. I’ll just delete all these thousands of MP3’s. Then I won’t have them, I won’t be becoming fans of these artists, I won’t be turning friends onto them, and I won’t be playing them on my radio stations, all of which would have generated innumerable CD sales, new fans for the artists and a healthy market for the RIAA to thrive in.

But, now, if you think I’m going to go out and buy hundreds of CD’s to replace those MP3’s, you’re nuts. I mean, just because I gave up downloading doesn’t mean I have anymore money to spend on CD’s than I ever did.

You know, I was buying as many CD’s as ever while I was downloading. But after I stopped downloading, RIAA music started to blow big chunks, and I was kind of getting pissed off at them anyway for suing innocent people and trying to ruin their lives over a crime that rises to the magnitude of jaywalking. So I said, screw this, I’ll just give up music and have like an extra hundred dollars a month to spend on other luxuries, like food and gas for the car, or that extra 100 a month I suddenly find on my credit card minimum payment. Hey, giving up the expense of buying crappy music makes that chomp the credit card company is taking out of me not hurt so bad.

So, let’s all thank the RIAA for making music suck so bad that we don’t need it anymore, so that we might have all that extra money to help fight the rising cost of living. I guess all the law suits and nastiness was just their way of trying to teach us that music is a bad thing, and that we should be saving all that money for life’s necessities.

Gee, aren’t they just a bunch of sweet guys to kill their own market just so we’d have the extra money we need to survive the crap everybody else is dumping on us? Three cheers for the RIAA.

End PSA.

This org is using scare tactics to generate income via the affliliate programs, that's all. It's sad though.

I'm opposed to tolerating this type of misleading ad on our website here, based on principle.

I am opposed to the message, but I will gladly let such idiots pay $$$ to Google (and have some of it trickle-down to Dmusic, and thus, thereby to us)

...and THEN, I get to use the "message" as a talking-point.

Judo.

"Pulling the tags off your mattress is illegal."

Actually that's legal once you purchase the mattress.

But, to the article, the only truly "free" site on that list is e-music. You get 100 free mp3s (yes, real MP3s) over the course of a month, after which time you can either cancel, or pay a fee to download more tracks. The selection is extremely limited and the only music I found from a modern major act was from Nine Inch Nails.

Of course, we all know that the other "legal" sites on that list offer a limited selection of major artists in DRMed WMA format.

Also notice that iTunes isn't on that list, despite them offering some free tracks.

Further viewing the actual site, aside from the occasional grammatical errors, one is surprised that only 5! sites are on their "list". It's hilarious.

I also opened up what apparently is a C&D letter from an ISP. #1, whoever got this was sharing Sony Music (probably got XCP all over their computer too).

What strikes me as funny is that the labels are asking these ISPs to ask that whoever was sharing a file to "immediately destroy the infringing material". For one thing, these ISPs aren't allowed to stop and think that maybe the subscriber actually owns the CD. They're led to believe (as are the majority of the average computer users out there) that any MP3 file on someone's computer had to have been downloaded.

The spelling and grammar are a dead giveaway that some guy in his bedroom is making this stuff up. I believe he also writes the Viagra and Rolex ads that come in my e-mail every day. Just my opinion. Spellchecker hates ads like that!!!

Is there any way to contact these... people?

"the actual act of downloading copyright music through a file sharing is NOT legal"

Good thing I don't know how to "download through a file"

or a "file sharing" whatever those are.

"Is there any way to contact these... people?"

I don't know, but why bother? It's just some idiot or small company trying to capitalize on the RIAA misinformation & scare tactics. (I kinda doubt the RIAA itself is directly behind it.) If downloadlegal.com wants to pay Google the $$$ for the ad, it's a free country. We can always just poo-poo the thing like we are doing now.

If leflaw ever decides he wants to filter the ads from offending advertisers, Google gives us that option to some degree. I kinda like having them there so that I can keep an eye on the type of stuff that is being advertised (pro or con) related to our sort of issues.

And again, it sometimes gives me talking points!