It is possible to download legal music from free download movies websites because the principles involved with each are the same. However, to stay legal, don't expect your legal music to be much less than 60 years old! When downloading files from free download movies websites it is important that you fully understand the meaning of copyright. Many people believe wrongly that copyright law applies only to written work, such as books or articles, but in fact it applies to a lot more than just these. Copyright applies to music - both the lyrics and the melody, to movies, computer games and also to software. So if you download any of these free of charge and they have been published within the past 60 years, then they are likely to be copyright-protected and unless you have written permission from the originators or their estate, you are likely breaking the law. If you are downloading legal music using free download movies websites, you will generally be using the P2P file sharing software that is what is generally used to download online free movies. In that case, for your movies to be legal downloads, they would either have to be 60 years old or you would need to have written permission from the originator to download it without payment. That might all seem to be a bit involved and difficult to understand, so the question has to be asked - why download legal music from free download movies websites? Why not just download it from iTunes, Napster or some other regular way of buying music online? Or are you just kidding yourself that it's legal and are really downloading your music illegally as you are likely doing with your movies if you are using free downloads movies websites? Why Are Free Movies so Easy to Download Illegally? Free movies are either in the public domain, and pre 1950, or are illegal movie downloads of copyrighted material. It is very easy to download movies, music and games using P2P file sharing software. Why is it so easy to break the law in this way? The simple answer is that it is - just as it is easy to break the law by stealing from a supermarket. So-called shoplifting is theft - pure and simple - and in order to avoid being charged all you have to do is not steal something that is not yours. Online music and movie files don't belong to you unless you have paid for them, they are in the public domain or unless the originator is publicly giving them free of charge. You can be as close to 100% certain as it is possible to be that a current hit pop song or a blockbuster movie made in the past few years is protected by copyright, and to download it using P2P file sharing software is nothing less than theft - or larceny! Nevertheless, it's still easier to use free download movies websites than to download legal music from legal sites. Why Aren't the Files Protected? Why not indeed, and it is so easy to do that it begs the question why the movie or music industries, with the billions at their disposal, haven't taken steps to make it impossible to download files without their permission. It can be done - some music files are already protected in that way, so why not them all? Ask them, not me! All I can think is that they want the publicity that online theft brings to them - it gets them in the public eye, which is what advertising is all about. Are There Any Legal Downloads Yes, apart from the regular 'pay then download' sites offering regular downloads for sale, you can download legal music or movies from a number of sites. There is at least one site that offers video downloads from a large list of pre-approved movies that can be downloaded after payment of a site membership fee. There are also a number of sites that list music and movies that are past the copyright date. They are in what is referred to as the 'public domain', meaning that anybody can use the file free and legally download it free. Are There Still Illegal File Download Sites No - there is no such thing as an 'illegal download site'. The file sharing software, also known as P2P or peer to peer software, is not illegal. It can be used to download public domain material, or movies or music tracks offered free online by the artists who may be seeking the publicity or allowing potential fans to try out their work free of charge. Probably the nearest thing you may get to an illegal movie download site are the free download movies websites that offer free movie downloads after paying a life membership (some offer short-term memberships). However, here again the software is not illegal - just the way it is used and I have never been a fan of banning websites or software because people use it illegally. However, that is what was done to Limewire - it is perfectly legal file sharing software that was ordered to close down, even though it had warnings on its website about illegal use to download copyright material. Limewire is one of these free download movies websites that offered free open source public domain software enabling peer to peer file sharing that many people used illegally. While there are many ways to download legal music, the number of free download movies websites is dwindling, although perhaps rightly so since it is difficult to see a legal use for them in this modern computer era. The software used to illegal download movies and music is not itself illegal to use - it is how it is used that is illegal. Why are more people not caught? That question takes us back to the beginning of this article - perhaps because it brings the movie and music firms publicity?
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