Post #146248 by tikibars on Fri, Mar 11, 2005 6:15 PM

Technical issues aside, there are legal and ethical issues as well.

It is actually not illegal to download music that you haven't paid for, but it is unethical.

It IS illegal to provide music for other people to download.

If you download music on a program like Limewire and then move it to a new folder on your hard drive so that other users can't in turn upload it (thereby insuring you don't break the law), you are considered a leech or a freeloader by the Limewire community.

Any way you look at it, you lose.

Your IP address can also be logged.

Big brother is watching you.

My personal ethical stance is to only download and upload music that is not available for purchase through any means that will benefit the artist. In other words, music that is ONLY avaialble via places like used record dealers and thrift stores is OK; anything you can buy new (on line or in a store) is NOT. And legally, even this point of view is quite shaky.

...and FWIW, I have found Acquisition to be more stable than LimeWire for the Mac.