file sharing

sorry about that last post, i was trying to reply to someone, i mesed up...

I couldnt find a forum that sounded like it pertained to this question, but anyways here it is.

I am not a pirate, I do not sell music new or old. I download and share files, if the songs are good I buy the cd, simple as that. I like having the original cd with the words and comments from the artists. So my question is, since the riaa is sueing everyone who is sharing their songs could I just not download the songs from the artists in the riaa? I mean if the label isn't part of the riaa than i can download it because the riaa cant sue me for downloading and sharing songs that arent under their record labels...right??

The RIAA is taking the lead because they are the largest, all companies involved in the copyright of music are involved in the current action.

Copyright laws are screwed up. The only way you coulb be convicted of copyright laws are if you downloaded and sold the music. If no profits are made off of the RIAA's stuff, then (technically) no copyright was broken. What's the difference between sharing files and copying songs off the radio? Only convenience, there's nothing wrong with doing either. If the RIAA wins, I would like to hear why.

This whole area of law is new and developing, so there are no definitive answers. None of the suits the RIAA has brought against individuals has made it to a courtroom. It put Napster out of business, but today's filesharing programs are structured differently to avoid the problems Napster had. Also, just consider the odds of getting sued when at any one time over 5 million people are sharing files. If you want to be extra cautious, limit the number of US copyrighted files you share.

Actually, it's never been legal to make copies of cassette tapes or copies of music from the radio. The laws were unenforcable for obvious reasons and besides, the copies were never as good as the original. However, with the advent of digital media, a tenth generation copy is just as good as the original which is why most new CD's are encrypted to allow only 1st generation copies. In other words, you can't make a copy from a copy. See digital recording act of 1992.