The answer is yes, downloading or streaming copyrighted material without purchasing legitimately from it’s owner is illegal. The source of the download does not matter, whether it is from LimeWire, BitTorrent, Youtube, Newsgroups or even physical sources like a flash drive. That doesn’t mean that illegal downloading doesn’t happen on the internet, because it most definitely does.
Most forms of copyright infringement that happen on the internet are without monetary gain, unlike say someone selling bootleg copies of a DVD on the street. In the United States illegally downloading copyrighted materials without monetary gain is not subject to criminal proceedings, only civil cases. This means you cannot go to prison, but could still face a lawsuit and lawyer fees amounting to thousands of dollars. The odds of such a case are fairly low. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) brought civil lawsuits against 5,000 alleged copyright violators last year, out of an estimated 50,000,000 that broke copyright laws. Even that quantity of lawsuits has appeared to do little to curb illegal downloads. Civil court cases are not the only form of recourse taken though, letters can be sent to your ISP requesting you cease and desist or the RIAA can send notices requesting multi thousand dollar figures to settle the alleged infringement. These are risks people need to be aware of before downloading copyrighted materials without permission from their owners.
Some copyright owners choose to give away their material for free, in which case as long as you abide by their license downloading them for free is legal. It is important to know if the source you are getting it from is legal though. Free and legal music and videos are becoming more and more frequent on the internet as copyright owners realize they need to adapt to the changing market and adjust their arcane business model. It is important to note here that the technologies used for many methods of illegal downloads also have many legitimate uses. For example BitTorrent is used to distribute many forms of open source software and also is being researched for it’s application in new video streaming techniques.
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