Legal Question in Entertainment Law in Alabama

Re: Music downloads

Well, neither service is inherently illegal. It depends on how it is being used. If copyrighted material (i.e. songs, motion pictures, etc.) is being copied or shared, then that would violate the law. As such, this service may be violating the law. If you are looking to download music, movies, tv shows or any other copyrighted materials for free through this service, I would suggest that such a use would probably be illegal.

Making the distinction between the free and pay service is not obvious to me. I would suggest you go to the site and look at the differences between the free and pay service. If the pay service specifically includes licensing fees or amounts payable to those owning the copyrights, then it would be legal to use the service to download the material. This would be like those services that offer legal downloads (i.e. "i-tunes", "yahoo music" and others). However, this website sounds like it only provides "file sharing" software. I would suspect the pay version merely offers more features and does not include "legal downloads" (i.e. those downloads where a licensing fee is being paid to the owner of the copyright). I would suggest you review the website in question thoroughly before using the software. Also check out one of the "legal" websites offering music or movie downloads to see the comparison.

Any service that allows you to obtain files from other users-whether free or not-puts you at risk of being sued by the recording or motion picture associations and violating the law. If you obtain files through a service that allows you to download them from the site only and fees and royalties are bieng paid to the copyright holders, you should be fine. For more information, visit the Federal Trade Commission website at www.ftc.gov and navigate to the information they have about file-sharing services. I hope this helps.