Forgetting the grey area of torrent download sites, assuming you have access to a legal site that has most tunes playable in full, and if you install another legal program that can grab streamed music, is copying this music legal or illegal? The laws get so confusing!
Depends where you live. In Canada there are no laws against downloading - fact is that blank CD's cost more than blank DVD's because blank tapes and CD's include a blank media levy that recognized artists should be recompensed for the casual recording of their work. I say there is no law at present, however the usual suspects (in co-operation with the politicos) are frantically trying to get laws passed through Parliament (allegedly, that's where the voice of the people is heard) to make most of the population into criminals. Lest I come over as too negative, I should hasten to add that Canadian politicians cannot be bought - however, past experience has shown that they can be rented for the occasion.
@attar too funny, LMFAO they are bought and sold routinely here in the good old USA! How about "Government Motors"!
Yes, the laws are written to be vauge. Actually that is a good thing that they always add some wiggle room. Howver, lawyers will use they wiggle room to go in their favor. Copyright laws are about the same all over the world. They protect from having someone copy a work of art that has been copyrighted and redistribute it. There are usually provisions allowing someone to go to a library and copy a page or pages to take home for personal use. It is leagal to have copy machines in a library. It is even legal to share that copy with a classmate working on a class project for you. If you make a copy, leave it on your porch and some one takes it, did you distribute? Flie sharing is and will probably always be in the grey area as far as copyrights go. The media mafia is lobbying to have new laws that bann p2p. These are in effect in a handfull of countries. The rest are in the grey area. Back to your question. Any music that is not on legally manufactured media or is DRMed is in the grey area. The music industry claimes any copy is illegal. How do you know the site is legal? There have been many pirate sites that posed as legal that got shut down. Unless it is itunes or another biggie you really may not know for sure. What is for sure is it is in the grey area at worst and no court in the world would go after you if you were duped and paid for music. Historically, they only go after the site. Going after you would be a very expensive up hill battle. When you have 50 million easy to get, simple p2p (vs torrents which are hard to get) users in the US alone why would they go after you? A huge portion of the world's population file shares. They haven't even tried to go after a torrent user anywhere in the world. The rule of thumb is go after the ripest, low hanging fruit when they are plentiful.
If you use a legal site, this site has certainly published some rules somewhere, try to find them. I suppose that the on-line listening is paid for somehow, but that will probably not include grabbing a copy. But it's vagely similar to recording music from a radio station. Who will know what you're doing, except your conscience?
Again, recording from the radio is not patently ilegal any more than a TIVO is illegal. If it was illegal to do so they couldn't sell them legaly. It is in the grey area. It is much closer to the legal side than P2P which is still in the grey area or copyright laws. Some countries have laws against P2P where it is illegal.
