Quoted: It's no more legal than getting the files for free off of regular filesharing--except that with this place, you get the added side-benefit of giving your credit-card info to a Russian company. Kind of like "making a charge to your Karma account" if you will. My suggestion: Keep your credit card in your wallet, and get it off SoulSeek LimeWire for free. ~

Fixed it for you.  I dunno about the rest of you, but I have been downloading songs off of Napster, then Gnutella (Mactella), then LimeWire since the summer of 2000.  Never had any RIAA asshats coming after me, fuck 'em if they do.  I do buy songs off of iTunes from time to time, it's just that a lot of the music I like isn't available through iTunes and CD's at $15 each are a rip-off when you can get the same material for much cheaper or free.  

Quoted: Quoted: and there's that rationalization I was talking about earlier. Yes, it's a rationalization. But if you know of a better way to hear new music than downloading MP3s, I'm all for it. I own 300+ CDs, most of which are European death/black metal. Not a huge number, but not exactly a pittance, either. Without MP3s, I would never have been able to hear most of the bands, and as a result I would never have bought the CDs. To me, there is a MORAL difference between downloading some songs you've never heard and then buying the CDs, and downloading whole albums at a time and burning them onto CDs. I know there is no LEGAL difference.

Personally, I don't think it's immoral or should be illegal unless you are actually selling bootleg music or movies.  If you're trying to turn a profit on it, you deserve to get busted for copyright infringement, especially if you are also plagiarizing other people's work.  Otherwise, distribute at will.  If I was any kind of artist, I would WANT the maximum audience for my work, regardless of profit.  If you give away good work for free, there will be people who appreciate it enough to pay for it.  A lot of smaller/newer bands/artists feel the same way I do.  It's not really stealing unless you are trying to claim ownership of the work, as in saying you created it, or if you are taking materials from someone else without that other person's consent.  This is basically along the same lines as somebody sharing a CD or tape with their friend and their friend making a copy of it.  It's done all the time, how many of us have borrowed movies and CD's from friends ?  Point being, if downloading this stuff for free off the internet is illegal and wrong, how is it not illegal for you to bring over your CD's or movies to your friend's house and let your friends watch/listen to it and/or make copies for their own personal use ?  After all, even if you bought the media, the songs/movies don't become your property (that's how copyright laws work).  So, to be consistent, this stuff either needs to be completely dropped (the RIAA can't stop it anyways), or the RIAA might as well find a way to get JBT's to start shaking down little kids for letting their friends borrow CD's.