The birth of illegal music downloads occurred in the late 90’s when developers of websites realized that it is possible to extract the songs from an audio CD and upload these extracted files on the Net. Soon after, upon realizing the negative effect on the industry of these free music downloads, artists and their record companies began to strongly oppose this method, arguing that it violated the copyright laws and was causing huge amounts of losses in the local and international music industries. Such arguments eventually paved the way for music downloads to be divided into two categories: legal and illegal downloads.
When is a music download considered illegal? Before answering this question, it is important to know that obtaining songs and other kinds of audio files from the Internet is definitely not prohibited. However, it becomes unlawful in certain cases.
First, downloading music and audio is considered illegal if an individual gets copyrighted songs from the Net, makes multiple copies of them, and utilizes them for purposes aside from his personal use such as reproducing them and selling them to the public.
The second reason concerns the music download sites and file-sharing programs. Most states impose a limit in terms of the total quantity of music downloads that can be shared by a website or an application. For instance, the songs in a specific site or a music download program will be considered illegal if it shares more than a thousand audio files.
Lastly, with regard to the consequences of unlawfully obtaining songs online, the punishment given to users that have been proven to make use of illegal music downloads may include a fine of up to $300,000 and even imprisonment.
