The term 'legal P2P file sharing services' is a redundant one, since all fire sharing services are legal. It is the use to which they are put that is sometimes illegal - rather more than 'sometimes' in most cases. That, however, no more makes the platform illegal than ticket cheaters make rail travel illegal. Are radio transmissions illegal because they can be recorded for personal use? Of course not! Are video recorders illegal to own just because they can be used to record copyrighted work illegally? Of course not! Is the software that allows people to copy articles from article directories illegal, or even the directories themselves? Again, of course not. Then why is P2P file sharing software is illegal? Why is it that so many advertising agencies look down on P2P software so much that they will not allow their adverts to be placed upon websites promoting such software or enabling file sharing to take place? The majority won't even allow adverts for peer to peer sites or for the software involved. This appears to be a reaction based upon personal opinion and not the true legal situation. It is not illegal to use P2P software, and both paid and free peer to peer software is legal. The same is true of P2P services that don't urge visitors to break copyright law. There are not many differences between free P2P software and membership services. The benefits of paying a lifetime membership fee include accelerated download speed, improved search facilities, information about the quality of the download options, support and optional file storage as compared to the raw free source Gnutella software. Who is going to wait several hours when it can be done in one or two? Paid sites do not come with the spyware and addware that free ones often contain. Using free file sharing software can be dangerous and very costly, and the cost of a lifetime membership is minimal compared to the cost of a repair or even a new laptop. Sure, a fine can be very costly, but only if it can be proved that you have broken the law. It is illegal to download copyrighted audio and video files, and that is inarguable by anyone. It cannot be argued that downloading unprotected movies, games and music is illegal, and much of it has been produced and put online precisely for that purpose: to be downloaded so that the artiste becomes better known and sells more of his or her work once it is known. How does it get known? Only by being played and listened to. Here are some reasons why free P2P file downloading is regarded a useful tool by many budding new singers and movie-makers: 1. To have their name associated with a specific style of music or movie genre. 2. To determine the reaction of the public to new movies or tunes. If initial reactions to the free P2P downloads are favorable, then a full version might be considered worth recording. 3. To determine how the public react to novel ideas in making movies. 4. To enable amateur movie-makers and singers to get public reaction to their work before deciding to go to the expense of shooting a whole movie, or recording an album. Launching new talent can be extremely costly, and this form of market reseasrch is extremely valuable for the industry, whether professional or amateur. Yet the movie moguls and music pros want to stop them from doing so. I wonder why. . . Agreed, many movies and music tracks are illegally downloaded, but don't get over-excited about it. These are the same guys that will say nothing if kids listen a to rack on their album, and then buy the album because they liked the preview. That is where they make a large proportion of their income. Agreed, it is wrong to download copyrighted material, but court is not necessarily the best way to deal with it, especially when done by fans and not for profit. Why do they prosecute the kids and their moms and leave the big boys alone - the ones that download copyright-protected tracks and movies and make milions by selling them on pirated DVDs and CDs. Too difficult? Leave the kids and their poor moms alone and get after the professionals - or are they unable to be as clever as the Chinese and beat them at their own game? P2P file sharing is not illegal. Free P2P sites are not illegal. Downloading and copying movies, games and music that is protected by copyright law is illegal. Stop banning what is not illegal and target what is: marketing untold thousands of CDs, DVDs and games andelling them to kids on street corners or flea markets that could easily download their own copyright-free material were they permitted to do so - in fact exactly what P2P software was designed to do.
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