Many students come to campus without a clear understanding of copyright law and the legalities of downloading music.  When musicians create music (or authors write, or painters paint) their work is copyrighted to them.  That is, they own the full rights to that work to do with what they want.  When you purchase a CD in the store, you are purchasing a little circle of plastic and a license from the musician to listen to the music.  You are not purchasing the full rights to the music, and cannot legally do some things with it - such as copying the CD for friends.

Downloading music over peer to peer (P2P) services such as LimeWire, BearShare, Morpheus, or others may be illegal.  It is illegal if the copyright holder (the musician) hasn't licensed the music to be distributed in that manner.  For most songs you hear on the radio, that is the case.  Some P2P software charges you to download the software, or assesses a monthly fee.  This does _not_ mean users of such software are necessarily paying to license the music, thus they could still have legal liability for illegally downloading and sharing copy written music. 

There are some online services that do offer legally licensed music available for download.  The Apple iTunes store offers music, movies, and TV shows available for download - most for a small fee.  The Ruckus service offers free music downloads for UF students, with a number of restrictions.  Several Internet radio sites such as Pandora and Last.FM will create a personalized radio station based on your preferences, and stream music to your computer for free.


This page does not constitute legal advice.