Rules for Downloading Music

When in doubt, always elect to pay for music you download.

Digitally downloading music has slowly but steadily gained speed as the preferred method of purchasing music in the United States. Copyright laws protecting an artist's music remain in effect for this digital format and users must carefully follow them to avoid heavy fines, lawsuits from record companies and potential jail time.

Music is Copyrighted

All music is protected by U.S. copyright law, which makes owning it without the creator's permission a kind of theft. A creator gives his permission for you to own a piece of his music when you purchase that music in a hard copy such as a CD or record or by paying for permission to download the music digitally. You are only given permission to own music that you pay to download. Paying to download one song does not give you permission to obtain the rest of the artist's musical catalog without paying for it. According to the website for the U.S.Copyright Office, copyrights for music last for the life of the creator plus 70 years.

Legal Ways of Downloading

Downloading music without paying for it or from a site that does not have an artist's permission to post his music is a violation of copyright law. The only means to legally obtain music digitally is to go through an approved downloading site such as iTunes and pay the appropriate fee.

Fair Use Doctrine

What is known as "fair use doctrine" is a provision of copyright law to allow you to reproduce music or other products like video for personal use. You're not breaking the law if you pay to download music legally and make a CD or upload the music to your iPod. You are infringing on copyright protection laws if you legally download music and make that music available for others to download free of charge or by charging a fee from which only you benefit.

References

• RIAA: Piracy and Copyright Law
• U.S. Copyright Office: Fair Use Doctrine
• NC Times: Downloading What Are The Rules?