Would you get sued for downloading but not uploading files on LimeWire?

Answer 1

"Sharing" and "downloading" seem to have slightly different legal statuses. If you look into all these lawsuits, at LEAST the VAST majority are people that are allowing their computers to be used as "supernodes", and I would bet money that ALL of the lawsuits are against people that have a shared folder on their computer with copyrighted files on it, and they are allowing people to download from THEM. If you don't SHARE the music that you DOWNLOAD, then most of the lawyers probably won't even give you a second look. They have MUCH bigger fish to fry, with all the fools out there sharing a million files a day off their "downloaded music" folder. (Of course, these are the same fools that keep programs like Limewire and KaZaa from becoming a digital DESERT with no files on them, so I don't mean to sound UNGRATEFUL; I'm just saying those are the ones getting sued.)

Answer:It is still illegal either way and it would only be slightly easier for the RIAA to catch people sharing than downloading. But from what I've heard, they aren't suing people who don't share. Honestly, your chances of getting struck by lightning are higher than your chances of getting sued by the RIAA no matter what you do.

Answer

Users are less likely to be sued these days because authorities have tried to sue and clampdown on user sharing and downloading files using this method and yet more and more people continue to download illegally.

In Britain, ISP (Internet Service Providers) along with the copyright authorities have now decided that if internet users do not cease to download illegally after being given warnings from ISP's they will then have their broadband internet packages cut off and their internet connections will not longer be available to them.

Just remember its always better to be safe than sorryAnswer

If you want to think about it from a morals/ethics standpoint, downloading copyrighted work for free without the permission of the copyright owner (especially if they want you to pay for it) is like walking into a store and shoplifting a CD. Sharing the file thus downloaded would be equivalent to making copies of a stolen CD and distributing them. In the first case the copyright owner loses the money from a single sale. In the second case they are losing the money from multiple sales. Which one is going to hurt them more? ... which is why you are more likely to get sued for sharing than for only downloading. In both case though, your conscience should bother you and you will be a better person if you actually pay for your copy.