Is downloading music online for free stealing?

Answer 1

Copyrighted music is illegal to download.

Many bands have made their music publicly available and it is not illegal to download their work.
is it a legal to download song for free

Answer 2

Unless the artist or copyright holder INTENDS you to get them for free, then yes, it is not only stealing (according to the law), but you can get sued by the record company, not only for downloading, but for every copy you shared with someone else. This can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and several people have already lost the cases.

It does not matter whether you agree with the law, that is how it is right now. If you don't like it, then work to get it changed.

Answer 3

Downloading Free Is StealingThink of it this way: If you walked into a store, found a CD you like, put it under your clothes and walked out without paying for it, it would be stealing, right? If you download music for free which you should pay for, it's the same principle. Yes, it's stealing.

Answer 4

Downloading MusicYes, you are taking something without paying for it, the same as if you took a CD from a store and didn't pay for it, so downloading music online for free is stealing. Not only that, it is also illegal.

Answer 5

Most times, yes, I BELIEVE it is illegal. Well, most music sharing websites are not legal, if I am not mistaken. I just use iTunes and pay 99¢ or $1.20 or whatever the price is for songs. And if you don't have iTunes, there are plenty of other places where you can buy music cheap. Hope this helped!

Answer 6

It is stealing. It's true that you are not taking possession of a physical object, but music is intellectual property. It is a creation that was written, performed and produced by real people, some of whom may have invested a lot of money into making it, hoping to get a profit from selling it. Those people have a right to profit from their creative efforts and taking the music without paying is just as much stealing as if you took something physical away from them.

There are distinctions. Some music is available for free download because it was put there by its creators for that purpose, or because the music and the performance are not in the public domain. But not all recorded music is in the public domain.

You also have to consider this. There may be music that is in the public domain, like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", or genuine Gregorian Chant and many other tunes written over the last few decades, but individual recent recordings of that music by contemporary artists may not be. Performances are intellectual property too, and you are stealing from an artist who records an old song in order to make a living, if you take a recording of that performance without paying for it.

Just because something is easy to take, that does not make it right. Just because nobody is watching you, that doesn't mean you are not stealing. And frankly, people are watching.

Answer 7

Downloading a song without paying for it is illegal.

Answer 8

It depends if the artist who created the song/s permits his or her work to be downloaded for free. This can usually be found on their website.

Answer 9

you could download inapporiate music and you could go to jail