My apologies if this isn't quite the right thread to ask this in, but: I'm kind of new to the world of MP3s -- yes, I'm slow to adapt to new technology, so sue me -- and I'm still in the process of getting everything onto my MP3 player. I just came across this website, Free Music Downloads, that has a lot of music on it and claims that they are free MP3 downloads. The text talks mostly about lyrics, and claims that the lyrics belong to the authors and so on, but once you search out the albums and artists, the songs are there to download.

So.... my question is, if I actually download any of these, am I doing something illegal? Will the federal government be coming after me a year or two from now and fining me some ungodly amount of money? Does anyone know? Thanks.

on my brand new MacBook for work, I know have Win98 and WinXP installed. It's just bizarre! Gotta love legacy products that require old OS's!

So.... my question is, if I actually download any of these, am I doing something illegal?

Short answer? Yes, it's illegal.

Longer questions: Did you actually get to a point where there's an actual link to an actual mp3? It looks like they make you install some sort of P2P software before you can download any music. Did you do that? I would never install any P2P software that hadn't been recommended to me by someone whose technological expertise I trust.

Morgana ... don't trust the site. It's not going to be free, no matter how much they say it will be--though the actual "cost" might be as the result of a trojan that steals all your bank details.

The place I download music is Wal-Mart. They are a bit less expensive than other places and they've gone to unrestricted MP3s.

Weird. Over the past few weeks I've noticed that my employer has stopped blocking many of the websites that used to be blocked. Myspace, youtube, parts of facebook, and b.org are all sites that are now fully accessible to me. I wonder if this newfound access is widespread or if my employer was acting alone?

Did you actually get to a point where there's an actual link to an actual mp3? It looks like they make you install some sort of P2P software before you can download any music. Did you do that?

No, I never made the attempt to actually download anything. I thought I'd better ask someone for advice first.

Okay, I will listen to all of you about the "free" MP3 site. I was suspicious due to the "if it sounds too good to be true, it is" cosmic law, and thought I should ask. I suppose the other free sites are like that too. I actually looked at the terms of service for one of them, and it said that (paraphrasing) "while some of the songs are by the original artists, I understand that others are by people singing in the style of the original artists." That kind of surprised me, although I suppose it shouldn't.

Yet another possibly dumb question: if you get Dish TV, do you get actual network channels (NBC, Fox, PBS, that stuff) in addition to the fancy schmancy channels? You'd think this would be findable on the web site, but no.

I am so hating the whole deciding about how to get TV in a non-bunny ears world. All I want is PBS and Fox and the big three. Why so hard and pricey?

Are you getting digital TV over the air right now, flea? A digital signal might come in clearer than an analog one (and there will only be digital signals in a few months, anyway). It's free, though.

Our TV is 20 years old, so to see if we got the digital channels clearly over air we'd have to buy the digital converter box for old TVs ($60 minus the govt. $40 coupon) and try, I think. But then if it didn't work we'd have the stupid box to deal with. Just with bunny ears and traditional signal we get seriously nothing. One channel, very very snowy.

On reading the fine print, I think with Dish we can get 40 channels ("family plan") for 19.99 and then add local channels for 5.99. Unfortunately you can't just buy the local channels!