Legal music downloads

dccarm · 15 April 2005 at 4:50PM

I decided last night to try out legal downloading of music. I looked around and decided to give Tesco.com a go as they seemed as cheap as anywhere else (plus I run Windows 98, so Napster and ITunes appear out of my technical capabilities). No problems, I set up an account, chose a few songs I was after, paid the money and downloaded the songs to the PC.

My PC is in a back room in the house, and I tend to do my listening in the car on the commute to work. I'm sure you can imagine my frustration when I discovered that the songs I downloaded were only listenable on the PC where I downloaded them, and that I was unable to burn them on to a CD for myself. What's the point?

So what I want to know is, is there anywhere that offers legal downloads that I can do with as I please after I have downloaded them? Much as if I had purchased the CD in the shops.

Fran · 15 April 2005 at 6:17PM

**** Boardguide comment: We are not allowed to discuss potentially illegal things on this site *****

Lincs_Lad referred to another thread which discussed the subject in length at:-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=35483

wolfman · 16 April 2005 at 1:38AM

Ok, promoting it I can understand, but "discussing" it I don't see the problem.

Fran · 16 April 2005 at 1:55AM

wolfman wrote:

Ok, promoting it I can understand, but "discussing" it I don't see the problem.

wolfman, to quote from your post which was deleted:

"Whether it's legal for you (in the UK) to download this music I'm not sure. If you google it you'll come up with all kinds of theories from people, I don't think anyone actually knows."

It is for exactly the reasons you have said yourself that these posts are deleted in order to safeguard the site until the exact legal position is known.

LincsLad_3 · 16 April 2005 at 11:44AM

Can someone please explain WHY my post was deleted, when it did NOT mention specific illegal sites or condone illegal activities? The authorities responsible have admitted that the allofmp3 site exploits a loophole in the law. Until the law is changed, downloading from that site is no more illegal than buying a CD in the USA and playing it on a device in the UK.

I fully support the concept of not discussing illegal activities on this site, but I find it ridiculous that a similar thread is allowed (quite correctly IMO) to run in another area of the site, while the censorship here is quite so heavy-handed.

I really would welcome an explanation. Double standards or what???

Former_MSE_Controller2 · 16 April 2005 at 2:16PM

LincsLad - The problem with ***site name removed by Fran *** is that noone is really 100% sure whether it is legal or not. They are acting round a loophole in Russia, but if you check the FAQ on the website it states that this does not mean that it is 100% legal to download from other countries. I make no judgement whether in the UK it is legal or not, that is a matter for lawyers, however I think you would have to agree it is a grey area at best.

Regarding your specific post, whilst I'm sure you would not intentionally condone illegal activities the word the board guide used is "Potential". I believe that until there is 100% clarification that this site is legal in the UK then we have to take the cautious approach to both protect the site and our posters.

wolfman · 16 April 2005 at 6:24PM

Fran wrote:

**** Boardguide comment: We are not allowed to discuss potentially illegal things on this site *****

I can see your point Fran, my original post did promote ***site name deleted by Fran *** which I can understand why it was deleted. I was merely questioning your post saying that we are not allowed to discuss it, which I don't see is a problem as long as it's only being discussed and not promoted.

asot · 16 April 2005 at 7:58PM

To answer your question specifically on sites without DRM the only site I know of is https://www.wippit.com but the selection is limited. I know of further DRM free sites but these are specific to electronica music.

To those looking at legal downloads in general I would make the following comments:

I wouldn't bother with any legal download sites. The prices on some of them may look cheap but then you have to consider all the limitations. CDs don't have any limitations (okay some things are against the law though) they also are much nicer to keep with the packaging etc. Legal music downloads need you to authorize any computer you want to play them, limit the number of copies you can make, are lower quality than CDs.

Finally you have to think about what happens if a virus hits your computer or your hard drive fails. You could lose your entire collection! Then you might say back it all up, but wouldn't it just be easier to buy CDs then? Also lets not forget formats can change, a CD can be copied to different formats easily as they are unprotected but you can't convert a legal music download to a different format.

djohn2002uk · 16 April 2005 at 8:20PM

Have to agree with wolfman and LincsLad. Discussing any topic can surely not be putting this site or other posters in jeopardy. Murder and rape are two of the most serious criminal activities in this country. Are we not allowed to "Discuss" them either?.
Now I've voiced an opinion on one side of the argument, can I also say that any discussing of illegal or potentially illegal or P2P websites could be construed as advertising those sites to other people on here who may not already have any knowledge of them. Word soon gets around, e.g. "Where did you find out about that download site?" "Oh, it was being openly discussed on the MSE site. Real money to be saved there don't you think?"............And so it goes on.

wolfman · 16 April 2005 at 11:16PM

I didn't mean to create a huge debate, was just voicing an opinion.

Anyway, with regards to what asot said, I agree. Legal mp3 sites like iTunes are far too expensive. You might as well buy the cd, and then convert it to mp3 yourself, it's very easy to do.

I'd recommend EAC (Exact Audio Copy) combined with the LAME encoder. They are by far the best and most accurate combination. And also, this is not illegal as you are entitled to make a backup of your music.

Joe_Bloggs · 17 April 2005 at 8:16AM

@Wolfman
Where does it say you are allowed to make a backup copy in UK or European Law ?
J_B.

Legal music downloads

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