The most significant legal information concerning the copyright laws as digital copies of copy-written materials is the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The act, which passed in 1998, did a couple different things to extend the reach of copyright while limiting the liability of providers of online services for copyright infringement by users.

First, the laws for downloading music now consider producing or using technology, devices, or services created to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works to be a crime. Digital Right Management tools are on software, CDs and most legally downloaded music on the Internet to prevent it from being in a way that was unintended by the provider - and to limit how much users can copy or duplicate the product. Hackers and crackers who created and made available tools to strip the material of the DRM tools are now liable for helping to spread illegal copies of the protected material.

Secondly, the laws for downloading music heightened the penalties for copyright infringement, especially on the Internet. There have been more than 20,000 law suits filed against creators of peer-to-peer networks, those that upload copyrighted music and even those who download it. The act allows those found guilty of infringement can face up to three years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Repeat offenders can be imprisoned up to six years. Individuals have been held civilly liable for actual damages or lost profits, or for statutory damages up to $150,000 per infringed copyright.

The next target by the largest four record companies, working under the Recording Industry Association of America, is the peer-to-peer file sharing business. U.S. Code forbids any person or company “to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending.” However, the RIAA has yet to prove that peer-to-peer file sharing networks violate the code. It’s questionable whether they distribute the works rather than just pointing in the right direction, since most of these networks don’t host any copyrighted material but rather index it. “To the public” is also in question, since it has been argued that the file sharing programs are used by a limited group of people. However, there have been successful civil cases (as opposed to criminal cases) concerning those involved in peer-to-peer network sharing, so the use of them is risky.

Generally, the laws for downloading music allow you to to purchase music and then copy it for your own use, but once you try to copy it for others (even on a small scale), you’re stepping into copyright infringement territory.

As a Music Player

It is safe to say that the MP3 is the most widely used music format today, surpassing the CD and essentially killing the cassette tape. The genius behind the MP3 is how easily it can be both played and stored. Because an MP3 exists as a file on a computer’s hard drive, there must be a software program on the computer to play it. Once a music player has been installed on a computer, it acts like a CD player; MP3 files can be played, paused, skipped, and restarted instantly. But that’s where the similarities end. Because MP3s are files, an entire library of music can be stored, and custom-made playlists can be created.

As an Online Store

Additionally, programs like itunes for Windows act as a one-stop shop for music lovers. By connecting to the itunes store, customers can purchase and download MP3s to their computers instantly for as little as ninety-nine cents. The convenience here is obvious; customers do not have to leave their homes and music can be purchased and paid for on a whim. Also, customers have the choice of only buying one track instead of an entire album.

What All of This Means

So, how has the digitalization of music changed the industry? Basically, there are too many changes to list. However, a handful of major changes underscore how important this transition has become:

- Illegal downloading: Once music went digital and online, illegal trading of files prompted the industry to embrace downloading or go out of business. Sharing networks such as Napster were the inspiration for the online stores we see today, such as itunes for Windows.

- Music stores: The days of driving to a music store and browsing for an hour before making an important music purchase are coming to an end. Once music has gone completely digital, music stores will be rendered obsolete.

- The products: As the format of music changes, so does the way music is played. And portable MP3 players like the iPod are now as ubiquitous as the Walkman was twenty years ago. Also, products that would not have been associated with music just ten years ago are now being customized to play MP3 files, such as cell phones.

Ultimately, it is and always will be about the music. But how we listen to that music, and how we share it and buy it, has never been as important as it is today.

Sure, if you are downloading from iTunes, then every worry that you may have can be laid to rest. However, if you are a little adventurous and want to try new iPod download sites, or perhaps tight in your pocket and just want to get some free music to enjoy, then the following information is important to you.

You may have probably come across free download sites, or even are downloading iPod music from them. Then I have some alarming news for you. Despite claims by these free download sites that downloading iPod music is safe, users are unknowingly downloading bundled adware and spyware when they use the download client to access these music files online. Let’s face it, the free sites need some form of revenue to keep their sites running isn’t it? The endless streams of pop-ups when downloading music are also extremely annoying.

The legality of downloading iPod music from these sites is controversial. While it is fair to say that downloading shared files produced by amateurs that are home-made, ie not commercial and copyrighted audio files is legal, you are still treading in grey areas because you never know when you are downloading copyrighted music. If you can live with all these uncertainties and vulnerabilities, then go ahead and download music from them by all means.

Since there are so many problems associated with downloading iPod music from these dubious sources, a logical conclusion would be most people would download iPod music at stores such as iTunes, eMusic, etc. Strictly speaking, if this is the only safe option other than the free download sites, then most folks would be getting their music there at $0.99 per piece or anywhere between $0.70 - $1.99 per track. This is after all cheaper than getting a CD that only contains 1 or 2 tracks you like since you can download 10 of your favorite songs from different singers instead of entire albums. But by today’s standard, this is not cheap at all. I will explain why.

What if there are download sites that offer you a lifetime access to download iPod music for a one-time fee? We are not talking about expensive country club memberships which only the well-heeled can afford. Consider this offer these sites make; a full lifetime membership for downloading iPod music – unlimited music, songs and music videos at anytime at any place in a totally secured environment free from viruses, adware and spyware at the price of a few cinema tickets and snacks thrown in. All these sound too good to be true but whether it is real or not, the music community is the best judge for it. In case you are not informed, many music enthusiasts have opted for this alternative as the mainstream resource for downloading iPod music. If you are curious and want to learn more, read my blog to get the scoop of what is happening in the music community and where people are flocking to download incredibly cheap music for their iPods.

The content of this article is provided for the purpose of education and illustration only and is in no way associated with Apple, iTune, or any company or subsidiary of Apple. This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

Davion is a successful webmaster and author. Find out how you can access to unlimited ipod music downloads - digital quality music and music videos instantly and easily from home at ipod–music-download.blogspot.com.

Somw of the sites you will find allow you to become your own DJ and let you slide controls up and down to mix your own track. Which is a good idea so long as you’re not too stressed to be able to make the selections. The other snag I found with the site that allowed me to mix my own track was that there didn’t appear to be a way of saving the track I’d “composed”. But I could always buy some tracks instead.

And thereby hangs the problem with searching for free relaxing music. Either it’s free because it’s been pirated or it’s free because it is the “sprat to catch a mackerel” and they really want you to buy something.

You can usually tell pirated tracks a mile off. They typically come with free software that allows you to search out music tracks and comes with dire warnings that it must not under any circumstances be used for illegal music downloading. Yeah, right. If you believe that no-one puts up illegal music on these file sharing services, you’re not from this planet.

Assuming you want legal relaxing music tracks to download, you’re often then stuck with samplers (maybe 30 seconds or so) or splashing out money to stay on the right side of the law. You might strike lucky and find some music to download that’s to your taste and where the copyright notice allows you to do so. Or you could spend fruitless hours in your quest for free music. If you value your time, it may be cheaper to spend a few dollars and get straight to the downloads.

I’ve reviewed a site that offers relaxing music downloads for a small one off fee. Read my thoughts here: http://personaldevelopmentreviews.org/index.php/2007/04/07/relaxing-music-downloads

Illegal Free Music Download Websites

You can download music mp3 online free of cost. But well, they are illegal! Apart from that, such sites are often poorly maintained and highly disorganized. They normally operate on peer-to-peer basis, with files being shared among users, therefore, there is no possibility to check and sort out all the illegal, corrupt, incorrect, and virus infected files. The software you need to download in order to use the site’s resources frequently plants various spyware and adware in your computer causing its malfunctioning.

Legal Free Music Download Websites

No fee for downloading songs. If the site is really legitimate and strictly observes all copyright laws, it may not have the kind of music you are looking for. For example, it will not have the latest hits as well as some all-time favorites. These sites are good only for less known and off-beat music often posted by the aspiring musicians and singers themselves.

Pay-Per-Download Websites

You can download music mp3 online legally, of high quality, and with full technical support in case any problem arises. The extensive music library includes all the latest hits, and the files are well-organized and easy to find. It is the most expensive music download source on the Internet, as the price is set per song or album and eventually runs up to the cost of an actual CD.

Monthly/Yearly Subscription Websites

Normally, such websites allow you to download music mp3 online without restricting the number of songs as long as your subscription is valid. Good quality and selection, high speeds, easy search, and professional customer support are also provided. 100% legal. DMR (Digital Rights Management), which restricts the ability of the user to transfer the downloaded files to portable players and other computers, as well as burn CDs. In other words, you pay to only listen to the music, and the moment your subscription is expired you lose all downloaded files.

Unlimited Music Download Websites with Lifetime Membership

The best alternative for users who want to download music mp3 online legally, but without spending much. Affordable one-time fee gives you an instant, never-expiring access to the vast music library with the possibility of unlimited downloads. All the downloaded music belongs to you and you are free to transfer it anywhere without the fear of losing it and facing any additional charges whatsoever. As in any successful niche, the scam risk is elevated. There are plenty of fraud websites copied from popular legitimate websites, which offer users to download music mp3 online, but in reality have little, if anything, for their customers.

Davion is a music addict and cannot do without them. Find out about hot and limited offers for unlimited music downloads. Also read his wildly popular article on how to download unlimited music.

There are mainly 3 types of iPod music download sites. All of them use a different business model. One group of them charges you for either per music download, or monthly subscription for a limited number of song or music downloads. Another group of them charges you a flat fee for lifetime access to unlimited iPod music download. The third group offers you music MP3 files for free. One quick glance and we may jump to the conclusion that free must be the best choice. The truth cannot be further from that as we unravel the neater details of each group, and compare them in terms of pricing, download speeds, security and protection in downloading and the selection of music files.

Monthly Subscription/Pay Per iPod Music Download Sites

Let’s identify some of these sites. The downloading speeds are at 128 to 192 kilobytes per second (kbps). iTunes, the main iPod music download site falls into this category of course. It costs $0.99 per track, $9.90-$13.99 per album. Other sites include eMusic, MusicMatch, Walmart etc which charge about slightly lesser than $1 per song download, $7-$15 per album and $15 monthly subscription. These music download sites offer catalogues of between 500,000 to 1.5 million iPod downloads. Downloading online music at these sites is secured, and you can be rest assured that it does not expose you to unnecessary viruses or adware attacks.

Free iPod Music Download Sites

You may already be familiar with some of the names of these iPod music download sites like Limewire, Kazaa and IMesh. There are no costs associated with downloading music MP3s from these file sharing networks for your iPod. There are millions of music files available for downloading. File sharing is not necessarily illegal if the piece of music you have downloaded is not copyrighted. Unfortunately, there is a shroud around the issue of legality at these file sharing networks. Downloading copyrighted iPod music is obviously against copyright laws. Anything else seems to be absolutely fine and safe. Put aside this legality issue, you have to worry about adware, spyware and harmful virus attacks when downloading from this site. If you do not have important documents in your computer, then it shouldn’t bother you too much. However, I would still advise you to get the best anti-virus and adware, spyware protection software to guard your PC. It’s simply not worth it to lose your whole computer’s data for the cheap thrill of free music.

Sites that offer Flat Fee for Lifetime Access to Unlimited iPod Music Downloads

These are the new kids on the block. For a one-time fee as low as $40 dollars or less, you get a lifetime membership to these iPod music download sites. There are no limitations on the number of music files or albums you want to download. Downloading music MP3s is straightforward as the user interface is dummy-proof and professional instruction tutorials are handed to you to guide you along. These sites understand the importance of IT security. You would receive a suite of anti-virus, spyware and adware protection software to ensure that your PC is like a fortress against these harmful elements. The fear of being exposed to viruses, adware and spyware is totally unfounded when accessing to iPod music downloads at these sites. However, you have to be careful as some sites are now masquerading as these flat-fee membership sites, promising to offer the sky but are of course unable to deliver the quality we would expect.

I hope that these tips are handy to you. To find out more about one-time membership sites, visit my blog which is packed with tips on what to look out for in a good download site and read a review of the top-performing sites for iPod music downloads today.

The content of this article is provided for the purpose of education and illustration only and is in no way associated with Apple, iTune, or any company or subsidiary of Apple. This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

Davion is a successful webmaster and author. Find out how you can access to unlimited ipod downloads - digital quality music, full length DVD quality movies, TV shows and videos legally and easily from home at ipod-downloads-site.blogspot.com.

There are several places we can download Zune music as well as other entertainment files like movies, music videos and even games for our player. I think you know them. For example, iTunes, Napster, and even Microsoft has a Zune marketplace where you can easily find over 2 million sound tracks to download. Each download can cost you anything from $0.99 to $2.49. Mind you, most music lovers own more than a few hundred pieces of music and this really can be expensive, especially for school going teens.

You may think that the free sites that offer you songs are great. I would advise you to think twice about getting songs or music there since you could be downloading a host of malware and viruses unknowingly. Not only so, corrupted copies from these sites could damage your player. Ouch!

One way to pack your player with more music is to rip music from your existing CD or borrow from a friend. The player works pretty much similarly to other MP3 players. So to download music for Zune should be quite simple to execute for those who already own another MP3 player.

If you want to transfer songs from a CD to your Zune, all you need to do is rip the songs using a media player like Windows Media Player. Select the desired songs or sound tracks and click the “Rip” button and in a moment’s time, the songs would appear in the library of the Windows Media Player. Connect your digital player to the USB port or cradle and your player would synchronize automatically with the media library to download the music onto your music player.

Do not worry if the synchronization is not working well. You can always copy the media files to your player directly. Take note that your Zune will always appear as a removable disk drive on your computer.

One important point here when you download music for Zune online or rip music from CDs is that the file formats must be compatible with your player. It supports windows media player supported formats like WMA, WMV, MOV, MP4 and MP3. Do not be mistaken that they can support RealMedia or DivX format as our devices do not support them.

So far we have talked about music CD ripping, it is time to discuss the juicy part of downloading music, movies, videos and games for Zune from paid membership services. There are practically dozens of such sites where you can download unlimited Zune music, songs, movies, videos, games and even software for a one-time fee. While it is not free, it definitely is an inexpensive choice as you need not pay to download new songs as and when they are available.

These are all you need to know when you download music for Zune. Discover more about paid membership services that offer unlimited downloads for less than the price of a movie treat for your family.

Learn how you can get access to unlimited Zune downloads - quality and latest music, movies, videos and games for your Zune player instantly. Also read another informative article here on unlimited Zune downloads.

First off, a site that is well maintained and easily navigable is a given.

If you come across a download site which has broken hyperlinks, isn’t properly organised, and bombards you with endless pop-ups, take extreme caution, as these sites may be offering illegal downloads, or even worse, downloads which contain viruses and spyware, which may end up infecting your computer, should you download them. If you come across any download sites which exhibit these traits, use common sense, and look elsewhere. You’ll want to look for a download site where everything is well-presented and properly organised.

Most reputable PSP download sites offer a one-time fee of around $40 for unlimited access to their database. These databases often contain millions of files, from music and movies, to TV and Sports. With a one-time fee and the media all stored in one place, time as well as money can be saved in the long run.

Another feature to look for, depending on your level of expertise is some form of technical support. From help-lines, to step-by-step support videos, many PSP download sites offer something to help those in need.

Aside from a wide range of media, some download sites offer additional software at no extra cost. In regards to the PSP, this software often helps in converting different file formats into the format your PSP works best with. Other software can include eBook viewers, download managers, and JPEG viewers.

To summarize, you’ll want a PSP download site which gives you unlimited access to a wide variety of media for a one-time fee. These are the sites that will be safe and legal, and a better alternative to downloading media illegally and risking prosecution, and your computer’s health. Many PSP download sites will offer some kind of money-back guarantee, giving you time to evaluate your decision.

Did you find this article helpful? If you’d like to find out how to download music and other media to your PSP for a one-time fee, visit: Downloads for PSP

1. Free or Paid

Freebie seekers probably would argue with me on this. There is nothing wrong with wanting free iPhone music downloads. Who doesn’t anyway? But the trouble is that free websites that give you music for free are often associated with exposure to viruses, spyware and adware when downloading media files there. Our phones are too new and precious and to risk exposing them to these harmful elements is a No No.

How about downloading each iPhone song for $0.99 or more at online music services like HMV, iTunes and so on? People wouldn’t mind if it is only one or two song. But if we are going to load up at least a 100 songs or soundtracks, this is going to be expensive.

There are now services that offer a lifetime membership for a flat fee of lower than $49.95 to access unlimited iPhone music downloads. These are the real gems!

2. Variety & Size of iPhone Music Library

Music lovers probably have their preferred music. You may not like pop but to another, pop may really sound heavenly. If you love all kinds of music, go with the services that offer multiple genres from Rock, Hip Hop, R&B, Classical to many unheard music genre. Several top sites now offer over 100 million media files including music videos, TV shows and even movies and games.

3. Download Interface

This is a key feature that must not be overlooked. For easy navigation, the interface must be simple to use and does not take long to search and find your music files. One way to get a rough idea is to see how professionally done the site is and to read comments of existing users.

4. Software Applications for Download and Conversion

Several of the more established services are providing free software applications required to download iPhone music as well as movie and video files. They also provide the conversion software needed to convert movies and music file formats into iPhone-compatible formats. The top services also offer you a free DVD conversion software that transfer movies from DVDs to your iPhone.

5. Fast Downloading Speeds

Make sure that the download speeds are fast. Music file sizes are about 3-4 MB per song. Assuming you are downloading 20 songs at a go, the service must not limit your bandwidth usage by slowing down the speed. This is what some poorly run B-grade services do.

6. Safe Download Environment

Some services do not provide good secured environment with a high level of security and safety when you download iPhone music downloads. The last thing you want to worry about is adware, spyware and viruses that could make their way to your computer because the music store refuses to buck up on its system architecture.

7. After-sales Customer Care and Support

Many services just want to make more money. While they promise a 24/7 technical support to entice you to join them, they are hardly around when you need them to help troubleshoot when you face difficulties. Thankfully, there are a few reputable ones who can deliver an excellent level of after-sales service.

Look around and use these tips to find a good service for your iPhone music downloads. Want to know which services score well in every aspect mentioned? Read up my iPhone blog.

Davion is an ardent lover of techno gizmos. He runs a hugely popular iPhone review blog where he reveals where you can find unlimited iPhone downloads for pennies.