Originally posted by redsock:
Quick question for you legal eagles...if a band or a label has a mp3 on their site, and you copy it and put it on your own site for whatever reason for people to downlaod, is this illegal? Assuming of course that your site is a non-commercial site.
Read the "TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF WEB SITE USE" for the web site you're getting it from. If there is nothing there, you're probably OK (or at least you've covered your ass), however, these are the types of things that are usually prohibited in the Terms and Conditions of the web site. I almost always include this prohibition in my Terms of Use.
It really depends on what the distributor of the file wants. Most new bands would want you to spread their music if they are offering the file for free, however most file distributor sites (like MP3.com) would not want you to do this because they make money by you visiting. Mp3.com used to even prohibit you from linking to the song, but I haven't checked this in a while.
