What is the best and most economical site to download songs and to keep them on mp3?

I just saw this advertisement that seems very reasonable to me.

http://music.yahoo.com/

(Please excuse any pop-ups)

$5 a month for unlimited music sounds like a great deal.

Be careful with these. Several sites are in (or completing) litigation of one sort or another.

Grokster, I think, is shutting down.

Kazaa has several immitators, like "Kazaa Lite" and "Kazaa Gold" and "Mykazaa.com".

Avoid the immitators like the plague. The first one has been sued for copyright infringement, and the second and third are actually the same company, completely bogus and have also faced litigation for apparently pretending to be the real thing: Kazaa.

Before you use anything other than one of the well-knowns, just do a google search. Type in the name of the site you're interested and add the word "complaint" and see what you get.

Another way to check out the site is to go to their home page and see if you can find information on the company.

With Kazaagold, there was almost no "transparency", meaning they didn't want anyone to know who they were. Legitimate companies will almost always post a link like "about us" or "company info", etc., and you will find names, addresses and phone numbers.

Kazaa has none--not even a customer service line. Once they have your money, that's it. If the software you download for some reason won't work, you have no recourse, no one to complain to, and that's exactly the way kazaagold operates.

I was able to find a complaint online that had a customer service number, and when I called, they basically said, "too bad".

This post isn't about P2P downloading programs though, Bunk. Farang is looking for legal sites, none of which are having issues with copyright.

I wouldn't expect reliability or service from any illegal downloading program anyway since it's only a program that allows people to find files from random people, and all it has to be is a little better in some way than the other illegal downloading programs.

This site has rules about circumventing the law which includes illegal downloads. The site I referred to was a small monthly fee-based music download site.

Jusork, the real Kazaa does pier to pier.

The fake Kazaa(s) to music and movie downloads. If you google "mp3 download", the fake Kazaa(s) will show up near the top.

They charge you, and they appear to be legal downloads. The trouble is they don't give you any service--they just take your money.

(Some pier-to-pier services are also illegal if they bypass ownership/copyright.)

quote:

Originally posted by bunkboy:
The fake Kazaa(s) to music and movie downloads. If you google "mp3 download", the fake Kazaa(s) will show up near the top.

They charge you, and they appear to be legal downloads. The trouble is they don't give you any service--they just take your money.

(Some pier-to-pier services are also illegal if they bypass ownership/copyright.)

The fake Kazaa that came up when I googled (mykazaagold) seems to have multiple kinds of support services actually. Did I find a different one? I did find that you're right about Kazza Gold, but the Mykazaa address took me to a site called Freemusicwave which is file-sharing and it's not legal.

All p2p software bypasses ownership/copyright though. I don't know of a p2p software that only allows music from artists who give permission or p2p software that only allows music in the public domain, and I don't know how else it could be done.

Anyway, this thread is still about legal downloads.

Mykazaa.com = Kazaagold.

I just settled a problem with them.

Pier-to-pier is legitimate and great way to share software. The problem arises in sharing software protected by copyright. I've never done it before, so I don't know what safeguards are in place to let people know where the line is and when they've crossed it.

In the business world, there's something called an "extra-net", as opposed to an "internet" and an "intra-net. File sharing is actually the rule with "extra-nets", and it is expedient that members are using the same software. Pier-to-pier sharing is one avenue for extending relationships between businesses, especially in expediting contracts with new business partners.

An example of an extranet would be Wal-Mart's online B2B services interfaced with suppliers using something called "just-in-time" order processing, an efficient way of moving from purchase order to receipt of product when manufacturing large quantities is involved.

[nitpick]That's 'peer-to-peer', not 'pier-to-pier'[/nitpick]

quote:

Originally posted by bunkboy:
Mykazaa.com = Kazaagold.

I just settled a problem with them.

Pier-to-pier is legitimate and great way to share software. The problem arises in sharing software protected by copyright. I've never done it before, so I don't know what safeguards are in place to let people know where the line is and when they've crossed it.

There is no line to know whether a file is actually legal or illegal on p2s's. That's part of the problem. Making a distinction between having a copyright or not doesn't seem to be an issue for people who use p2p's.

And that's exactly right. P2p software may be used in legal ways, but the problem is that they're more predominately being used as a way to illegally distribute music and movies.

So is MyKazaa a free site, and Kazaa Gold a pay site?

No, both are pay sites. One takes your money in trade for a service, the other takes your money and does not deliver a service.

If you take a close look at their websites (both of them), there is no company information offered--no address, phone number, etc. They do have a tech support e-mail address, and the response is always a canned message.

I was able to find a tech support number and the name of a tech support person by searching for complaints against the company (that's how I know they've faced litigation in the past and lost).

I found an address and phone number on mykazaa. At the bottom of the main page: This site is owned and operated by MP3 Networks ltd, Armory building, Basseterre, St-Kitts and under contact: Billing or Tech Support, call toll-free: 1-866-240-2481. Kazaa Gold isn't around anymore so I couldn't check it. As far as I could tell though, Makazaa is free. It says No download fees which I assume means there's no paying involved in getting the files.