Thinking of signing up and paying money to a music download service that looks legitimate and perhaps even claims to be "legal?"<\/p>\n
Check our list<\/a> first.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, some sites may be happy to take your money, and may leave you with the impression that they are legal sources of a full range of music – including the top performers and music labels – but they are not licensed distributors of at least a substantial quantity of mainstream music. In particular, the sites on our list promote themselves in ways that suggest their music catalog is relatively comprehensive, when in fact they appear to have done nothing to license or otherwise ensure the legality of any downloads from the major music labels. Even where these sites include “legal informationâ€? cautioning users against illegal downloading, that information is not sufficiently clear, or prominent, or specific to prevent users from mistakenly perceiving the sites as sources of lawful copies of most mainstream music.<\/p>\n In short, if you are an Internet user in the United States and you pay money to one of these services with the intention of being a lawful online music user, you may get less than you bargained for.<\/p>\n In March 2005, CDT filed a complaint at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging that two download Web sites were deceptively claiming to offer "100% legal" music and video downloads in exchange for a subscription fee. The complaint<\/a> alleged that users were led to believe that the subscription fee entitled them to make downloads legally, when in truth the sites merely provided software and instructions for using free file-sharing networks on which copyright infringement is common. CDT noted that this kind of duplicitous practice can both mislead individual consumers and, by sowing confusion, undermine the marketplace for legitimate digital download services.<\/p>\n The Federal Trade Commission brought charges against one of the Web sites, mp3downloadcity.com, obtained an injunction in federal court, and ultimately reached a settlement<\/a> with the Web site operator in May 2006. The settlement required the operator to make refunds to customers, to refrain from further misleading claims, and to disclose the legal risks of downloading copyrighted material from peer-to-peer networks.<\/p>\n While the FTC case only addressed the practices of mp3downloadcity.com, a variety of other Web sites appear to continue to engage in behavior that raises similar concerns. Although these sites now avoid overt claims such as "100% legal," their promotional materials and any discussion of legal issues still offer limited, confusing, or misleading information about the true legal status of the downloads they purport to offer.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n (last updated July 2008)<\/p>\n Below, CDT lists the Web addresses of a number of services that, on the surface, may resemble fully licensed music download or subscription services – but upon more careful inspection, appear to advertise or at least imply the availability of music to which they have not secured the rights. Thus, U.S.-based subscribers\/customers of these Web sites download copyrighted music or other content at their own risk. (We have not investigated whether these sites have licensed or otherwise obtained rights to distribute mainstream music in other countries.)<\/p>\n Specifically, each Web site on this list:<\/p>\n Here’s the list of Web sites:<\/p>\n <\/p>\nBackground CDT Complaint and FTC Case<\/h3>\n
CDT’s Music Download Services "Warning List"<\/h3>\n
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Important Further Information About This List<\/h3>\n