Limewire and all other file-sharing software is not actually illegal. It is called a "file sharing" software so you can share files - just not ones with copyright on them. E.g. you can listen to a song your friend might have put on the file sharing software as a little joke - but you can't download one of Eminem's songs. I will show you why it not only can affect yourself, but how it affects others too.

Nothing in life is perfect. When you want to do something there will always be something in your way. In this case when you are trying to download music it is not only illegal, but you could face much more severe consequences than a £1000 fine if caught.

As you may already know, the world is crawling with hackers who try and ruin your computer for fun or as a "business". A business? Yes, they can exploit your account and blackmail you. They do this via the following way:

If you wanted to download your favourite music, say a song by Eminem, you might go onto Limewire to download it. So what these hackers can do is infect all these music files with spyware (a bug that hackers send out to spy on your computer) and trace your IP address (computer's identification) back to their own system. From here they can easily exploit your bank accounts, crash your systems and if you own your own website, corrupt your server. They could then email/phone you asking for a hefty sum of money ( in the hundreds of thousands) and blackmail you by demanding a ransom and then they say they'll stop hacking into your account. For them it is a win - win situation. All this could be caused by downloading just one song. Crazy when you think about it.

Pornographers on the internet do the same thing. They promote their websites though and are not too interested in the account exploitation. However, if they get hold of your IP address, they could flood your desktop with pop-ups and eventually causing your computer to crash to a point that it can't be fixed.

These are the two MAIN ways in that your computer could be affected by illegal downloading. I think you would have learned by now the consequences that affect you. However there is one more consequence that could make your favourite singer to go out of business.

Imagine that you download a smash hit new single from Eminem of Limewire. He loses about $4/£2 profit. What is £2, it is a very nominal amount of money, isn't it? However, because the song is so popular, 1 million people download the same song for free. This means that Eminem would lose out on about $4 million or £2 million. If this kept happening, he would become broke, and you would be able to hear any of his new music ever again.

So, there is a way to listen to music for free, WITHOUT the financial consequences. The two main ways are:

1. If you have BT Yahoo Broadband, you can listen to your favourite songs of Yahoo Music.
2. You can go to the fansite of that artist and usually they have 3 of his/her main hits on the website that you can listen to for free.
3. Sometimes you see those annoying popups asking you to pick a ringtone of your choice for free to put on your phone. Well actually, it is FREE. They will send you that ringtone/ real sound for free if you have a phone and give them your mobile number.

This is not illegal AND it is free.