Downloading Content Using Rapidshare! illegal or not?

Hi. I recently visited a friend of mine, who's older brother downloads pornographic movies on his computer. He told me he visits sites that use rapidshare, and he downloads his movies that way. I think it may be illegal since that website has links to download lots of movies, but I'm not sure. It just seems that it may be illegal, because when was the last time you could download so many full movies for free? I'm sorry if I did something against these forum rules, but my brother-in-law said i could use this site to seek help. I really care for my friend a lot, and don't want to see anything happen to his family.

Edited January 22, 2006 by BuffaloHELP (see edit history)

Is it illegal? Are sites that let you download full movies illegal? Please don't remove, i need an answer bad!

Edited January 22, 2006 by BuffaloHELP (see edit history)

Ask yourself this:Did you pay for the movie download?Was the movie out for sale?Was the movie listed for rental?Does it have a copyright sign issued by the production company?Is it a mainstream title, i.e. Hollywood, INDI?If you answered any of above question, yes, then yes it is illegal. Use your common sense. I don't mean to come out as plain rude but you should be able to tell what is legal and what is not. If you didn't pay for it and you are getting it for free from method that is against the law, it is just like stealing.

Like Buffalo said if it is taking money away from a company that is selling this item then yes it is illegal. You are taking the money away from people who worked hard to make this movie to entertain you. If they gave it all away for free they would be broke and not even making movies. Sure it is tempting and things are getting more expensive. I almost got Dreamweaver for free and Visual Basic but I knew it was wrong and taking money away from innocent people so I bought it even though I lost a lot of money.

Think of it this way. If you are working in a company, you wouldn't want the company to not pay you do you? If people made a movie costing them millions of dollars, they don't want people to view it for free.

Best File sharing Program with Maximum bandwidth provided by Rapidshare portal. But you need a Premium Account to download without Restriction. No need to worry, there is a tool you can download multiple files as if you have a Premium account without limit. All you need to do is just update the latest proxy.-Maiko

What if the movie had a lot of sales? Let's say the movie cost them 5 million $, and they made 20 mil $ ? What then?-Drake

Ilegal is uploading not downloading...

Ilegal is uploading not downloading...

I couldn't agree with that, because when you have illegaly uploaded movie on your hard disk, you violate the law. Same as the person who uploaded that movie, right? So my advice is that you don't download anything illegal from rapidshare. Legal is only when the file that is uploaded is freeware or if you have permission to have that file. Everything else is absolutely illegal. That is not rule only for rapidshare, this is also valid for every othe file hoster.
Regards.

Of cause--->no. It's a weat b-site that offer premium accounts. And many people do download using limited accounts coming together with different proxies that actually allows to download for free of charge.

Everything else is [reply]absolutely[/reply] illegal.

Reply: I wouldn't say "absolutely"... it actually isn't "absolutely" illegal in some countries. (I mean, of course it is in the US, but I'm talking about other countries.)

 

But if you upload it for the purpose of making money, then yes, it is pretty much illegal in every country. Copyright is only there so that credit can be given where due. Companies are only exploiting this for the sake of money. (Of course, if you were to steal a DVD or something, then yes, it would also be illegal. But "copying" is not the same thing as "stealing". If you downloaded a copy from the Internet and then ripped the original copy off the person, then that would be "theft" by any North American definition.)

Replying to tricky77puzzleReplying to tricky77puzzle It depends in which country you live in. In some it's illegal, e. G. Germany. That's why the Rapidshare hq is in Switzerland, where it's legal to download stuff like that. It's uploading that's illegal.-reply by bandwurm

Replying to bobbybansWell, it's not technically anything to do with "uploading to your hard drive"...That's actually still known as "downloading". It is simply illegal to obtain (or supply) unauthorised copies of copyrighted works without making any payment as required by the copyright owner - regardless of how you get it...Whether you buy it on disk, download it, copy it off a mate, record it off the cinema screen(!!)...Whatever.To be in possession of these works is the illegal part (in most developed countries that is). If the police ever raided your premises and found them, you could then be prosecuted, although they are very unlikely to bother given their widespread use.

Replying to PlenopticIts not "taking away money" it's just "not giving money" to the company.. SO it should not be considered "stealing". If I buy a book and lend, or simply give it to a friend (and don't ask money for that, meaning not reselling it) has he stolen that book from the company which produced it? Ofcourse not. So why am I not allowed to upload my CD's, movie's etc? Because it's profit. Law's are made to protect people and their rights and NOT profit. If someone buys a CD from the virgin stores he PAYS for that. Which makes it his property. How can it be forbidden to do what ever one wants to his property? If I wanna destroy MY CD's I may destroy them, if I wanna sell them for more money than I bought them for, I may (if I find someone stupid enough to buy) and if I want to give them FOR FREE I should be perfectly allowed to do so! I am not though... Why? Because there is no freedom.

What i understand... - rapidshare legal downloadingDownloading Content Using Rapidshare!

Ive read all the comments. And what I understand from it is..

It is illegal for the person to upload copyrighted content to rapidshare,but you can download it legally. But the possession of the downloaded content is illegal ?

-reply by Guest