Is file sharing legal? - YES!

Court quashes music industry bid for IDs
Canadian Press
Published March 31, 2004 @ 1:01pm

"Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled Wednesday that the Canadian Recording Industry Association did not prove there was copyright infringement by 29 so-called music uploaders."

Read full Globe and Mail Article:
Court quashes music industry bid for IDs

Read full National Post Article:
Door slammed on Cdn music industry's bid to obtain names of file sharers

Today, there are over 220 million users trading MP3s & videos on these LEGAL file-sharing networks. You can be assured that File-Sharing is 100% legal, MP3s are 100% legal, and your membership to <%=memberBranding%> is 100% legal.

See News.com Article:   Federal Judge Rules: File-swapping tools are legal

MP3 is simply an audio format and as such has no legal standing. While rights owners have concerns about a format that is used to make digital copies of music, it's not the MP3 format itself that is at issue but rather the copying of music - regardless of the particular format used in creating the file. In fact, while the MP3 format is the main music format available on the file-sharing networks, there are a variety of other audio and video formats in use.

Today, there are hundreds of millions of users trading MP3s & videos on these legal file-sharing networks. Rest assured that File-Sharing is 100% legal, MP3s are 100% legal, and your membership to <%=memberBranding%> is 100% legal. (see article below).

<%=memberBranding%> does not condone piracy or breaking copyright laws. The MP3 sharing tools available on our website are powerful search tools & we recommend that you use your discretion when downloading music and movie files.

Decentralized File-sharing Tools Ruled Legal
By Mike Darrah
Published April 25, 2003 @ 04:20 PM

Two File sharing networks have won a major court decision in Los Angeles, shifting the tides of the on-line P2P legal war. Federal court Judge Stephen Wilson has dismissed much of the studios' claims in their lawsuits against them, stating that these two file sharing networks were not liable for copyright infringements that took place using their software.

The ruling stated loud and clear that innovating decentralized peer-to-peer software is perfectly legal, and shouldn't be deemed illegal in the courts. The courts compared the technology with the innovation of the original Sony videocassette recorder (VCR).

Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) stated the case is far from over, but that the case sends a "strong message to the technology community that the court understands the risk to innovation" the case could represent.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) offered no comment, but are of course issuing an appeal to the ruling already.