Win MX

[CathH]

Can anyone give me advice on Win MX or tell me of a better site?
My son has asked if we can get Win MX as he wants to download music.
It seems that there is a one-off fee and then you can download anything from the site. Am I right?

....and is this legal?

[Kerplunk]

Definately not legal if it just a one off fee. To download music legally you must pay for every download from somewhere like itunes' music store. I think companies like HMV offer a download service now also. You should pay about 79p per track.

Unless it has changed Win MX is a peer to peer service such as Limewire. Most downloads using these are illegal and can be harmful to your computer. Be very careful letting your son download from P2P services.

If you want to download things illegally then the best way is either through News Leeching software or Bit Torrent. Let your morals decide.

[Buenchico]

WinMX is similar to Limewire in that it operates on a peer-to-peer basis. i.e. your downloads come directly from another user's PC and not from a central site. While you're downloading music files, other users can access the shared files on your PC. WinMX uses its own network whereas Limewire uses the Gnutella network (which is also used by other software such as BearShare) but the technology is basically the same.

Using P2P networks substantially increases the risks of viruses, trojans and other 'nasties' finding their way on to your PC.

The one-off fee charged by WinMX is for software and 'support'. It has nothing to do with paying copyright owners for their work. WinMX is basically offering a similar service to Download Music Inc. Please read my post about the legal position of such services, here:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Law/Question353 035.html

Chris

[CathH]

Wow thanks for your answers! Its a bit of a minefield then really. Is there any legal sites?

[Buenchico]

Kerplunk's guideline figure of about 79p per track is typically what you'll have to pay for legal downloads but different sites offer varying payment packages.

There are nearly 50 UK-based legal download services listed here:
http://www.pro-music.org/musiconline/tracker-r egion-europe.htm

Chris