What is Legal?

Music is illegally downloaded everyday and has been like this for some time, but what is considered illegal and what is considered legal? Copyright laws permit the sale of music only with the artist's or group's consent, so by this alone downloading music for free is illegal. The creators of those songs would never give their music away for free if they know that they can make a large profit by allowing sites like iTunes to sell their music for them. That is why Napster was shut down and sued because it prohibited artists from making a profit. Nowadays websites like LimeWire do the same thing as Napster. There is more to what is legal and what is protected by copyright though. What many people don't know is that after legally downloading music the consumer is not allowed to burn a CD and give it away. Even if the person who bought the music receives no profit from the CD it is still illegal. I hope this post makes you realize that before you download music from a file-sharing website just think would you rather pay a buck for a song or $150,000 in fines?