Limewire

Hello all,

I hope I'm in the right area. My son likes to listen to alot of music. He has recently d/l Limewire which I'm really against. My question is:

Is there a fairly decent safe place that he can d/l music from?

I'm waiting for him to leave for the afternoon and evening to uninstall Limewire from our desktop computer. I'm so glad he's not allowed to use my laptop.

 

Hi, nchica40212.

Malware-removal experts routinely advise against installing any P2P file sharing programs (such as LimeWire, BearShare, Kazaa, BitTorrent, uTorrent, etc.) because, as you seem to be aware, they can open vectors for one's computer to become infected.

IMHO, generally any software/sites which allow "free" music downloads are dangerous and they appear to allow people to violate copyright laws...which could result in legal troubles for the computer owner. (I have read there are some musicians out there who allow their own music to be downloaded for free, but I think the majority of artists want to receive compensation for their creations.)

I would suggest using Apple's iTunes as a safer, legal alternative. I am not familiar with iTunes though so I do not know if one would also need an iPod for portability. I think you might be able to use iTunes with Windows Media Player.

 

Hi Mailman,

Thx for replying. I really appreciate the iTunes suggestion. As a matter of fact he has an ipod. I think he had probs with it but I'll run it by him and hopefully we can get it to work. It beats having the other music d/l alternatives. I really enjoy this site, there is so much valuable info on it, I do alot a research here on various things and have learned alot. Thanks again and have a great evening!

 

I am not very familiar with it, but napster also allow you to download music, I think you can choose per song or album. It is not free as it was when it first started. But I think the fees are reasonable (similar to itunes maybe??)

 

Suggestion

Hi nchica40212, just a suggestion for your peace of mind: In your negotiations with your son, offer to give him an allowance to purchase 10 songs per month or whatever you feel is fair in return for him giving up downloading from P2P sites. As most legit d/l sites only charge a dollar or so per song, shouldn't cost you much.

As mailman notes P2P sites are frought with nasty things that can invade your computer and cost you much more than $10/month to remove, let alone the time involved in getting rid of the nasties. Now, if your son is independently wealthy, that is another matter

 

Heads-up:

I have a friend who's son got an iPod last Christmas. Her son apparently used LimeWire to obtain some songs with the guidance of a step-sister at dad's house. He was very excited about the iPod and the new tunes he had stuck into his ears.

One evening between Christmas and New Year, we hooked up the iPod to his mother's computer (different computer) and attempted to get some promotional "free" iTunes offered by Apple. We ran into serious snags and I could not resolve the issue. He could no longer access/play the music that was already in his iPod. He went from very pleased to very disappointed and I felt really bad about it.

I guess either the existence of LimeWire-acquired tunes on the iPod or the use of a different computer with the iPod was what caused the serious issue. I think Apple is picky about such things.

I'm happy to say the family finally got the issue sorted and I think my friend's son is allowed only to download iTunes from Apple. I think he is given some sort of allowance such as JohnB suggested. He seems to have recovered pretty well from the Holidays downer too.

Good luck!

 

iPods have a reset/reformat "key combination" you can input (should be in user manual). When run, this clears iPod memory and restores it to factory default. Songs/content on iPod are history, but player will work fine.