Everybody knows that stealing means taking something without paying for it. But sometimes, even when you pay for something, it's still considered stealing. That's what that infamous 12-year old girl who was sued by the RIAA for sharing music (not "prosecuted" for "downloading," as the RIAA/Apple ads falsely claimed) found out the hard way.

	Deliberately misleading information from My-Free-Music.com.

Evidently, she had subscribed to one of these services that profess to sell you permission to download an unlimited amount of music, movies, and software for the rest of your life--and the best part is, they say it's all "100% legal." Search Google for legal mp3, and check out the right column that lists the sponsored ads--you'll see the sites I'm referring to. That 12-year-old girl, as well as countless other music fans, are assuming that because they paid for their "lifetime membership," they can download whatever they want with impunity.

These sites are all absolutely full of it. While I wouldn't call what they're doing fraud, it's about as close as you can come without bringing the wrath of the Better Business Bureau down upon you. I get at least one e-mail a day, usually written in an optimistic "this has to be too good to be true" tone, asking whether these services are legit. Sorry to disappoint but the answer is a resounding "absolutely not."

Your payment gets you...well, nothing
What these sites sell is something you can get for free from any number of Web sites: client software for accessing P2P networks such as Kazaa, WinMX, and Gnutella, along with some simple instructions on how to use them. As for the $25 charge to your credit card? None of that goes to the record labels, as some users might assume. That money generally goes to Internet entrepreneurs (actually, they're closer to parasites) who developed none of the software or the networks their so-called products use. As for you? The fact that you paid $25 to some guy in Romania changes nothing except your bank account balance. Your potential legal risk of being sued by the RIAA for making music available for sharing is unchanged.

Action	My-Free-Music.com ($25)	Any free P2P client
Sharing more than 1,000 copyrighted songs without permission	Liable to get you busted	Liable to get you busted
Sharing less than 1,000 copyrighted songs without permission	You're probably OK	You're probably OK
Downloading copyrighted music without permission	No one's been sued yet	No one's been sued yet
Sharing or downloading music with the copyright holder's permission	Always OK	Always OK

Hopefully, the day will come when record labels start licensing their music to P2P networks so that those services can sell legal access to them. But for now, sites such as My-Free-Music.com are 100 percent bogus.

If you want what they're "selling" but don't want to pay for it, cut to the chase and download the P2P clients, directly and for free. Here are the links for Kazaa Lite and WinMX--the two clients I got access to when I paid $25 to join My-Free-Music.com (which, incidentally, also goes under other aliases such as My Music Inc): 
• Kazaa Lite 2.0
• WinMX 3.31

Click those two links and you'll have two file-sharing clients that can be used in either legal or infringing ways. Pay $25 for "lifetime membership," and you'll have exactly the same thing. The choice is yours.