Musical Legal Notes

Ever since Napster hit the cyberspace scene, it's been possible to downloadfree music, but not without risk. Users of file-sharing sites likeKaZaa have always taken a chance of computer virus infections and are nowfacing possible lawsuits from the revenue-starved music industry. If youwant to satisfy your craving for music cuts legally, however, there arenow some online music download sites. Sites like iTunes (www.apple.com/itunes), MusicMatch Downloads (www.music match.com/download), and Napster2.0 (www.napster.com) let you download your favorites for only $0.99each and play DJ, mixing and matching artists rather than buying completealbums. Caveat: Playback capabilities may be limited. For example, unlessthey are converted to an MP3 format, music tracks from Apple's iTunes willplay only on Apple's iPod portable players, which can cost up to $500.