…Make sure you are up to speed on the letter of the law before you dabble in P2P file sharing. Here's how peer-to-peer file sharing works: Say you are looking for a file on the Internet. You connect to a P2P network that is connected to several other users who are also looking for files. The P2P network accepts your query and looks for another user that has your file. Once it finds someone, it connects you to one or more users who send pieces of the file to you directly. A fileshare differs from traditional downloading in that you aren't retrieving a file from a server where its being hosted. Think of it as buying a house from a real estate broker: the broker doesn't own the home, nor is he the one selling it to you. He's merely facilitating the transfer between two private parties. The issue with using a music downloader or a P2P fileshare system like this is that it is difficult to regulate copyrighted material since it comes from so many different sources. While it is easy for an agency to shutdown a server hosting illicit material, it is nearly impossible to stop millions of different users from filesharing amongst themselves. And since the P2P network isn't actually hosting the file, it can't be held responsible. However, just because it's difficult to catch people pirating illegal software; doesn't mean its impossible. Many Internet service providers monitor activity and will terminate your service if they suspect you of illicit behavior. To play it safe while using a service such as eMule download software, restrict your filesharing to products that you know are not copyrighted (i.e. open source).