Is downloading music from the internet illegal?
By Shelly Osterhout The laws that apply in the United States to downloading music include the Copyright Act, as well as criminal copyright laws. The U.S. Copyright Act protects “original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” Huh? That means anything you create that is expressed in writing, on video, in music, in a painting in a photo, in computer code, or in a game, etc. It’s just the expression itself that is protected. That is typically called the “work.” Ideas aren’t protected by copyright. For example, if you came up with a great idea for a new video game, your new idea (if you didn’t register it as a patent) can be used by others, but the words you used to describe it couldn’t be used by them. If you actually built the game, though, your game can be protected. That protection would include the game itself, the computer code used to create the game and your cover art, among other things. It also doesn’t apply to facts contained in the work. For example, i
