Napster vs. LimeWire vs. iTunes

Class post!
This is about LimeWire, iTunes, and Napster, and the legal issues with each.
Napster was a music-sharing service.  It allowed users to share music freely, including music that hadn't been released yet.  Metallica and Dr. Dre were some of the first to sue Napster in an effort to get Napster to stop sharing unreleased music.  Napster was shut down in 1999 after a trial that declared its sharing of music illegal because of copyrights. 
LimeWire was also a music sharing service.  It did relatively the same thing as Napster, and also got into legal issues over music sharing.  It has not been shut down, but a trial for the company is sceduled for sometime in 2011.  The company may not be totally shut down, but they may be forced to put a price on music being shared to other users.
iTunes is the softare that comes with any iPod, iTouch, and iPhone.  It also allows you to download music.  Most of the songs you have to pay for, only a very limited number are free.  iTunes is not illegal because it forces the user to pay to download music.  A portion of that money is given to the singer/songwriter as a payment for permission to use their songs on iTunes.  Some artists have not put their music on iTunes because they don't want people picking and choosing songs.  New artists are being added every day, such as the recent addition of the Beatles.
Whatever music you decide to listen to, make sure you get it legally, or you could be in some big trouble! 
--SwimmerGirl