online downloads

[ddouglass]

The difficult I see with downloading from the internet (not just karaoke or audio) is knowing whether the company is legit. In the case of MTU and other software companies it is easy enough because the product is theirs, thus copyrighted by them, and sold directly from them.
If I can order music files directly from the original producer (Sound Choice, Chartbuster, etc.) then again they have the copyright and distribution rights. I am guaranteed that if there is a question of validity (license to reproduce) it falls on that producer, not me.
The question then comes down to "resellers" who are selling the product second hand. Do they have a license/agreement with the producer to sell that item for download? This is where it gets tricky to determine their legality. Personally, I will never order on line downloaded music files unless I know that the company is a direct producer or an authorized reseller of that producer.