Peer-to-Peer (P2P) programs are fairly popular. Networks such as BitTorrent and eMule make it easy for people to find what music they want and share what music they have.

So you want Katy Perry’s new album or perhaps you're looking for a sweet romantic song for playing over Valentine's Day. For many people it is as simple as opening BitTorrent or eMule, selecting the tracks, downloading, and then transferring to your iPod or burning to a CD.

The idea of sharing music seems benign enough. If I have some music you want and you have some music I want, why shouldn't we share? For one thing, sharing music on your computer with unknown users on the Internet goes against many of the basic principles of securing your computer. You must have a firewall, either built into your router or using personal firewall software.

However, in order to share music on your computer and access music on other computers within a P2P network such as BitTorrent, you must open a specific TCP port through the firewall for the P2P software to communicate. In effect, once you open the port you are no longer protected from your firewall.

Another security concern is that when you download music from other peers on the BitTorrent, eMule, or other P2P network you don't know for sure that the file is what it says it is. You might think you are downloading Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl", but when you double-click the file how can you be sure that you haven't also installed a Trojan or backdoor in your computer allowing an attacker to access it at will?

The more important thing you have to know about sharing music is sharing unauthorized music files on the Internet is illegal.

The U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act deems copying of copyrighted music (with the exception of making a copy for your own use) as illegal. The U.S. Code protects copyright owners from the unauthorized reproduction, adaptation or distribution of sound recordings, as well as certain digital performances to the public. In more general terms, it is considered legal for you to purchase a music CD and record (rip) it to MP3 files for your own use. Uploading these files via peer-to-peer networks would constitute a breach of the law.

So, with all of that in mind, sharing music is dangerous. You need a safe and legitimate method to search and download the music you want.

Easy MP3 Downloader is not a Peer-to-Peer program. You're not sharing music with others and what you download are 100% safe MP3 files. It's 100% Legal. There are large numbers of Free Legal Music Sources on the Internet. Easy MP3 Downloader can help you find them more easily by searching the public video and audio websites, such as YouTube, Yahoo!, etc.

Learn more about Easy MP3 Downloader.