As the laws change around the world and the topic is up for debate, a hot subject sweeping the globe is internet censorship and the laws concerning piracy. Some people claim that sharing digital media over the internet is stealing an a crime that should be severely punishable. Others claim that, because software piracy is making a copy of the media rather than taking an item itself, that there is no stealing factor and it should be legal.

Yet another group of people claim is that it should not matter if it is stealing or not, the internet is an uncensored, free place and there is no reason it should not stay that way. In all of the argument what people tend to forget that it is not downloading itself that is illegal or debated. It is all a matter of what the actual file being downloaded is.

There are plenty of legal download sites. Some require that you pay for the things that you are downloading, which makes the digital copy undeniably yours. Legal downloading is simple and about the same price as buying things in hard copy. There is also another type of legal download site that focuses on getting users free files legally. There is plenty of software and music and other forms of art on the internet that for one of several reasons are not guarded by copyright. Some have free licensing and allow free use while some have over lived their protections and others were never even filed to begin with.