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Feb 16, 2007 3:36 am US/Pacific
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Careful What You Download, Or Face iTrouble
by David Goldstein
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
It's music to our ears...
"It means a lot to me. It's my music."
It's movies to our minds.
"I have all my music...photos and video."
But when you go to fill up your iPod -- with all that music and video -- you can get taken for a ride.
"I usually know when I'm getting scammed, but they just nailed me.:
Jacob Jenkins went to download music from an Internet web site. Promising thousands of tunes for one low price."
"Instead of 99 cents a pop...I thought I was getting thousands of tunes for $17 bucks."
Tracey Zurbuchen wanted to download movies for her computer -- and iPod. But instead got spammed!
"I wish they would stop. To me it's just a thief. You're not getting anything from it. It's just a corrupt virus."
It was a pop up like this! Dave Wilson got the same thing.
"They kept popping up and they wouldn't let me do anything for about a good week."
What they all have in common is instead of buying a cd or video from a store like this -- or going to an official web site like iTunes or Microsfot -- they downloaded music or video from official looking web sites that actually sell some items illegally. And once it gets on your iPod -- you could be breaking the law. And looking at the web sites, you'd never know it.!
Theat's because the sites are slick. Some even look like official iPod web sites. With the same lettering as ads. They're actually selling software to download thousands of songs for one low price. But spam and popups could be hidden inside. And you may be getting the music illegally.
I think what happens is when you get that legitimacy feeling you really jump off that diving board before you really look to see it there's really water in the pool.
Jeff Levy hosts a tech show on KNX Radio. He says many of these sites are really just selling shareware...which you can get for free.
It allows you to share songs or videos with others. You don't need to pay for that. But it means you're not really purchasing each one and paying a royalty. That could be illegal. And the Recording Industry Association of America -- the RIAA -- could come after you. Don't laugh. It is happening.
"RIAA recently sued a 16-year-old when he downloaded music when he was 12. You don't get to go to different web sites and download movies and music for a lump sum. It doesn't work that way."
But most people don't know it. And fall victim to web sites that promise to fill up their iPod's for a low price. But the downside may not be worth it.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)