Nordisk Copyright Bureau
Copyright or wrong
Download of music
The fact that music is readily available on the Internet does not imply that it is legal to download. Copyright law also applies to the Internet, consequently, you have to be more aware when you download music from the Internet.
Guidelines for music download from the Internet
Today there are a wide range of legal sites from where you can download music - normally subject to a charge. However, there are still a lot of illegal music which can be downloaded from the Internet.
- The music you download must be uploaded to the Internet legally - no matter whether you have to pay for the download or not.
This means that the rights owners of the music must have given their permission to download. - The music you upload - e.g. to your own website - must also be legal. That means that if the music is owned by others, you have to get their prior permission.
- Sharing music on file-swapping sites (P2P) is not legal - unless the rights owners of the music have given their permission.
If you just use a bit of common sense it is not so difficult to distinguish the fully legal sites from the illegal sites. If in doubt, do not download the music.
The copyright acts of the Nordic/Baltic countries differ in some respects. So if you are a resident of Estonia, Iceland, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway or Sweden, please contact your local NCB office to get updated information.
