Ok, so I admit I love a couple songs from the Napoleon Dynamite movie soundtrack.... I didn't wanna buy it just for the 2 songs, so I stumbled upon an Mp3 download engine (NOT a P2P thing, but a search engine that finds free downloadable mp3s available on the internet)... I found the 2 songs I wanted, selected "Save Target As..." and I have them now. 320kbs quality and free !

Now, my question is, has anyone heard of these mp3 search engines and are there dire consequences for using them ?? This is new to me.

I mean, I'm happily listening to these two songs now, but will the RCAA, FBI, DMV, whoever these music nazis are, will they come knocking at people's doors for using an Mp3 search engines ????

Lemme know if you are aware of these and why it's ok or not ok to grab an occasional song from them.

Rule of thumb is this: if you didn't own the rights or pay a fee to obtain music from a legit MP3 sales site, then you are still stealing.

I would probably error on the side of caution myself.
If I didn't get them from the bands website (as a free download). I probably just go to Amazon.com and pay the 90 cents or so to download each legally. I actually did that with those Decemberadio bonus tracks.

Napoleon rules!

The search engine I stumbled upon is called skreemr.com.
Cuz it's a legit search eng, I assumed it searched the WWW for mp3s that are legal to download (ie, many websites have free legit songs, but you hafta go find them).

I guess, as they say, "if it's too good to be true..."

It is troo though there are quite a few free MP3 files to be had.

For those who listened to the latest Rocksalt show, you will know that a certain progressive rock/metal band has their latest (and probably last) complete album available for free download right now.

Nice plug.

You could always ask the band if they have any issue with it. I'd be kind of leery myself. I would bet all of the sites that have these "free" mp3s are outside the US where they don't have the copyright laws we do.

I will freely admit I have gotten quite a few albums for "free" to play on my show because I haven't been able to get them from the band/label for whatever reason. Since I rarely listen to them for myself, I don't have an issue with this because I'm giving them free exposure. Theocracy was even one of them. My copy from Finland got lost somewhere along the way though the label then provided me with a soft copy.

I had no idea they were so available outside peer-to-peer networks until three months ago.

Yes. I sometimes request it that way, especially the overseas ones. Ulterium normally sends hardcopies actually but someone else is enjoying Theocracy and Harmony. Hope they get converted!