Internet Download

[Rockslinger]

Apologies if these questions have been asked and answered previously. (I am an Internet download virgin.)
1) Is it legal to download stuff from the Internet to my hardrive?
2) Is everything on the Internet "downloadable"?
3) What are the risks of downloading? Can my hardrive catch a virus and get sick or die? Or, can someone plant a "tracker" and monitor my past and future Internet travels?

 

[PDSAjax]

Apologies if these questions have been asked and answered previously. (I am an Internet download virgin.)
1) Is it legal to download stuff from the Internet to my hardrive?
2) Is everything on the Internet "downloadable"?
3) What are the risks of downloading? Can my hardrive catch a virus and get sick or die? Or, can someone plant a "tracker" and monitor my past and future Internet travels?

Quick answers, as some of this is a sticky legal mess.

1) Depends what it is, some stuff is perfectly legal and in fact is put there to be downloaded, some is not. Use common sense and judgement.

2) Depends on what you mean by downloadable. If you mean save a copy to your hard drive, on the whole yes you can if you know what you are doing and the understand the legal risks you may be taking.

3) Defiantely you can get a virus, or spyware or a trojan horse, tracker, zombie =or similar. Do not surf without at least AntiVirus, Firewall and AntiSpyware - there are good free products to cover all of the above.
As for will your hard drive die - no it wont, I have never heard of a virus physically damaging hardware in 12 years of IT. What it will do is screw up your data.
Hope this helps

 

[Papi Chulo]

Apologies if these questions have been asked and answered previously. (I am an Internet download virgin.)
1) Is it legal to download stuff from the Internet to my hardrive?
2) Is everything on the Internet "downloadable"?
3) What are the risks of downloading? Can my hardrive catch a virus and get sick or die? Or, can someone plant a "tracker" and monitor my past and future Internet travels?

1) music, movies & photos, etc (with exception of kiddie porn, bestiality).. legal to download in Canada... just do not upload... like he said previously.. it is common sense, most of the time!

2) everything is "downloadable".. some stuff is more difficult to download.. but where there is a will, there is a way!

3) make sure you are using a quality firewall and AV. Keep your AV up to date!