Audio Downloading, or How is This Legal Again?

This week we explored the aspect of downloading audio bits, and I'm left a bit confused. We'll into that in a few.

We'll start with what I aleady know. For me, I've been downloading for a while. Right now, I mainly go through iTunes. I've purchased music from there for a while. I guess my budget got sick of buying CDs for only 1 song, and the option of buying one song for 99 cents seemed a tad smarter. As of late, I've mainly been downloading podcasts. I'm a movie enthusiast, and I love to listen to others' reviews of movies, horror in particular. It keeps me entertained when driving to work or working out, although I tend to laugh out loud, which makes for awkward situations. So, in that aspect, I understand the usage of podcasts.

Here's where I get confused. The other part focused on music downloads. That way, we can incorporate them into presentations. My confusion hits on the fact that I checked out several different websites that promote free downloads, and not just of waiting-to-be-discovered artists. I'm talking major artists, with song selection that points out their hits, not the B-sides. My question is, how is this different than what Napster was doing 10 years ago? I don't see a difference. It's still out there, it's still being shared free of charge, and it's still happening a lot. How is this different? I'm not throwing that out there to get a conversation going. I HONESTLY DON'T KNOW HOE THIS IS LEGAL 10 YEARS LATER!!!

Please feel free to share, because that's something I need plenty of this week...