Download

[2] Downloading generally transfers entire files for local storage and later use, as contrasted with streaming, where the data is used nearly immediately while the transmission is still in progress and may not be stored long-term.

The leading YouTube audio-ripping site agreed to shut down after being sued by a huge coalition of recording labels.

As overt static hosting of unauthorized copies of works (i.e., centralized networks) is often quickly and uncontroversially rebuffed, legal issues have in recent years tended to deal with the usage of dynamic web technologies (decentralized networks, trackerless BitTorrents) to circumvent the ability of copyright owners to directly engage particular distributors and consumers.

In Europe, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that it is legal to create temporary or cached copies of works (copyrighted or otherwise) online.

[5][6] The judgement of the court states that: "Article 5 of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society must be interpreted as meaning that the copies on the user's computer screen and the copies in the internet 'cache' of that computer's hard disk, made by an end-user in the course of viewing a website, satisfy the conditions that those copies must be temporary, that they must be transient or incidental in nature and that they must constitute an integral and essential part of a technological process, as well as the conditions laid down in Article 5(5) of that directive, and that they may therefore be made without the authorisation of the copyright holders.

"[7] On April 17, 2009, a Swedish court convicted four men operating The Pirate Bay Internet site of criminal copyright infringement.