midi's illegal to download for free?

[madman55]

I wanna download Midi file songs, but im having a little difficulty finding a site that has a song i like in a midi format. are they illegal to download for free?

[redwench]

any copyrighted material is illegal to download and use, unless you have the permission of the copyright holder.

[Canis Lupus]

Well, midis are pretty much a grey area when it comes to copyrights, since they are basically just a set of instructions that tell your soundcard's midi synth which notes to play at which intervals (which is why the same midi file sounds slightly different depending on what soundcard you have).

Unless the site allowing midis for download specifically says that they are royalty-free, there should be no problem downloading them. Most midis are from copyrighted songs anyway, so only original midi compositions are inherently illegal to download - unless the author says it's okay.