[Alneyan]

From what P2P programs say, using them is not illegal; it is what most Users do with them that is illegal. At least, such is the view held by these programs themselves, and what is commonly reported here. Few programs (besides Napster) were shut down following such rulings, so that seems to be correct, at least for now. I did not hear of any jurisprudence on the matter, however (not that I am so fond of lawsuits), so I could be wrong.

A company *may* have the right to forbid you from making backup copies, as a court ruling (from a few months ago in Missouri, if memory serves) *could* be interpreted so. Of course, it does not mean it would hold in a trial specifically targetted at this sort of violation, and it remains interpretation for now. I would probably not expect this right to be so strongly established, however; but I am getting out of topic really (that is more the topic of the thread about BitTorrent).