The solution to most modern day problems seems to be: download it! Need to read a specific book for your class next Monday? Log in to your favorite online bookstore or library and download it! Want to listen to that song you heard on MTV on your iPod? Jump on iTunes and download it! Missed an episode of your favorite TV show? Visit the network's website and download it! In fact, we download so many things in the run of a day that we don't even realize how much we rely on it. Here at Downloads Plaza, we'll open your eyes to a world of downloading.

In the old days, unless you want to the theater, movies were something you rented on VHS tape or DVD to watch at home. Today, however, there's no need for wasteful packaging and manufactured physical storage because we can buy or rent almost any movie and download it to our computer, tablet, or handheld video player. Companies like Netflix and iTunes, which offer downloaded videos for temporary and permanent sale, have effectively bankrupted the video rental giants like Blockbuster, paving the way for a fully digital moviescape.

The same is true of music as well. Just a few years ago, if we wanted to own a copy of our favorite songs we had to buy it on CD, either as a single or on the album. The advent of downloadable mp3s has put CDs into the dustbin of history as we now download all our music directly to our handheld players, which can be plugged into almost anything with speakers. Books are not quite on their last legs, but the popularity of downloadable e-books is increasing as reader devices become cheaper and more titles are showing up in online libraries and bookstores.

We all accept that media is more often downloaded than not, but what else do we download? If you have a mail system like Eudora or Microsoft Outlook, you're downloading your mail from a remote sever every time you check it. When you copy photos from the internet or videos from your friends' Facebook pages, your computer downloads a copy to your hard drive. Most programs, from internet security software to video players to computer games, are also downloaded from the net rather than installed from a disc. We can also download bills, schedules, documents, brochures, reports, presentations, and catalogs with the click of a button.

In fact, downloading is so easy that we have run into some trouble with it, especially in the field of copyrighted material. Artists who make their living by selling songs, videos, or photos are understandably upset when people make and distribute copies without a profit to the artist. In the United States especially, this battle has exploded into the legal system, meaning if you're not careful, you could land yourself in hot water for some of your downloading.

To learn more about downloading, how to download, what's available for download, how to make a download, and copyright issues surrounding downloading, browse the articles on our website.