I use kazaa still but not for downloading new music. If I do use it for music it is for older tracks. Kazaa Lite's website was taken off the market and Google has banned all search results for Kazaa Lite. Thankfully you're in luck, there is a new version of Kazaa Lite out in the market but it is only a matter of time till those websites are taken down. It is called Kazaa Resurection or Kazaa Lite Resurection (Same krap different names). It has gotten incredibly difficult to find real songs on there now, but they are still there. As for the fines, 40,000 mp3's and I'm still not in jail! Newer version of Kazaa now carry programs that block the music cops. I wouldnt rely on that, the only way that you can avoid a lawsuit is by NOT sharing. Once you got what you came for, remove it [physically] from the shared folder(s). If you dont need it on your machine after you burned it, then delete it. If you are really paranoid about being caught, I recommend a program called
Eraser for permenantly deleting anything. It is a free open source program that uses the Department of Defense standards for data erasing [DoD wipe].
Just be very careful because you can permenantly erase the contents of your hardrive and recovery is damn near impossible.
If you still want to download music at near free prices. I recommend you check out Russia's answer to iTunes.
All Of Mp3 and
Mp3 Search offer mp3s for about one penny a megabyte. I was able to buy The Matrix: Revolutions sound track for 1.34. There are several of these out there but these are the ones with the largest selection. If you still prefer p2p programs then I recomment going old school style with Bittorrent or Direct Connect. If you weren't war driving 10 - 15 years ago, it will take you a while to learn it. If you don't know what war driving is... heh.