File sharing -cont.

[flano]

How might one be caught then illegally downloading music,films etc...?

[JOEYSHABADO]

You want the music. You tell them you want it by clicking the button the screen. But the computer that is going to give it to you needs to know where to send it. That's your computer address. They (the record company) just sits on the net, with a copy of the song. You download it. They find out who it's being sent to, ring up your ISP, get your address. And your nicked. And you have a hefty fine.
Chances of getting done? For one song, about the same as winning the lottery. So every time I download a song, I play the lottery, so that if I do get caught, it won't mean much, cos, I'll have millions, right?

[peanut]

actually, I was under the impression it was the person sharing the file that gets in trouble.

[Mattk]

but what if youre not on a fixed ip address ? ie the next time u go online your address is different.

until recently they have been just going after the 'sharer' but more recently they have started to target the 'downloader' in an attempt to dissuade them.

they have to face facts - downloading is here to stay they have to find a way of encouraging people to go legal thats all.at the moment i can buy a cd for �9 or dl for �9 so where my incentive ? i get no case,cd,lyrics sheet,booklet etc etc - make albums donwloadable for �4 and id go for that ! 

[BillyNoMates]

Most of the P2P sites like WinMX, Bearshare, Limewire etc. use a particular type of network packet to send/receive data.

This is quite distinctive and very easily traceable by your ISP.

[Headtime]

Even if you are not on a fixed I.P address the first few digits always denote your ISP. So the Record Industry lawyers can approach your ISP with a court order and say "Who was using the I.P address 219.45.XXX.XXX, at 4.35pm on the 11th of March?". The ISP's have to keep records of all the i.p addresses they assign, so unfortunately they can find you.

But as Joey' at the top says. It's very rare, and these are just scare tactics. See, we're all talking about it!

[JOEYSHABADO]

This is your ISP, and I am watching you in disguise! (evil cackle).
I read a stat the other day that really wowed me. If you think of all the stuff that people do online...browsing (not insignificant byte numbers), emails, streaming video, cams, Voice over IP: it's amazing to think that 60 percent of net traffic in the UK is illegal peer to peer file sharing.

[magicbeatle]

What if you stop doing it. Are you less likely to be fined, or could you theoretically still have a court summons through your door 5 years on?

[stevie21]

It's completely impractical to expect that every person downloading the odd song illegally will be prosecuted - there are millions of people doing this and the time and cost involved would be wasteful.

For this reason, only the really heavy users are being targeted as a scare tactic to the rest of you. As mentioned, the chances of getting a lawyer's letter through the post is about the same as getting a winning lottery ticket.

[missmooncat]

Do you use bit torrent sites? If you do download Peerguardian get it on torrent site.Start it up while your downloading,its spose to block companies from checking up on you.