Illegal downloading

[Rockthatpiano06]

How many of you do it? I'm sure most are guilty! A while ago I downloaded a movie and got a copyright infrindgement email just saying not to do it again basically. It's a sick obsession though, except I just stick to downloading music occasionally. I've downloaded so much music in my lifetime I can't even tell you, lol, but now I'm feeling paranoid that they are going to come after me Thoughts? Do you worry about getting in trouble for downloading things? What are the odds of this actually happening?

I have undownloaded bittorrent for the time being, haha.

[chatpilot]

That case where the woman was taken to trial for copyright infringement for downloading from a file sharing program is messed up.But I don't think it's a cause for concern the government is trying to put fear into people by using this poor woman as an example.But honestly if you think about it cracking down on online copyright infringement is costly and ineffective in fact it's akin to the war on drugs,an exercise in futility.

If the government were serious about this they would probably have to arrest most of the citizens of the U.S. including government officials not to mention foreigners from other countries where they do not have any jurisdiction.I cant see this being a world wide effort so I don't think it is a cause for concern.They fined that woman like a total of 80,000 dollars, I personally would have told the judge to go fuck himself and put me in jail because I would not pay shit!! But that is just me strong arm tactics just make me more rebellious.And yes I too am guilty I download music and movies too.

[Rockthatpiano06]

haha, good I'm glad I'm not the only one! Yeah I agree, it's rediculous and they can't possibly punish .00001 percent of the people who do this.

[Overmars]

Guilty as charged! I don't think that there is somebody on this planet with an Internet connection that has never illegally downloaded something. The odds of being caught are very small, who is going to track all the users that illegally download software, music, movies, etc. and how are they going to punish all of them? Unless you illegally download stuff, burn them on CD/DVDs and sell them, if you do that the chances of being caught will increase.

[chatpilot]

Exactly my point overmars !!

[Samson]

Biggest thing is "Sharing"....Just last year the Supreme court ruled against people who share, NOT download.

In the case of the woman who got charged 80,000 per song, 3 things need to be said.

1. She was sharing the 24 odd songs, however, anyone who has a head on their shoulders knows that the RIAA/MPAA did not go after her for just a simple 24 songs. More than likely she had in the thousands all in her share folder after d/l.... They just simply chose the songs they knew they would have no issues with insisting copyright laws on her. (Also, she had a piss poor lawyer)...

2. Bullshit programs like Kazaa, Limewire, Mozilla, Napster, Sharebear, etc. etc.....Stay away from them...Torrent, streaming, IRC should be your only source, if you truly want to play it safe...

3. After download, take it out of your share folder....No matter what program you are using...


Now I know many of you here live in Europe........So if you do, I have no idea what your laws are or how they work etc....

I'm still hoping the Pirate Bay boys stick it to the industry.......Just waiting for that appeals to go through....But in the meantime, they are still up and running....


Oh yeah, Rockthatpiano06 for your question,,,, I have never downloaded a thing in a my life......... I also have never lied either...... LOLLLOLOL

[Rockthatpiano06]

See that's what I always thought! That the sharing was the part they get you for. Which is good because I never share anything ever, in fact I copy everything to my itunes music folder and then just delete the original files.


Few questions though: What is IRC? and why are torrents safer?

[Darwinian]

First off, before you do anything else, go to http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
and download PeerGuardian and set it to automatically run in the background whenever your computer is on to block bad IP addresses. (this is good for any file sharing program) After you download it, open it up from your toolbar and click the button that says "Allow HTTP". That's all you have to do, the program takes care of itself.

Secondly, unlike P2P programs, Bittorent does not share files from your computer, except for torrent files that you allow it to share. While you are downloading, you will also be sharing. Once you have downloaded the file and shared it 100% the file will automatically stop sharing. (you can make it share as long as you want, but 100% is the minimum) Also, Bittorent will only share files while you have the program running. If you don't have the program open and running (on the screen or on the taskbar) then nothing is being shared at all.

I have used Bittorent for a few years now and have had no security problems what-so-ever. I haven't gotten any viruses, or downloaded porn by accident, or had the police kick down my door. A good site for finding torrent files to download is
http://isohunt.com/

[chatpilot]

I have used limewire for years and have never had a problem as soon as I installed it I disabled file sharing and configured it.I have not downloaded porn by mistake either.In fact I tried bit torrent and found it too tedious and hectic to search for files.Every file required you download a torrent and then download the file and at times I got files which were not even the full file or a broken file.I guess everyone finds one that works best for them.I have never had limewire drop viruses on me either its a matter of scanning your files first before you download and before you open them on your computer.

[Darwinian]

I have limewire as well, but rarely use it. My daughter uses it all the time for mp3's (naughty) and for that it's very good.

But when it comes to software and movies I tend to stick with torrents. One of the good things about torrent sites is that most of them have comments about the file so you can see if it's what you want before you start to download and see what sort of problems, if any, others have had with it.