So...purely hypothetical.

Lets say someone is a 'file sharer'. In the past, the only legal action Ive seen has been when person X actively shares a file with FBI/RIAA agent Y, in effect infringing on the copyright by distributing copies. This is what was happening 2-3 years ago and targets were mainly Kazaa and the mainstream p2p networks that required no authentication.

Nowadays we have slsk, friendly sharing (ysi, etc.), torrents (private sites and public sites), European brokers, and other ways of illegitimately getting these files. What steps to the companies take nowadays, since you know they still seek out uploaders and downloaders...are they more/less voracious?

I guess the ultimate question is: who is spying on you (via your IP address), how legal is it in this day and age (Patriot act, etc.) and what can you do to protect yourself from such intrusion?

whoever wants to, really. if youre using bittorrent its ridiculously easy to get the ip addresses of sharers, not that getting anyone elses who happen to be using other means is really that hard. if you use nicotine for soulseek on linux or os x you can right click someone and get their ip address right away too.

its the draconian dmca that governs this (well, thats the most visible act). however, this is us law, so different countries have different laws, that arent so incredibly restrictive. as long as the laws are the same (and they havent changed) its just as illegal as ever.

well, nothing really. all you can really do is get a good isp who doesnt give out information on customers to anyone who wants it.

I guess thats soon to be all of them anyway, or maybe that will be a 'feature' of a new one: "we promise not to share your info"

i have a feeling it's on it's way.

privacy is a HUGE issue. "i do what i do, and i don't want anyone knowing what i do."

money drives ISP's. if we all leave an ISP for sharing, they're fucked.

i cant agree. price in the united states is the single most important force in internet service today. there are many thousands of people getting internet on dsl, which is cheaper (and slower) than cable, meaning that all these people are heading towards the phone companies, which as we've seen recently, have no trouble giving out records to the feds.

as far as bittorrent goes, are you talking anyone who downloads a file? i know that anybody running a tracker has access to ips, but how would i see the ips of other people who are downloading the same torrent?

if youre running azureus or µtorrent you just click the peers tab. ive used bittornado and ktorrent too and theyre pretty easily found as well.

that's exactly why i have a feeling it's on it 's way.

cable = expensive, not reliable [from my experience]
dsl = reliable, run by many phone companies that share info

there's got to be a company that pops up saying "we don't share info, and we're reliable!"....it's only a matter of time.

this thread got me thinking about privacy, and i wanted to share a solution.i found this great program to block known corporate and government ips from connecting with you on bittorrent. it's called peerguardian. it's pretty easy to use and it doesn't take up much of your system resources. it keeps a log of the people it blocks, and its kind of scary how much sony and various law offices show up when you're using soulseek and bittorrent.

Yeah, PG seems to be pretty good.

Well, you could STOP STEALING MUSIC FROM THE MOUTHS OF RIAA BABIES!

Yeah they're just kittens torn from the teat, they are.

Nice idea, but how do ISPs qualify that to defend against accusations of protecting terroists and child-porn-molos? Once that's qualified, how can you trust they will protect you from the RIAA? It's a fine line...

So its a fine line between the RIAA and terroists and child-porn-molos?



I agree.