I do think that these files are a menace, I always watch my downloads carefully to make sure I'm not downloading them but I think it would be terribly difficult to remove these files or block the ips. If I search for something I typically see a score of around 10 for these files. This means that there are at least 10 sources of these files, and this is only from my personal hostlist. There must be hundreds of these things laying around with ips I haven't encountered. Someone mentioned a p2p program that blocked ips of known advertisers and such, not a bad idea. I don't think these files are dangerous, I mostly think its just dirty businesses trying to advertise.

For me, any file I download, or any email I get that tries to sell me something, I consider trespassing into my home. I've been saving all the emails I've received from junk emails because under the law I live in I'm allowed to sue these companies and make $25 per email, not a bad deal eh? You should check out your local laws hehe.

I do disagree on one point however, I dont like the idea of allowing users to see our ip addresses. We talk a lot about how personal privacy is wonderful, and getting junk is a part of it. I want people to know as little about me as possible, not because I'm paranoid, I think the great majority of sharers here seem to be good people, but you only need one bad apple to ruin the whole barrel.

Its quite possible that the 5 files being downloaded from me are from the same ip, but if users had the choice they may keep the ip from downloading too much, or block them all together? For many people they don't keep their programs on all the time so when they log in they can get spammed from a single ip trying to download a file, it happens. I select quite a lot of files to download and keep Xolox running day and night because I want the file and want others to enjoy my files. A great majority of the time I keep Xolox running but I'm not downloading anything. When I used Bearshare I was blocked numerous times from various Bearshare users because they thought I was spamming them with download requests, when I had no problem with the same users doing the same to me. I don't know what the answer is but I think Xolox should be kept simple. Safer but simple.