Does anyone know the current risks of sharing?
 

I have a large library of music (over 2000 songs) and have stopped sharing it because I don't know exactly what I'm risking. I read that one person received an email telling him to stop sharing or else. If the first step is a warning, then is it safe to share until you get one? How likely is it that someone wil sue us - with no warning? Could this change suddenly? Is Limewire just as much of a target as other sharing programs?

They are targetting Kazaa now, not Limewire, mainly because of the amount of users. That doesn't mean Limewire is exent, but I'm more afraid of catching a virus than of receiving a cease and desist leter.

Ivan
"In the dark we make a brighter light"

some truth
 

it is true that they are targeting kazaa now and as i see it limewire is next. But whether or not you need to stop shareing your shared folder i think that it is unecessary. Even if limewire is shutdown they can not take away your shared folder. So your Shared media is safe for now.

Gnutellaforums official propaganda risk: 0%

this happened to me today! my warning was...they turned off my internet connection. The real deal is gettin sued by whoever claims the copyright laws...so i also have to turn off my sharing abilities...this is what i was told as of today and the man told me that an 85 year old man is being sued because he had been warned about sharing and he kept sharing....so they sued him.....

Am I correct in assuming that as long as I (don't start limewire or turn off sharing or empty my shared folder) that I am not in violation?

Yes and no...

if all people turn off file sharing - from where you will get your files? And don´t forget the most applications have anti-freeloader tools so you have to share at least some files...

and if you violate the law with downloading copyrighted material depends on the country where do you live. In Germany for example it was allowed to download but not to share copyrighted material a few weeks ago - now they changed it and you are only allowed to download from "legal" sources (Gnutella sure isn´t a legal source for copyrighted files).

Morgwen