There seem to be a lot of excessive paranoia on this thread that, in all probability, requires some simplification.

The first thing to mention that it is the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) that go after British people that break copyright rules using P2P apps, the RIAA has no jurisdiction here.

Although some software claims to hide your IP address most of those have turned out to be smoke and mirrors, your IP address is always noted by the sites you surf and recorded by your ISP, i.e. time, duration, sites visited, data downloaded, uploaded, etc.

It has now passed into European law that your ISP must record and hold information, about your online activities, e.g. emails, IP address, surfing, from anywhere between 6 months to 2 years. I believe this law is something similar to the US's Patriot Act, at least the reasons for passing it were the same, i.e. fighting terrorism.

The BPI's policy in going after copyright infringers are slightly different to that of the RIAA, it's sister organisation, and can be readily read on it's website:

http://www.bpi.co.uk/index.asp

Still, it seems that lately the BPI have become more "gung-ho".

http://www.bpi.co.uk/pdf/Illegal_Fil..._Factsheet.pdf

The world of P2P is changing and it seems that the RIAA/BPI and their related organisations are determine to destroy it or change it forever. So it is incumbent on P2P users to change or modify their behaviour before being forced to.



UK Bob

Are you any safer with a dynamic IP address?

No, because the ISP records who has the IP, the date, the duration and anything else the governmant wants. So you are no safer with a dynamic IP than you are with a static.


UK Bob

Realistically, the only people they care about are the ones that are doing the sharing, not the downloading. In terms of prosecution that is. Set directories shared(which is not hard) to dummy directories filled with mindless text files or something. And remember to keep it small, and simple, I'm on places like limewire once in a blue moon looking for very specific stuff, some of which can't be found elsewhere, such as personal dance remixes of stuff that only exist beacuse joe nobody in kansas did it and is sharing it for free. My music is shared for free when I'm connected.

Fulgar.

Interesting thread...

I've got my DSL modem going into a 12 port switch. I've heard that if you do this, your ISP can only see as far as the switch, and can't get to your PC. Is this true?

Whether that is true or not, should I be worried about my ISP monitoring the files that I download? Do ISP's turn people in, or are they generally not interested in this kind of stuff?

I must admit from some of your comments that I'm beginning to find this sharing business a bit scary! I'd like to do it, because after all it's what LW's about, but preferrably without the MIB coming after me. Is there an optimum number of files you can safely share and are they really only interested in the big users?

UK Bobby's post contained links regarding people in the UK.

http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showpo...7&postcount=13

I would guess staying under 5-600 but maybe even as low as 200. It all depends what kind of files you're sharing. (Size and popularity)

Also don't run Limewire all the time

Sombeech

It does not matter whether your ISP can see your PC or not, what you have to remember is that everything you download, upload or surf comes and goes via your ISP and they can and do record this info.

In the UK, and I guess the rest of Europe, ISPs are forced to keep these records by law and I believe the Patriot Act forces US ISPs to do the same thing (perhaps a US forum member can clarify this).



UK Bob

Does Anyone know which entity polices copyright infringement re: Gnutella_Limewire in Australia, and how rabid are they ?

thanks, tobiasthing

I'm guessing it would be ARIA?
http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/ind...ues_(Australia)

AFAIK, not too rabid at the moment Lord of the Rings would probably be the one to ask... he knows a lot (but don't tell him I said that!)