What is the law currently with downloading music and movies through Kazaa and any other free programs like it?If it's illegal,what's the fine and how do they find out who is doing it?
They find your nick on the kazaa network, track your IP, according to the IP they know through which ISP you are connected to the net. Then they will go to your ISP and demand to look through the logs, find out who received the specified IP at the time they tracked you down and demand from your full details. Howâs that for privacy on the net? TM Trader
Yes, as my mom always said Never write down anything you would not put on the front page of the New York Times. Anyone who thinks cyberspace is anonymous is in for a rude surprise. Personally, it is ok with me. I want to be protected. Freedom is an illusion.
The moniker bobcathy already has schizophrenic implications but that post really has me worried for you.
The sad part is that for the really tech savvy, this is defendable as the current technology exists to use several routes to obtain your connection. While the average user would not be into doing this, the real heavy extreme users can (and do). I fear that the real crime here is that some guy who has downloaded a hundred or so MP3's is really the vulnerable one that will be made an example of by some $50k a year prosecutor with a bug up his butt.
Except they're not currently pursuing the people who download. Not to say they might not in the future, but they're focusing on the pirates who are posting hundreds or even thousands of files and letting others download them. Can't stop the demand (loads of people who don't give a damn about the rights of the owners of the material, they just don't want to have to shell out any bucks for it) - so they're first trying to stem the supply. But like someone I was reading the other day said - how'd you like to get a notice of a multi-million dollar lawsuit against you in the mail because your teenage kid's got a thousand pirated files posted out there? That'd ruin your whole day. When news of all this first came out, friends of mine found out their teen was doing just that - so they shut him down, cut off his PC access, and asked me to come over and completely sanitize his PC. He had over 2,000 MP3 files (and a load of spyware and adware and viruses too) - most of which he didn't even listen to, he'd just been doing a mine's bigger than your's thing trying to have as big a collection posted as he could. His parents now check his PC every week to make sure he's not falling back on old habits.
Funny thing is, many of these guys are just collecting MP3's and never really listen to them or do anything with them for that matter. Simply collect more and more files until they clog their HD...
Don't worry, keep downloading. Store your songs on cd's and then delete them. Do this everytime you get a 100 songs or so. Use Kazaa lite instead of plain old kazaa which is full of spyware. You can get it at www.kazaalite.tk , browse the site for plug-ins that blocks RIAA IP's so they can't track you down. If you're not a heavy downloader and just want a few songs every now and then, i wouldn't worry about it. If you are really paranoid then don't share any songs and continue to download. You can either remove the songs from the shared folder, or use the unshare function in kazaa lite. If kazaa was to shut down, ten other new p2p programs will arise. A few are already in the works. This post was for educational purposes only, lol.
I wish I thought of their business model -- Sue a bunch of college kids who have no money for illegally copying something they wouldn't have bought anyway. In the process, generate this image of being greedy and anti-consumer. Let's just blame the slump in CD sales on P2P networks and not the economy. Everyone knows that CD's aren't purchased with disposable income, but are a requirement besides shelter, food and water. What on earth will the RIAA do when Wireless P2P becomes the rage?