triscadek

With all thats going on with music downloading, the way I understand it is that the music industry hacks get your IP#from Kazaa,winmx, whatever then contact your ISP to find out who you are.

Now I've read about running a firewall and an anonymizer program that is supposed to keep your IP# from going out. So my question is that should I going and set up new accounts with winmx/whoever would that be enough to keep me from being tracked down? And also will that drop the # of new spam that I get?

Not that I would ever ask how to do anything illegal here, but in a totally hypothetically sense I am curious.

afx

From what I have heard about the new kazaa lite (www.kazaalite.tk) it will block the RIAA from being able to see what files you have on your computer. Kazaa had an option to list all the files that a user had, and that is all that they would have to do so see if you have anything illegal. The new kazaa lite is supposed to block them from listing that.

You could probably spoof your IP and then connect and maybe not have any trouble. It just depends on how badly they want to track you down.

Mine44

From my understanding (not a highly educated one), it is the prgrams that require a registration (including name and email) such as Kazaa, Morpheus, etc. that are at high risk of getting Napster-ized. Also, if you are sharing 50GB+ of copyrighted material (movies and music), then you are at high risk also. WinMX supposedly is safe because of the anonymity (sp?) value, plus only the files you want to be seen are seen (ala Kazaa Lite).

Bottom line, be smart!

Anyone else care to comment on this? I'm very interested as well. What file sharing program out there is the best in this regard (security)? Been using WinMX, but always looking for a more secure way...

dave120

I really doubt the RIAA can even do anything. They spent all their money fighting Napster and 10 more programs exactly like it popped right up. Now they're desperate and are trying everything to get people to either not download music or scare them by trying to prosecute individuals. There's what? 8 million or so odd Kazaa users now, not to mention all the other peer to peer file sharing programs too. They're screwed and the greedy fools know it. I really doubt you have anything to worry about...They don't have enough money to prosecute 8 million people. The only ones they'll get anything from are the ones sharing like someone said 50+ gb of stuff that they can hit with a lot of charges. They tried getting colleges to identify people downloading excessive media files but they haven't had much luck with that as the schools tell them to pretty much shove off. The RIAA can't control the internet which is the environment all this is taking place in. They're trying, but it's never going to work. There's so many ways to download music and videos, shutting down one or two isn't gonna do squat.

To show you how stupid and desperate the RIAA is when you see things like this:

BruceWard

The subphoena's go to ISP's asking to find out who was using an ip address at a certain time. If you are distributing music (sharing files) then your IP address can be determined whether you are behind a firewall or not. The only way to be safe is to stop distributing music that you do not have the right to (disable sharing or delete infringing files).

User 462021

Have any of you guys seen the commercials yet?

I laughed when I saw it.

I never share files. Once I download them I move them to a different folder.

sharky47

Not sure if this will help, but I am behind three wireless routers! The 2 mbp connection comes in from an antenna pointed at a cell tower. It then goes to a wireless router, 400ft away there is another wireless router that is acting like a bridge to my wireless router about 500ft a way. Finally it comes into my laptop via a 200mW wireless card.

UDPride

Maybe if all these lousy bands would give us some decent music instead of our two lone options of Creed and everything that sounds like Creed, and Nelly, and everything that sounds like Nelly, we'd be more inclined to buy a $21.00 CD with 1 good song on it and 13 crappy tracks that never should have even been written.

Remember the days a LONG time ago when you could buy a CD and get, hell, 4-5 decent tracks for your money. It costs about .06 to stamp out an audio CD. They want you to think the high price is for all their marketing and R&D to put the CD together. They want us to believe in the tooth fairy too. Why else can people with absolutely no talent sell 3 million records in a debut and drive a Bentley if margins are tight.

I think we need to get 944Pete back on the stage. He looked like he could jam with the best of em.

elvisizer

First we need to go over what has already been said in this thread.

Sharky47-the details of how you are connected to the internet won't affect the RIAA's ability to get your info if they decide to subpoena you. if you're sharing files, you're at risk of being sued.

BruceWard- correct!

dave120- while it IS true that it would appear to be very difficult for the RIAA to do anything 8 million times in a timely manner, there are some things to consider that might make you feel less secure in not taking precautions. first, while the numbers of people using p2p software are in the millions, the numbers of people sharing 50gb or more are drastically fewer. In fact, I wouldn't be very surprised if the numbers of those people were small enough that the RIAA could sue 'em all. And once they're gone, who will the RIAA go after next? People sharing smaller and smaller numbers of files. If you're sharing illegal files AT ALL, you're at risk.

Mine44- The info about programs that require registration info being more of a risk is totally false. the RIAA is subpoena-ing people's info from the infringer's ISP's, not from any software companies. Whether you give your name to the software company or not, the RIAA can still get your info from your ISP. Therefore, WinMX isn't any safer than using anything else. Software choices can't help protect you.

afx- Spoofing your IP would work. not sure about the new lite version. don't actually use kazaa anymore these days . . .


Finally, if you really want to know how to protect yourself, check the EFF's page on the subject here. Also, you can check to see if your info has already been subpoena'd here.

Matt O.

If you illegally download music you are supporting terrorism......

Ok maybe not but I thought it was funny.

-Matt

User 462021

hehe

triscadek

DerSchlechtSpecht

Can't you download some kind of IP blocker or something?

Christian

Red 944

Come and get me baby, lock me up. Bull**** - everyone's going to get away with everything - they might make a few examples, but it would be a huge amount of people to jail if they were to get even 1/1000th of the people. I think pirating things is unfair to a lot of people, and one really shouldn't do it, but that's if I think about it - otherwise, I couldn't care less pirate away

Red 944

oh yeah, knock on wood