paranoia over filesharing

[ktown]

ive been using some sort of p2p for about the last 8 years or so. i used to use limewire and kazaa but now i strictly use torrents(mostly private until demonoid was shut down, so now more public) and MU. and about once a year i get really paranoid that some dude with a badge is gonna come knockin on my door and slap me with millions of dollars worth of fines from illegal shit i have downloaded. my question is, is this a real concern? should i be worried?

[anon]

If you download from public trackers or huge private ones, there may be one. But normally you should be sent a letter along the lines of "you downloaded X, delete it now" first. There's no 100% safe site, but generally the smaller or harder to get in a tracker is, the safer it should be.

[ktown]

alright, thanks man, definately makes me feel better and less paranoid haha

[cinephilia]

If you download from public trackers or huge private ones, there may be one. But normally you should be sent a letter along the lines of "you downloaded X, delete it now" first. There's no 100% safe site, but generally the smaller or harder to get in a tracker is, the safer it should be.

that's what ex-UK-T members was thinking before a certain event occurs

[$SnoopDo2G$]

The only Private trackers that are safe, are those that people doesn't know the url of it
for example i've a friend he got his lil tracker and max. 100 users, only people he knows are allowed in that shit, he doesn't need donations and so on...
Fuck the masses

But it's true, many people switched from torrents to direct download sites... some kind of paranoia occured...

[anon]

that's what ex-UK-T members was thinking before a certain event occurs

I remembered about that before posting and thus italicized "should"

[kondrae]

Just think of it this way: you have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting sued for downloading

[mobilephone]

If they do threaten any sort of legal action, you could try the 'somebody must've used my Wi-Fi' card, just make sure to hide any files you downloaded somewhere safe (a friend's house), so if they do take your computer(s), they'll be no evidence of illegal files (do a reformat to clear it all, backup first!)

I don't know if they'll even bother, the odds are so minimal, especially with private trackers and rapidshare etc.

[anon]

Or even better, encrypt your HDD. Perhaps you could do like that that scener TF interviewed and put a button on your keyboard to instawipe all your drives

[ktown]

Just think of it this way: you have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting sued for downloading

thanks for puttin it in perspective all this is makin me feel wayyyy less paranoid. good shit XD