Is P2p Safe Anymore?

[PigeonHead]

I live in the UK and read an article a couple of days ago about changes in UK law meaning that it was possible to be fined or go to jail for up to 3 years because of illegal copyright infringements in general - copied CDs, DVDs etc. But, the artical also said that this could apply to sharing files over p2p etc. Is there any force in the UK? I thought that at present companies may just be gathering names, but, companies such as BT and Freeserve arn't allowed to give out your personal details are they? What about UK privacy laws - arn't they different to the US and make it much more differcult to get personal information on the consumers? Does the RIAA have any power over here and what about the other companies... and come to think of it, what about other methods of downloading - irc, websites, ftp servers etc. Where do we stand on this - as a UK citizen?

[O'Neill]

Privacy laws can be over ridden by the counts if the matter is deemed bad enuf

[UKMan]

There are agencies in most european countries whos job it is to hunt down illegal piracy etc. Even though the "average" person: you and me, may not be the target YET, its possible for any artist or agency to sue you or demand payment IF they can prove that you are the culprit. No matter what country you live in or where that agency is established. The RIAA has enough punch to get you if they want. At the moment though i think they are more interested in the organised quantity trafficing than the individual. But, be sure they will and its allways good to be prepared: firewalls, antivirus etc to help stop infected files from intruding your privacy and so on.

I have noticed an upswing of ISP's that are now demanding more money or at least charging for the amount of traffic you use. This might be a deliberate attempt on their side to help diminish traffic - or it could just be that they have seen a dramatic increase in traffic and are making the most of it.

Lets face it, whatever our views on the legalities of it, once your nicked thats it. Its best we face up to that fact and stop arguing over our rights. Use it whilst you can but be sensible and be prepared.

These are my views anyway.

Peace
UKMan

[cappella(m)]

My opinion is...even I don't live in Uk (Italy). When someone will receive a warning or a lawsuit because of copyright infringement.. he should do the following thinng.. he should go and tell everyone that my isp for example "Telecom Italia" forbids me to use kazaa.
Then if many people know this the isp will loose many customers..and then may be they stop giving out users ip. ! I would exactly do this.. and immediately cancel my dsl conctract

[Adster]

who cares

[Switeck]

P2P never was completely 'safe', although the risks have definitely increased since early Napster days.

HOWEVER, the risks, despite all the media, have not gotten very high if you're taking simple precautions in KL++ -- such as hiding a list of your shared files, not using (and actually BLOCKING) ip port 1214 in KL++, enabling the block RIAA bad ips, AND keeping the RIAA bad ip blocklist updated.

Just being ON the internet nowdays puts you at risk of viruses, trojans, spam, and hacking attacks... THOSE risks IMO far outweigh the current p2p risks!

[Rappy]

its safe if ur not a stupid noob lol like i used to be

[3rd gen noob]

at the moment, non-kazaa users are the safest p2p users (in general)

[Rappy]

well kazaa is the most popular one out there now thats why they are going after them

[Sparkle1984]

Well I would say K-Lite is probably one of the safest, because of all the privacy/security facilities in it such as IP blocker updater, not allowing users to get a list of all your files, block port 1214 etc