anyone get in trouble for downloading torrents?

just wondering if anyone on here has gotten caught downloading torrents and how frequent this actually happens. i have seen people say they got their ip address suspended and letters explaining why. it makes me nervous to download those things.

i try to only stick to private torrent sites when i download things. for most of the stuff i download i use newsgroups. i have never gotten in trouble for downloading something specific, but i have had my internet turned off for downloading what comcast labels as "too much". they told me they don't care what i download, as long as i didn't download "too much".

[quote6c9dc04b71="downthesun"]i try to only stick to private torrent sites when i download things. for most of the stuff i download i use newsgroups. i have never gotten in trouble for downloading something specific, but i have had my internet turned off for downloading what comcast labels as "too much". they told me they don't care what i download, as long as i didn't download "too much".[/quote6c9dc04b71]Hahaha, I can just imagine them saying, "you can download child pornography, no problem, just not too much"

Peer Guardian may help

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerGuardian
http//phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

Then again, it may not. It depends on the lists.

When I was at Iowa State, they caught me downloading Photoshop. They disconnected my internet and told me to delete the files, run a scan for them to check, and then they turned it back on and told me not to again. I did anyway.

When I was in college...I also got caught for downloading movies and had my internet shut down...Warner Bros contacted my school they said.

Yeah I stick to private trackers and it is only for Xbox games. Everything else I use a warez forum....

My cousin had his shut off twice for downloading computer games.
I download all the tiem and never had a problem.

If you're afraid of bandwidth throttling or getting caught, look up the encryption feature on your torrent program. I also use PG2 and it makes me feel safer -- and I've never gotten "caught", however many times my family warns me to stop wink

I do not understand, you pay extra for higher speeds, why not put them to good use?

Just to note, i wasn't using torrents or p2p programs

Forums?

[quotea1791867e7="TryinToGetPaid"]I do not understand, you pay extra for higher speeds, why not put them to good use?[/quotea1791867e7]

Even though comcast would advertise "unlimited" in their commercials, it actually just meant unlimited access to the internet, aka being on all the time. It had nothing to do with how much data I could download.

what i found crazy about the entire thing was, i useto download terabytes of data each month to ensure i got the most out of my internet D.

it was about a year or so later when they shut my net off for downloading "too much". according to my bandwidth monitor it was 400 gigs in one month, obviously much lower than the 1.5TB i achieved once.

I download a good 8 gigs a day probably. I used to love my schools connections at college I would pulling like 2000k downloads.

Torrents are bad because you are forced to share. To my understanding if you don't share, they don't care.

i use peerguardian as well, anybody know if it actually does anything?

[quote31dc7b0371="bonehead848"]i use peerguardian as well, anybody know if it actually does anything?[/quote31dc7b0371]
From what I've read, not enough to bother with. In fact I've heard it can actually reduce your sharing performance because (a) the system overhead in monitoring IP's is intensive, and (b) the list is not maintained properly and excludes thousands of potential high bandwidth peers.

It's a simple IP blacklist that gives people a false sense of security. The "spies" working for RIAA/MPAA/BSA/et al are much more sophisticated than to sit at the office and monitor P2P networks on the company's static IP. lol They recruit employees and volunteers who are well versed in P2P as well as PeerGuardian, and who monitor the networks from DSL/cable/dial-up connections, public hotspots, etc. Blacklists are only effective against static IP's. So there's no way an IP blacklist like PeerGuardian will ever be truly effective in protecting you. If you can't take the risk, you just shouldn't do it. But don't depend on any P2P network or plugin to protect you.

Same goes for private trackers. It's ridiculously easy to gain access to private trackers, and the RIAA/MPAA/etc have lots of friends and resources to get in where they want. What's to prevent a spy from being a member here? Private tracker invites are traded on this forum, like many other public forums, between people who really don't know anything about each other. I could be a spy for all you folks know, and I've been given private invites here. ;)

This is another reason why FiPG is working towards distancing itself from any semblance of the promotion of illegal or shady activity. Not only because there are legal precedents where online forum owners/admins have been held accountable for the actions of their members, but also as a business liability. There are some potential partnerships being developed between FiPG and other businesses that could be at risk over certain content being allowed on the forums.