by Misty Cahal

Created on: May 01, 2010

Working for an Internet Service Provider (ISP) has really helped to shine a light on how uneducated the public truly is about using programs such as Limewire.  This article is written to educate you, the public, and is not meant to ensure your ability to illegally download files.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaints, also known as DMCA complaints, are in full swing. Back in the 90’s most adults were hearing stories about children being sued by the RIAA because they were illegally sharing copyrighted music files over the internet. Guess what folks? Those issues and complaints still exist!

ISP’s are now acting as an intermediary, or a buffer if you will, between their customers and the copyright holders. It is no longer the norm for the police or the RIAA to come knocking at your door because ISP’s are no longer providing them with the information they need to actually track you down.  We aren’t seeing the type of lawsuits that we did back in the 90’s but the complaints keep rolling in. By law, your internet service provider has to take reasonable measures to ensure that the file sharing stops; hence they disable your service.  

In most cases if you delete the file and agree to not take part in file sharing again your ISP will turn your service back on. Most ISP’s also have a “three strikes you’re out” policy meaning if they have to disable your service more than three times then they will not turn it back on. Most people think that it’s the downloading of the files that caused their problems but that couldn’t be further from the truth!

The fact of the matter is that most people don’t know what they are doing when they use file sharing programs. They install it and start downloading files. They never get under the hood, so to speak, and tweak any of the settings to ensure they are protected. Downloading is fine; it’s UPLOADING that is against the law. Every file sharing program out there, by default, automatically begins sharing the file as soon as you start downloading and that’s where they get you.

Then there’s the other pitfall….

The majority of files being shared with it are now mainly viruses. People download these files which, in some cases, may take days to complete. They are overly anxious about watching that movie or listening to that song that they fail to scan the file before they open it. BAM! You’re computer is now infected and will most likely be used to infect other computers or, worse yet, to commit cyber crimes.

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