<p>The most important thing is to either a) stay off popularly monitored networks (which includes almost all, e.g. BT, eMule, etc.), or b) stay away from popularly monitored files. That's all I'll say. There are various ways to achieve the above.</p>
<p>"Well, what if you download foreign music that really isn't affiliated with RIAA and don't use any P2P clients to get them?"</p>
<p>Either it's affiliated with the RIAA or it isn't. However, if you're downloading from a website or whatever, the RIAA is going to be spending its time going after the website owner, since one, they're the source; two, I don't believe they would be able to get your IP address unless they have administrative access to the website; and three, the website is much easier to track down than the user.</p>
<p>As far as I know, all of the lawsuits from the RIAA so far are against people who have been offering (i.e., uploading) music, not downloading music. Can anyone verify this?</p>
<p>If you don't want to get caught, here are some rules to consider when downloading music:</p>
<ol>
<li>Don't offer any music to download -- unless you happen to know that the artist allows it. Even then, the artist may allow it while the record company doesn't allow it.</li>
<li>Don't download a lot of music.</li>
<li>(Obviously but importantly) Don't download music illegally!!! If you put some effort into it, you can find lots of ways to download music legally for free.</li>
</ol>
<p>All right, but what if we actually have some knowledge of what we are doing. Say I stay off all networks, university, or public, and instead use Usenet?</p>
<p>I've been using Usenet for about four years now and sometimes I download 60 GB of very legal linux distros per week. Do colleges themselves bust you for using excessive bandwidth?</p>
<p>How about private BT servers located in another country? Are they relatively safe?</p>
<p>we use DC++.</p>
<p>you can get away with it if you know what you're doing. </p>
<p>usually, atleast in india, we are behind firewalls which dont allow the use of kazaa and the like. most people dont know how to go around it, so everything works out great until something serious happens.</p>
<p>Satanic Monkey: Obviously, it will depend on the college you go to. But they're not going to try to enforce copyright law on students because that's not their job.</p>
<p>LOL Satanic, you download 60GB of linux distros? Even with huge 5-CD distros that would put you at, oh, I dunno, at least 12 distros...in one week...</p>
<p>Speaking from experience, some universities (not all, since I have only read the policies of a few) will restrict bandwidth usage. E.g., 30GB per month, 10GB per week, something of that nature. It's typically a reasonable limit, but means that you have to be careful about downloading the latest linux distros when 2-3 come around in one week.</p>
<p>Some universities (e.g. UCI) will just block P2P access entirely (can't connect to any major networks except IRC, which isn't the best for P2P I must say). Newsgroups are almost certainly NOT restricted, but getting a good usenet server can be an issue if you don't already pay for one.</p>
<p>BTW, the university will not track what you download and come after you. But if a company comes to them with evidence that you've been downloading / uploading illegal anything, they'll turn you over in a second.</p>
<p>Then again, you can always live off-campus.</p>
<p>lol, "linux distros"...</p>
<p>i don't even use linux :) </p>
<p>and if i did, i'm pretty sure you don't need to download the entire package a few times a week, rather, just update the individual peripherals..</p>
<p>i was just wondering if colleges would slap my wrist if i downloaded more than usual</p>
<p>well see.. the oc dvd set of seasons one and two would be about 70 gb if someone were to be downloading a copy of that</p>
<p>Some of you guys are way to paranoid. Read your college's stance on p2p. Chances are, you get in trouble for either sharing (which is an option on most programs), or exceeding bandwith in downloading. Also, I bet most schools have caps and firewalls now too, so your download speeds in the first place are going to suck. Around 5k/b max. Mine sure did, until I just swithced to a proxy in the program. Now I get steady downloads at 50 (a fraction of what the line is capable of), I don't share, and I don't download a retarded amount. Probably an album or two a month, max.</p>
<p>Also, check out the consequences. First offense is most likely a slap on the wrist and you have to remove your downloaded items. After that, then it might get serious.</p>
<p>The MPAA has issued 286 new lawsuits against illegal downloaders today.</p>
<p>Can you REALLY only be sued if its for the selling of the copied materials?</p>