ahhh, how do you get cought using limewire, utorents, bitorrents i thought its not possible for them to track?

Question

Will my friend is a HUGE pirating person, and he is crazy. I'm scared that one day he would be cought, but he tells me its impossible to track people who use Limewire, Utorrents, and Bitorrents. Is he right or is there a way to get cought? and how do you get cought?

Answer 1

Firstly to clear up some myths - it is entirely possible for him to be caught.

As has been pointed out in previous posts, 2 pieces of information are required to identify him.
1 - his IP Address
2 - a date & time that he was carrying out any illegal activity.

With an IP Address and a time (and a court order depending on the ISP) an ISP can identify a particular user.

In RIAA / MPAA legal actions they have analysed user computers to try and identify which user was responsible for piracy. They have tried to establish a link between a username and a physical person (especially when the username corresponds to an individuals name).

Obviously the RIAA / MPAA must identify and log a pirates IP Address (and the time that they were using it), before they ever get to the stage of identifying an actual person. Companies such as MediaDefender are used to identify and thwart the efforts of pirates. MediaDefender has created software specifically to upload decoy files into bittorrent networks, they have further software that tracks where these decoy files turn up in search results, and how many of the decoy files turn up.

In information that was recently leaked from MediaDefender (http://torrentfreak.com/mediadefender-emails-leaked-070915/ http://torrentfreak.com/mediadefender-anti-piracy-tools-leaked-070920/ ) some of the sites that they have most effectively infiltrated are:
* BiteNova
* BushTorrent
* Fenopy
* Isohunt
* Meganova
* TorrentPortal.

Some of the sites that they have the least success with are:
* Mininova
* NewTorrents
* PirateBay
* TorrentReactor
* Underground

If your friend is serious about not getting caught then he should take some precautions. These should include encryption of downloaded data, a secure system of erasing data, and a way of knowing what data to erase.

When encrypting data the ideal method allows deniability by providing for unlimited hidden volumes (such as the rubberhose file system http://iq.org/~proff/rubberhose.org/ ), a good win32 encryption program is TrueCrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/ ) .

To securely remove data your friend might want to consider software such as East Tec Eraser (http://www.east-tec.com/ ). This can securely remove data from even hardware recovery techniques using military certified techniques.

The last problem is ensuring that anything he does download does not leave a trace on his PC. For example if he downloads and installs a new game, he needs to be sure that it doesn't leave files on his harddrive outside of the game folder. A program such as SandBoxie (http://www.sandboxie.com/ ) is ideal for this as it doesn't break applications, but just redirects disk writes into a sandbox.

Hope this helps

Disclaimer: please note that this is all theoretical and that you should make clear to your friend that piracy is both illegal and immoral. Ideas in this answer are basic data security ideas and are not designed to facilitate copyright theft

Answer 2

Using limewire is not illegal. However, downloading files without certificates can be. People have been charged and prosecuted for downloading copyrighted, unprotected files. The punishment could range from a very hefty fine($500 to $20,000 in some cases) to prison sentence(a few months). However, most people that are charged aren't prosecuted to the full extent. Also, out of the millions of people using programs like limewire, very few have been caught. It's like swimming in the ocean, you can be attacked by a shark or a jellyfish and the consequences of being attacked are very fatal in most cases, but it happens so rarely that most people don't even worry about it. Do as you wish, but be prepared with a clever answer if you're charged with misproper use.

Answer 3

He is probably using a proxy.

It is possible to obtain the IP address of a person using those programmes and sharing files. With the IP address they (meaning the owner of the copyrighted material) can determine the ISP and contact them with the information that a certain IP address at a certain time was sharing a certain copyrighted file.

The ISP can then refer to its records as to which customer was using that particular IP address at that time. If there is a court order involved, then the ISP can be required to divulge who the customer was.

Use of a proxy will mislead the owner of the copyrighted material into thinking the file sharer is in another country.

Answer 4

As a sysadmin this is one of the things that we fear. He can be tracked. Limewire is harder to track unless the RIAA/MPAA is the one serving up the music/movies. Bittorrent.. they simply need to try to download the movies/music and they get an entire list of the IP addresses of everyone else downloading that file with bit torrent.

He can be tracked... very easily.

Answer 5

In order for you to download/upload, you have to connected with another computer, and the other end WILL know your IP address.

The three pieces of critical information they have:
1. Time of "incident."
2. IP address for the connection and therefore ISP.
3. File name involved.

The question is whether or not the ISP will disclose your information when FBI or MPAA request it....

Most likely your friend will be ok since he/she is 1 out of a million, BUT... if MPAA or FBI were to decide to make an example out of him/her, good luck....

Answer 6

"Cought", what is that, never heard of that word. Now if you mean "caught", then yes, they can, if they want to. There are many ways to track what is going on by means of simple tag along programs that can be easily embedded. It is done all of the time. Your friend has simply lucked out that he hasn't been tagged yet.

Answer 7

Y does everyone think limewire is illegal????? This pisses me off. They can track you if they look hard enough. But the point of steeling it is that no one knows about it and that you are using it so how do they know what to go after? FOR LIMEWIRE you pay a fee. How is it illegal?

Answer 8

Well I would imagine if your friend where involved in a crime, and I'm sure he wouldn't be, and they checked his computer for documents leading to the crime they could very well see pirating in progress and arrest him for that. He could also be tracked by a company's key-loggers. Other than that I cant think of anything else that could track him other than him telling another friend.

Answer 9

for the most part people rarely get caught/punished for pirating maybe if you are selling it but just d/l not too likely. im not saying that they cant track you its just theres WAY too many people doing it to be able to bust everyone even a fraction of everyone. what they normally do it get a few people and fine them to make an example out of them to deter future downloads....but it really doesnt work

Answer 10

I think that they can't caught users but in the future I believe that there are an organization to caught or stop pirate software creators and torrent website owners.

Anyway, for now I think it's very hard to caught them but it still possible to caught them.