How likely are you to get caught downloading torrents?

But they say that downloading off say , Megaupload is less riskier than torrents. Is this true?

 

I laughed my butt off at this!

The chances of you being caught using torrents depends on the country you live in and what laws are in place to protect your privacy. In Ireland, ISP's have no more right to give away information on/monitor your internet traffic than a phone company has to do the same with your phone calls. You'd have to be downloading a lot before the police suspected you and got a court order to monitor your internet activities.

 

i use a dongle that is pay as you go, they have no record of my name or address, obviously i never get any bills so i voted very unlikely

 

For a few days?

 

Limewire is not torrenting.

 

It supports torrent files though the last time I used it

 

It allows BitTorrents, but it's a filesharing P2P programme.

 

isn't the definition of a torrent pretty much a P2P transfer?

 

The only similarity between the two is that they're P2P.

Limewire and any other similar one use decentralized sharing. When you search for a file, it searches other people, who are using the same programmes, computer to see if they have that file to share.

For a torrent to work, you need sites set up with Magnet links or the .tor files, and for one person to start it. After the initial downloading/uploaded is done, you still need seeders to allow the leechers to download the file, and they need the magnet link or .tor file.

The way it's downloaded is also different. Torrents are done by swarm downloading, where you don't download the file from A - B, rather you download from A - Z and pick up random pieces of the alphabet whilst you're downloading it.

 

Clearly I lack the expertise, they still sound the same to me, I'll bow to your superior knowledge on this subject.

 

Basically torrents allow you to obtain pieces of a file from people who don't have a complete download.

With limewire, someone needs to have the ENTIRE file downloaded to be able to share it.
With torrents, someone only needs a piece of the file to share it.

Anyway, I have an IP blocker set up for peace of mind, but also have protocol encryption enabled. Yeah it reaches less seeders because of the encryption, but I'd rather have that, then being unencrypted.

ISPs don't check on your activity. These anti-P2P companies track your IP, then notify your ISP, and then the ISP is obligated to deal with you. For all they care, you're paying to use their service, so why would they want to hunt you down if not forced to?

 

If I can, I use direct downloads but when it comes to it I use torrents.
Most people get caught for uploading rather than downloading.


/leech :3

 

I live in Indonesia. The government SIMPLY DOES NOT CARE about piracy.

 

But America does buddy

 

can anyone recommend a ip blocker?

 

I know some ISPs just throttle P2P users during peak hours now instead of "catching" you, so it's unlikely that they'll do something about it. They would most likely send you a letter if you use a torrent/P2P client constantly, and when I say constantly, I mean 3-4 weeks non-stop without closing the client. :X

 

But blocking peers doesent really do much

 

Torrents are probably safer than direct download because you can get virus/crap. Too bad Pirate bay is gone...
that is like the torent data base...
Anyawys, I don;t download much (except for updates, etc.)