Any news on the RIAA and Kazaa?

[Alexander]

I'm just curious - I'm trying to burn come CDs before the RIAA starts suing people or before Congress criminalizes it.

By the way, I heard that they can't track the songs you've downloaded if you use Kazaa Lite or if you put your music in another folder. Is this true? I have Kazaa Lite, do I have anything to worry about?

Thanks.

[bluestateguy]

1. As I understand it

They are going after only SHARERS of music, meaning only music that you share over a public folder would put you in danger. All of my music is in the My Music file, which is unaccessable to other people, except for hackers.

Just having the KaZaa software on your machine is not illegal, and there is a court ruling to back that up. As soon as you enter KaZaa and dowload music, an outside observer can look and see what is in your Shared folder and get your ISP number. That is how the RIAA is going after people. My advice would be to stay away from file sharing and downloading until this all blows over. By all means, dump your Shared folder.

[Ein]

2. So sharing?

So if I turn off the feature and download music from other people, they aren't going for me yet? :) I love WinMX but there is practically nothing on thier servers. You know somethings wrong when you can't download a popular 311 song :(

[bluestateguy]

3. reply

They could go after you, but they would likely target the suppliers.

[Blue-Jay]

4. They can't sue us all

No matter how hard they try. I'm going to have to call "shenanigans" on whoever told you that KaZaA Lite can't be traced back to your ISP. It's the same exact program, with a small alteration. True, they're going after the people who are sharing the most files, so moving your downloads to a folder that's not on your share list, would likely keep them off your back. That's a bit selfish though, don't ya think?

The latest news I've heard about the unholy crusade of the RIAA is that MIT and Boston College are blocking their attempts to get names of the file-sharing students. Here's a link (if I do it right)

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/203/region/MIT_Boston_College_say_subpoen:.shtml

[WindRavenX]

5. As one who is going to Boston College..

...Quite happy to read that. But I'm smart enough to know that once I get there, I am not going to abuse the hgih speed internet access that I'll have...