Everything you download through Limewire is logged by the ISP. Whatever you look at through the internet, your ISP can see that as well. The ISP has a legal contract with the copyright companies stating that they must report illegal activities regarding music and such through certain programs.King_County_Downy wrote:
Well shit, I guess I can expect a letter soon then, eh? How'd they know who he was? I steal my Megahertz from a neighbor so I'm not too concerned, but still...
So when you use Limewire, it gets logged in the system as illegal activity ( of course, it depends on what you download, limewire itself still isn't illegal ) and then gets passed on for legal action regarding that. When you purchase your internet conection, you agree to allow your ISP to see everything you do on the internet. Unless you use a program such as TOR, all your activities can be seen by the ISP. Just that when you download something off... Say an FTP server or a secure connection or password protected areas, they cannot tell what exactly you are downloading, but the case with Limewire is such that they agreed to allow copyright companies to use their engine to catch people who download music illegally.
I think it was November, when 100 letters were issued across the UK for fines over $5,000 regarding illegal downloading. My friend was one of them. You need to break the law significantly to get such a fine ( say, download 2,000 songs ), if you don't then they wont take much notice because they don't really have a case against you.
There was a case about some woman, a month or so ago, who downloaded this little game on bittorrent and shared it ( can't remember the name, I think it may have been pinball, but it was only worth like $9.99 ) and she was fined over $150,000.