Metropol

Being 13, I'm not a policeman, so don't start thinking stuff.

After hearing stories of people being fined thousands for using the likes of Kazaa and WinMX to download songs, I was wondering if anybody still has this software.

I have heard ways of not getting away with not being able to be caught, but I can't be bothered taking the risk.

What about you?

What you must remember is that while downloading stuff is illegal, the vast majority (if not all?) of the lawsuits are being filed against people who make several or more files available to others, rather than just downloading them and keeping them to themselves.

Besides, the number of people who've actually been prosecuted seems to be barely into double figures. Bearing in mind the millions downloading illegally, you've probably got more chance of winning the lottery than being done for it.

Incidentally, having previously used Kazaa Lite, I've started using LimeWire instead recently which seems faster, and brings up much more results in its searches... for legal purposes only... of course.

WinMX did the job for me, its reliable, safe and.. good.

Spencer For Hire wrote: Incidentally, having previously used Kazaa Lite, I've started using LimeWire instead
recently which seems faster, and brings up much more results in its searches . . .

KaZaaLite used to be good, but the network it uses doesn't seem to be quite as popular as it one was. This'll most
likely be due to the fact that it's the same network used by Grokster and regular KaZaa, both of which are riddled
with spyware. People are gradually becoming more and more wary against apps that spread malicious crap, so
users are gradually turning away from that network, even though KaZaaLite is the same app. minus the crap.

As for LimeWire, since relies on Java, it's only faster only computers that are relatively fast. In it's defence
though, LimeWire does seem to be the only (free) P2P app officially available with no bundled scumware.
It's also cross platform, with version made for Mac OS X and Linux as well as Windows.

DJGM, I agree, nearly every song I tried downloading always failed, or didn't connect.

The best one I used was iMesh, but it gave my PC spyware, making me unable to connect to the internet, and then changed to iMesh Light, which also gave me problems.

Yes, iMesh is another particularly nasty one for unleashing malicious crapware as well.

But Grokster has to be one of the worst offenders for spreading malware. I did a P2P spyware/malware experiment
on my "testbed" PC recently. I installed a clean copy of Windows XP, and applied SP2 and all the latest updates
from Microsoft. The latest versions of AVG 7.0, Ad-Aware and Spybot S+D were also installed with updates.

I ran a complete scan with all three of these security apps. Each one came up with nothing untoward, except for
one little tracking cookie that Ad-Aware had found in IE. I then set about installing the latest version of Grokster.

As soon as Grokster finished installing, as well as the expected Grokster shortcut icons for the program itself, and
the shared folder there were seven extra shortcut icons on the desktop, four shortcut icons and five extra sub-
menus in the - Start - Programs - menu, all of which where linked to various online gambling "services".

Barely a minute went by, and the unsolicited IE popups started appearing, and I didn't even have IE open!

I unplugged the internet connection immediately, and ran a scan with Ad-Aware. It found 236 new critical
objects! Without letting Ad-Aware tidy up all that malicious junk, I then ran Spybot S+D. That found 312
problems, which would mostly include everything Ad-Aware found, and then some.

Next, AVG7.0 was next to run a scan . . . that revealed 17 trojan horse type viruses and 3 worms!


After all that palaver, I decided not to clean it up. I simply rebooted, and FDISK'd the blighter!

Don't think I've used Grokster before.

We had an old PC which ran on Windows 95 and we tried and tested many many P2P programs. Witha PC with no firewall and no anti-virus software etc. we were in trouble, and we didn't even know it.

I never really got into it. I only ever downloaded the odd song because the album the song i was looking for in the first place was usually found on ebay for 99p, which might i add, rather fab.

I used Kazaa Lite which was really good, then just got weird to install. Then switched to shareaza when i could be bothered to use it and even then i download more, *ahem* then music.

Cheese Head wrote:I never really got into it. I only ever downloaded the odd song because the album the song i was looking for in the first place was usually found on ebay for 99p, which might i add, rather fab.

I used Kazaa Lite which was really good, then just got weird to install. Then switched to shareaza when i could be bothered to use it and even then i download more, *ahem* then music.

I only used Gizmondo on the odd occasion when I can't download the song I want, but it's heavily protected.

I found an american site where songs cost around 15 cents, which costs us about 8p a song. Their systen of purchasing songs confused me so I left it.

Hi there,
Sorry to bring this up again, but I have a theory on file-sharing. Being a user since 2003, the funny thing is with file-sharing you can find some of the rarest songs in history. I tried to search for 'They Shoot Horses Don't They' by Racing Cars on both Wippit and Napster, and I couldn't find it.
I do have this song now, but surely if these legal sites have to be taken seriously, surely every song in existance should be available![/i]