[QUOTE]Originally posted by RachelHeath
[B]The thing that worries me is the fact that I can see a day soon where the RIAA or one of the big labels will use the full legal resources at their disposal to locate one individual who's sharing files and make an example of them.

Once that has been done, then a president can be set to go after others.
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First that is very very unlikely to happen do to how gnutella works even if you scan it for a week you wont find every single "offender." If any action would come it would be in stop and desist e-mails or at an extreeme get a user internet service cut i doubt they would sue.

The RIAA wont make an example because the media would eat them alive and cause so much bad publicity the RIAA would be hated even more. Considering its the holiday season it would be a bad idea to **** off the consumers.


[QUOTE][b]
As others have quite rightly pointed out, Gnutella's main strength is the sheer number of servants out there. However, just as Metallica did with Napster in identifying a whole list of offending users, expect the same to happen with Gnutella.
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Gnutella is not napster its much better. On napster you can easily search an entire server easily. On gnutella you cant systematically search every inch of it like you could on napster. There are no log-ons so you cant just kick users off easily like what napster did during the Metallica thing.

But your isp just doesnt give your info out to everyone who askes nicely. The other side has to prove it and even then some isps like verizon still wont give them user info. The only isp that has taken any kind of action on a regular basis is @home and maybe a few others like AT&T and Qwest occasionally.

Try to design a P2P network thats fast, stable, and only gives info out to everyone except the riaa. Its impossible there cant be any kind of security like mentioned here without servely limiting users options and the fact that most security measures would hurt gnutella legally and bring more attention from people like the RIAA the benifits wouldnt be anymore than just bragging rights and a slower, limted network.

I can see where people are worried and etc. and thats perfectly understandable after napster but gnutella isnt napster, no prolonged action has been taken yet and until there is i dont think that security needs to be a major issue. Plus unlike all the other file sharing programs gnutella can be used for alot more than just P2P making it a extreemely hard for someone like the RIAA to attack it legally because they would lose.