Hey, this isn't related to p2p or Gnutella, but people here seem to be knowledgeable about this stuff. The other day I signed up for an adult website. The website looks completely legal, it used CCbill, it explicitly states that all girls are over 18, and advertised that they were, specifically, "18yrs to 22yrs." Just like any other adult website.

However, some of the videos I downloaded... a few of them seem pretty young, like they could be 16 or 17. I've canceled my subscription and deleted everything I downloaded just in case. I'm still not sure they were under 18, but I don't want to take any chances. However, today I've been thinking that what if they were, and the authorities shut the website down... they'll have my credit info, so I went searching for any info I could find that would be useful about this, and stumbled on this discussion. I found out from reading this that deleting doesn't actually completely remove the files from the hard drive, which I didn't know before.

Anyway... I guess I'm asking, even if I was under the impression that the website I signed up for was completely legal, and they advertised that as such, and I canceled my subscription as soon as I had suspicions to the contrary, I'm assuming I'll still be in trouble? I'm really getting kind of worried about this.

Yeah, just so you know I'm not lying about the site looking legit, here it is (Definitely NSFW): NSFW Again, I'm still not sure there's anything illegal there, but I don't want to take any chances.

Oh, and I'm not too computer savvy, how can I scrub (Or whatever it's called.) my hard drive? Just in case, I want this stuff off my computer. I already deleted the files, so I can't use any of those ways of deleting them, is there anything I can do about it at this point?

Oh, and also somebody had: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../newavatar.png as their sig earlier in the thread... that's just a joke, right? About the IP being logged because of breaking the law?

Web Servers
 

Sykes85

Let me tell you what I know (and suspect) based on my own knowledge and experience.

You asked:Well, all web servers that you surf log your IP address, eg. When you first log onto this forum you have to enter your username and password. The next time you enter the forum the server knows who you are and lets you in without asking for your username and password.

That is done by the server putting a cookie on your computer when you first visit and on the second visit comparing the info in the cookie against what it has stored about you in its log.

And that is the normal state of affairs when surfing the web.

You also asked:As far as I understand it, under British law you have done nothing wrong because, as far as you were concerned, this was a legitimate web site and as soon as you suspected it wasn't you deleted everything you downloaded. Providing that you do not go back to this site, or any similar sites, you should be OK.

As for the deleted images on your HD, first you should defrag your HD on a weekly basis. This will not delete everything in one go but as long as you continue to used your HD normally and do regular defrags the deleted images will eventually be completely overwritten.

There are file deletion utilities that can completely wipe the images off your HD but to use such a utility you would first have to restore the image files you deleted, which is not a good idea.

Hope this helps.


UK Bob

I live in the US, actually, so not sure how the laws differ. And my question about the IP log was somebody's sig had a picture that displayed the words

Here's the link to the picture:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../newavatar.png

That was a joke, right, and not just something showing up for me? Why would this thread prompt that?

Another question, what would a PC Recovery or System Restore do to help? In combination with defragging? Should I do one before the other?

Sykes85

You asked:I saw the picture but because that organisation is American there is no way I can know whether it is true or not. However, as American and British law are very similar it is highly unlikely that you can be prosecuted for anything.

You also asked:Nothing, just defrag once a week as advised.


UK Bob

The obvious illiteracy should have tipped you off that the image is an amateurish
bluff and that the perpetrators have no connection to law enforcement. The person
who chose to use it as an avatar probably gets the joke.

Any secure deletion program worth a download can also scrub the free space on the
disk and the "recycle bin", so "undeleting" the files should not be necessary.

Would Eraser be one of the ones worth the download?

Maybe. Try it and see. ;]

Eraser
 

Sykes85

Just been through Eraser's "Quick Start Guide":

Eraser - secure data erase tool to scrub files on your hard drive - FREE

And it seems to do everything that you want, including scrubbing unused disk space.

I might download this utility myself.


UK Bob