ummm sorry about my spelling I was in a rush, but yeah i also have the same paranoia, but anyhows I found the files by doing search and typed in keywords and I found them and deleted them, are they gone forever?

deletion of files only does one thing...the fact that they are on your HDD is simply removed from the operating system's sight...the files are still there and can be recovered very easily...the only way to even come close to truly getting rid of the data is to physically overwrite it with an application such as those I mentioned above...even then with time and money they can still most likely be recovered if someone really wants to...

Deleting a file simply removes its 'address' and makes the space available. The data at that address will be there until it is overwritten. If only part of the data is overwritten, the rest of it will still be there. The government uses software that deletes, writes (usually 1's and 0's), and deletes again, a few times, to ensure that data cannot be retrieved.

Defragmenting will overwrite some of the (deleted) data, as it moves files on the disk. But just figure that whatever you put on your disk will be there for awhile, even if you deleted it, defragged, and added a bunch of new stuff.

Should you worry? Not in any of the circumstances described in the above posts. Uncle Sam is not coming after you for downloading a couple of files that you shouldn't have. If they did that, then most of those illegal videos would not be available for you to download!

For those uninitiated, we're not talking Tracy Lords, (who did X-rated at age 17), but actual [I]child [/I******ography. If you've never seen it, trust me, ignorance is bliss. The makers of this crap are sick criminals who like to be watched (for some, it's part of their motivation). So if you download it, you're rewarding them, while contributing to the continual abuse of the children.

To Hungry Ghosts, above, there's a big difference between thinkin' and doin'. People can steal anything you own, but they can never take your dignity; that is something only you can destroy. Yours seems to be quite intact. Don't be hard on yourself for being curious. Take pride in your self-restraint!

I'm just scared. I stupidly downloaded a few child pornography images out of some reckless impulse. I don't want my world to obliterate as a result. I was an idiot for that. I'm a college educated student with many opportunities, and I do something so mindless...for what, some stupid self-indulgence that's pointless and illegal? I don't understand this still...I'm trying to make sense of it. I'm still trying to understand a temporary lapse of reasoning and a moment of...derangement?...that crossed my mind.

Blah!

I don't need my life to be ruined by a judicial process and incarceration because of this. I've suffered torment already just worrying.

It would help me if I knew how long it typically took for police to execute a search and seizure warrant. Does it take hours? - Days? - A week?
A month? :(


How long must I worry until I can move on and accept the idea that I screwed up, made a mistake, and can continue with my life. I don't want to suffer because of a 1:00 a.m. impulse. :(

And still, I feel if I do end up investigated...I'm going to prison no matter what. It seems like the law is set up entirely against you. Lawyers carry enormous expenses on the federal level, and the law is just going to call you guilty. I doubt I could use some pathos - soothing argument on a jury, reminding them that they too are human and have made mistakes, and may regret many mistakes in THEIR lives.

This isn't fair. This isn't right. I'm sorry for everything, but I'm fearing the worst...:( It's hard to find pride when all I feel are shame and paranoia. :(

You mean like when I type in "Amy Lee" for some music, I come upon "Amy Lee: Cute Teen has orgasm on screen!"

I mean dude, I'm 13. My mom has seen it as she used to use Limewire on her old labtop. Not pleased.

Why doesn't anyone that works on Limewire get rid of these Spambots or whatever in hell they are? I REALLY don't want to see Futurama Porn or Anime Hentai.

Since you were searching for MP3s, one would guess that you could only listen to said orgasm.

Adding "orgasm" to your filters list will remove that little annoyance. Filtering out "pthc" and "hussyfan", and, perhaps "hentai" will also help reduce the crap that shows up in your searches.

Remember to use Bitzi, it will save you hours of useless (and dangerous) downloading of mis-named or corrupt files.

HungryGhosts: They aren't coming after you; quit apologizing, go to law school, become a prosecutor, and then you can go after the people who have caused you so much angst.

Yeah. Read previous messages in this thread :)

Most advice should be already there.

What kind of network did you use? We can't give you technical advice, if we don't know which network you used.

It's very good that you are scared. Hopefully it will keep you away from this dangerous precipace forever. Please let it. By opening that door, you would not only harm your soul by opening yourself up to harmful behavior, you would ruin your life. You would be given a label you could never escape from that would cause your neighbors to hate and fear you. Thank you for seeing the danger for what it is, very real and please go and stay free of these things.

Am I wrong?
 

As I understand it Gnutella acts only as a mechanism to bring two users together. Then one user can down/up load files from their PC to the other. No note of IP addresses is made by either PC or the P2P such as Limewire.

I've read about efforts to make the P2P facilitator such as Limewire record the IP addresses but I understand they have failed so far. Once the transfer is complete no record exists that it even took place.

Am I incorrect?

not sure what you mean by record IP addys...there are plenty of gnutella clients besides LW that list IP addresses...