there seem to be a number of issues here that i'd like to briefly address;

p2p networks are indeed a haven for porn, child porn, viruses and malware. this is true. however, you can't expect any centralized p2p god to take over and punish the wicked. why? because in order to impliment any kind of control over those files would introduce the concept of p2p networks being able to have some control over what is being shared on their networks, and that would lead to the inevitable conclusion that the p2p networks could then stop you all from downloading the games, music, movies and software you all are looking for.

and those are all illegal to share too.

"but that's a different kind of illegal" is like saying "just a little bit pregnant" or "i'm just going to kill you a little bit". illegal is illegal, that's it. and if you want someone to stop the OTHER guy from breaking the law, just because you don't like what he's doing, then that someone will be obligated to then stop YOU from breaking the law. common sense.

as for the files themselves, i can tell you with some authority that the vast majority of those files you are all so worried about do NOT contain what they say, much in the same way that the television show you spent hours downloading is actually someone's home movie renamed to fool the masses. the vast majority of them are named with provocative- and even illegal-sounding names, but when you actually download them and open them, they are mostly mainstream pornography taken from popular porn titles or they are anti-child-porn crusaders trying to get their message across to those who might be attracted to those files.

how do i know this? i was (briefly) involved in a joint task force trying to pin this problem down. the problem is much larger than you would think it is, mainly because of what i described in the paragraph above. how do you put someone in jail for naming a legal file as if it were an illegal file? how do you put someone in jail that might be trying-in their own misguided way- to put a stop to it as well? we downloaded thousands of files, logged thousands of ip addresses, but out of thousands of files we only were able to verify and start an investigation on a few of those files, 7 if i remember correctly, and that was from 2 different ip addresses.

i was not involved in the investigation, and soon after i was assigned to another department, so i don't know how that particular investigation worked out, but you can see how it would be difficult to stop these "child porn" peddlers.

most of them have retreated to mIRC channels where they trade files with each other, and frankly, that is a much better venue in which to fish for those particular predatory creatures. they flock to the rooms to share files, and olny to share files, so it's almost like shooting fish in a barrell.

so don't freak out about it so much, there are people trying to stop it, it needs to be stopped, and as long as the good guys wear white hats, it'll happen.

USE FILTERS! if you really don't want to see these filenames, then put "roygold" (with an @ where the first o is), "pthc", "kiddy" and any other freakishly sick keywords you want into your filters, and check the adult content filter box too. then you can have a nice time searching for your illegal music, software and videos in peace, without the nasty criminals bugging you with bad filenames.

also, check the filesize for those of you worried about bad programs, if it's only a few kilobytes in size, it isn't that new britney spears song or the latest photoshop version, it's a virus.

i hope i have been of some assistance, but i'm sure that this thread, like the problem of child porn, will not go away...

it is nice to see that there are people concerned about this issue.