So how can you prevent them from seeing that IP address?

To be honest with you, I don't know how to answer that. People have ways of finding out your ISP address. If hackers can do it, so can legal authorities. If there is a way to hide your ISP address, I haven't heard it.

i just don't see what's so illegal about sharing

__________________


If you dont live for something...
You die for nothing...

is music not free on the radio?

It depends on who you ask. Though LW is a P2P program, the mere idea of sharing copyrighted songs is what's troubling the music industry. I personally believe that if you share songs that don't have a license (or the copyright has long since expired), then you should be fine. However, I could be wrong. I've had people online tell me that by obtaining and sharing songs through LW, I could very well be breaking the law. I want to argue with them by telling them that according to what I've heard from this forum, it IS NOT against the law to obtain and share songs from LW.

You guys are hilarious

Look at YOUR, keyword being YOUR, local laws. If they say it's allright. Then it's allright. If they say it's illegal, then chances are that you are one of the unlucky ones that gets sued.

Don't read on some forum and think that's the law. Look it up for Gods sake, like people have asked users to do countless times on THIS FORUM.

Whether the laws are any good, that's a whole other story. But I can assure you that if your laws say it's allright to share, then nothing more can happen then the RIAA convincing your ISP that they should terminate your connection.

Well, I'm just stating my own opinions, and at times I have a tendency to speak my mind. It's just that the idea of being sued over sharing songs through LW is outrageous, from my point of view. Then again, I probably have a narrow-minded view of laws regarding what should/shouldn't be shared on LW. I do know that selling copyrighted songs is illegal, so I'd like to think I'm not totally ignorant on that fact. However, I (as well as others) don't intend to sell music, we only intend to obtain music for our own private and personal use. Isn't that what P2P is all about? If not, then perhaps I need an explanation (or I need to read the stickies posted on the rules/regulations regarding sharing songs).

Sharing of copyrighted songs on p2p was not illegal in Australia. Selling copied songs as in piracy was. But since the recent USA/Australian trade agreement, unfortunately things have changed a little bit. As Sleepless pointed out, check your local laws.

If people can't get copies of copyrighted songs from p2p then they will just copy off the radio (or friends.) Duh! Wake up! Anti p2p sharing laws will make very little difference to them. The recording industry is simply too slow to keep up with new technologies & searching for scapegoats & looking for excuses to explain to their investors, etc. They have been caught out in the dark ages & now crying.

(Wish You Were Here album by P.F. is old but still very valid. lol )

lol @ giant Google