[b]Seattle man used Limewire for identity theft[/b] Frederick Wood was sentenced to more than three years in prison Nancy Gohring (IDG News Service) 12/08/2009 10:09:00http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/314607/seattle_man_used_limewire_identity_theftA Seattle man was sentenced to more than three years in prison Tuesday for using the Limewire file-sharing service to lift personal information from computers across the U.S.
The case highlights a type of identity theft that is probably more common than most people realize, said Kathryn Warma, assistant U.S. attorney in the Computer Hacking and Internet Crimes Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
I knew they were bad, but not that bad :o
so that was the reason I never used p2p apps, besides the fact that they infest your pc…
my last computer was given to me and limewire was all over it…took a while to remove…if I got it all…
Thanks for the link YoKenny 
-Scott-
Hah!
P2P works for dummies anyway^^(IMO) ;D
There r many alternatives that can be used as a replacement for P2P^^
-AnimeLover^^
I have always been wary of using P2P. There have been plenty of warnings about it. The problem is that is is the cheapest way to download movies, songs etc, so many people use it. I guess in many cases it isn’t legal.
What are the replacements for P2P?
RoRo
I have ‘Never’ used P2P or IM applications.
I’ve never used P2P either, and I dumped all my IM clients except Yahoo because pretty near all off my contacts have disappeared over the years.
Back when I was on dialup, my music collection was mostly MIDs, which are (usually) free and quite often excellent quality, if you don’t mind living without vocal arrangements. I did make one exception back then for a specific set of MP3s – some high school in Ohio had years ago done their own production of Godspell and still had online files which included among other things most (not all) of the tracks from the soundtrack album and from the Broadway version. So I patiently downloaded what they had, one or two files per evening.
After I got broadband, one good source I discovered for “real” music was eMusic – for something like $15 a month, you could download up to 75 files a month. And in some cases that was a real steal – Carlin’s “On Campus” album, for instance, was a single huge file rather than separate tracks, so it counted as only a single download. I gave up on them and ended my subscription after a year or so mainly because they concentrated on “indie” labels rather than “names”, so I pretty much exhausted their supply of what interested me after a while.
I have never used P2P applications and from the beginning of those programs, I said they were a bad deal. It is too easy to get your computer infected and I think that some of those programs (but not all of them) were actually created to distribute malware to the masses. Most people who use those programs have infections and do not even know it because the have no clue about computer security.
I also gave up on IM programs more than 5 years ago for basically the same reason … too easy to acquire infections.
Maybe I am a little paranoid but my computer does not get malware which is what I like … no problems.
I guess I’m one of the dummies. I’ve been using p2p forever. (My ICQ number is only 6 didgets.)
I’ve yet to have any problems from using them.
Sorry, my error :-[ I use IM programs. I don’t go near P2P
I use uTorrent and Blubster its for my music and program,game… But never keygen or hack that i download from torrent.
A good web for p2p that i like is isohunt and mininova. They are great and i can say i never got any alert of them.
Mr.Agent
Not true. I think it’s the opposite, in many cases it is illegal. The fact that many use it does not make it necessarily legal.
I still use IM (Live messenger, Yahoo and Skype). Is there any way to prove that. I have used these for a few years now. The only time I have though you could get infections is if you were transferring files with someone.
I have though you could get infections is if you were transferring files with someone.Your correct. Programs you don't know from sources you can't truly trust. If you know the program and trust the source, then the downloads are fine.
Well with IM that’s straight forward but with P2P’s how can you do that?
If one of the people that share a file (ie some one who isn’t just a leech) has a virus, could that virus be transmitted via the P2P network?
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
N.B. I avoid P2P because of my limited internet band width and because of the simplicity of direct download.
If one of the people that share a file (ie some one who isn't just a leech) has a virus, could that virus be transmitted via the P2P network?It couldn't be transmitted via the P2P network, that is, it won't spread itself, but if downloaded, can certainly affect the computer it has been downloaded to. Very many movie clips, many, if not most programs, and some sound files are simply trojans renamed, it seems. When downloaded to the naive users computer, and executed, the user then fails to see the movie (or whatever) promised, but ends up with a malware payload.
There’s plenty about how to spot the nasty ones on the Limewire forum.
Confused Computer User,
Isn’t legal is the same as illegal. I do agree with you.
Direct download from trusted sites seems the best way to go.
I assume Windows Messenger is a IM program. Again I just use that for communication to friends, not to send files. I have found streaming video works well on my Vista machine, and that way I don’t fill up my hard drive with movies or TV shows. It doesn’t work so well on my slower machine.
RoRo
I don’t think people using p2p (and/or IM) programs are dummy. Maybe the actual dummy ones are those who are able to infect a virus to their PCs by these programs and are those who think that users of such programs are dummy. 
By the way, many ppl use p2p applications to download mp3 and movie files illegally. Yes, i agree with that. But this doesn’t make the application illegal, right? this is like someone calls a knife illegal when you use it to peel off an apple because that knife can kill a human as well. here the important thing is to educate ppl to use things correctly, this is valid for all situations in life. educating and being educated are the only solution i think, not banning or warning ppl not to use sth which some people don’t like due to some stereotypes. ^i’m speaking for general cases^
p2p applications are commonly used for not illegal purposes, too. so there’s no point to bash such programs just for the sake of feeling superior for not using those programs. 
don’t attack me, i’m just sharing my opinions as you all do.
If your worrying about illegal. Well you will do it a lot time there no only in computer or p2p. There some in real life too so dont start crying to them because they will dont care lol. 
Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Don’t%20do%20the%20crime%2C%20if%20you%20can’t%20do%20the%20time.
I would rather be safe than sorry.