Posted by FatKat on 11/27/05 20:30

Scott NOFX wrote:
> What is the best P2P software for free download.

Try WinMX. I've used it for years, and it's a great resource for music
& video...as long as you take some time to learn how it works. It's
really not that difficult. I'm not all that computer savvy, and yet I
have more trouble archiving the gigabytes of winmx-DL'd media than
getting it to begin with. As a caveat, I have tried DC++ and found
that it's also pretty good, but I've spent so much time with WinMX, and
am satisfied enough with it that I'm not likely to ditch it for DC++.

> What are the legal risk?

The legal risk is that once you're on the network, anybody can look
into your share folder. (This is not always true when you're on "Open
Nap"). As long as you've got copywright-protected media available for
DL in that folder, and without getting into the morality or the legal
likelihood of ultimately biting the RIAA bullet, you could find
yourself the subject of RIAA litigation.

> Can they be avoided?

Mostly it's a crapshoot that you'll be tagged at all - thousands of
users, but some do get "caught". Also, the law is probably evolving,
but the industry groups can probably afford to wait longer than the
people they sue. You could also decide against offering any protected
media but then you'll probably get tagged as a "leech", and nobody will
want to waste their bandwidth sharing with you.

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