Can You be traced by Downloading BitTorrent

Got 2 letters from my ISP before I started using precautions.

I guess I won the lottery twice then.

OP yes you can be caught but there are ways to minimise the risk.

Peerblock is a free way, and works by blocking known anti p2p organisations IPs.

iPredator an encryption service. You can download a firewall to cut off your bittorrent client whenever the service disconnects, but it will stop anyone from knowing (other than iPredator) what you're downloading.

Personally I'd go with Peerblock unless you've already received a few warnings, or ipredator if you don't care about the money (it's more secure).

I ask this question because a friend of mine over in Oregon in usa was apparently caught by the internet police, anti fraud police (etc), and arrested for downloading games By means of torrents. When he was telling me this he said that they were able to trace down his IP adress and apprehend him, and as a consequence they seized his PC, and made him wipe it and delete every game he downloaded plus pay a $700 dollar fine,

Onto the title of this thread i need you guys help, is there any way that you can be traced by downloading torrents because i have a whole load of them downloaded on my pc and have used them countless times. i dont want what happened to him to happen to me. Is there a chance i can be caught

BTW i live in the uk
Thanks in advance

So were you just given a warning by your ISP, what did they say in it?

I guess I won the lottery twice then.

OP yes you can be caught but there are ways to minimise the risk.

Peerblock is a free way, and works by blocking known anti p2p organisations IPs.

iPredator an encryption service. You can download a firewall to cut off your bittorrent client whenever the service disconnects, but it will stop anyone from knowing (other than iPredator) what you're downloading.

Personally I'd go with Peerblock unless you've already received a few warnings, or ipredator if you don't care about the money (it's more secure).

why are you so proud to be a thief?

If TV shows / films were available online to download in HD straight after release (for a reasonable subscription price) then I wouldn't have to. Even if I paid for Sky I'd still have to wait months for US TV shows to come across the pond, and still wouldn't have nearly as much flexibility as I do with torrents. As for films, why would I wait 6 months after its in the cinema when I can download it straight away from torrents?

Industry needs to catch up if they want to stop people going to torrents.

Your post was "me, me, I, I and me". People put a lot of work and money into the material that they produce. Contrary to what many believe, most of the people working on sets aren't making much money and everytime you download you're hurting production. The shows aren't free to produce and you wouldn't be the only one paying for them, but since you think you're somehow special . . .

Can you be traced? Absolutely, although there are precautions you can take. Discussion of these I think is against TSR policy but it's easy to Google for yourself. To be honest, all that'll probably happen is that you'll get warning letters from your ISP - they will in turn have been contacted by legal representatives for the copyright holders of the material you've downloaded.

You won't get a police raid over a few bootlegged films, but if you get 'v&' for something else computer-related (e.g. you've got involved in [I]you-know-what

Hardly, the loss of revenue put forward by these companies is more like "wishful thinking" than reality. You're trying to make comparisons to stealing a solid product like a CD or DVD that actually took raw materials to make, with digital products it's not the same. To say that everyone who downloads Grey's Anatomy online would buy the DVD if they couldn't use torrents is as I said before "wishful thinking".

It is their own fault, if they moved with the times and stopped using archaic forms of distribution they wouldn't lose so much "revenue" I might not buy the DVD but if I could pay £20 a month to download US TV shows like Americans can I would jump at the chance.

You ask people why they torrent, and the response time & time again is that it's easier than the alternative. Not that it's cheaper, but the fact that it's easier. You'd think the media industry would actually learn something from this, and instead of fighting the problem try & solve it in a way that will improve their profits.

So I'm guessing you download all music from Itunes/alternatives?

Something to do with Voldermort? c'mon be clearer

Hardly, the loss of revenue put forward by these companies is more like "wishful thinking" than reality. You're trying to make comparisons to stealing a solid product like a CD or DVD that actually took raw materials to make, with digital products it's not the same. To say that everyone who downloads Grey's Anatomy online would buy the DVD if they couldn't use torrents is as I said before "wishful thinking".

It is their own fault, if they moved with the times and stopped using archaic forms of distribution they wouldn't lose so much "revenue" I might not buy the DVD but if I could pay £20 a month to download US TV shows like Americans can I would jump at the chance.

You ask people why they torrent, and the response time & time again is that it's easier than the alternative. Not that it's cheaper, but the fact that it's easier. You'd think the media industry would actually learn something from this, and instead of fighting the problem try & solve it in a way that will improve their profits.

Don't torrent music no, don't buy much either mind you but that's because I don't listen to much. Wouldn't use iTunes, it's overpriced for what you get.

According to your genius, if John builds a car with his labor, time and materials and Mark come along with a cloning machine, clones the car and drives away in it—that’s somehow alright. According to you, who cares about John because John can still sale his original car. Even as person after person lines up in front of John’s garage clones his car and drives away with their own personal clone without paying anything---this is somehow fair to John who has once again spent his time, labor and materials building a piece of work.

It is their own fault, if they moved with the times and stopped using archaic forms of distribution they wouldn't lose so much "revenue" I might not buy the DVD but if I could pay £20 a month to download US TV shows like Americans can I would jump at the chance.

This argument is interesting, but ultimately flawed.
There was a lawyer who tried to make a somwhat similar argument a while back, using copying money as an example (http://jamesgannon.ca/2011/04/15/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-copy/)
I suggest you look at the comments of http://torrentfreak.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-copy-110426/ (in response to that article).

A car is a better analogy, but still based on a flawed assumption. A car cloning machine would completely change the way the car indistry works, and it would become more like software. Few people build an operating system like windows or linux out of assembler, yet you're somehow suggesting the equivalent with a car?

Lets also consider that Jaguar have released their latest model in america (bearing in mind cars are now a dirt cheap rapid release product) and you have to wait ~4 months before you can get them (based on tv series), and by the time you get them Jaguar have released 20 new iterations...you might get a bit peeved?

Of course, piracy is not the solution. But neither is the current way the system currently legally operates. Maybe you missed this further up, so I'll quote it again.

Three warnings & I'd be disconnected. They've done it before as well. Considering I'm in an area with only one ISP that would leave me with no broadband internet.

why are you so proud to be a thief?