how do they track you?

Okay I download from torrents all the time, usually just movies and what not for entertainment. so today i got an email saying HBO is asking me to stop due to copyright infringement on their intellectual property or whatever.

how in the world did they know i did it? im probably one person out of thousands that have downloaded that file

that happened to me to. i got an email from lucas arts after downloading lego indiana jones. i just ignored it, and didn't reply.

there's programs that apparently block them from tracking you.

How You Will Get Caught Downloading:

1. There are various technical monitoring services who are employed by the MPAA, the RIAA, and various copyright and government authorities. They are paid to watchdog millions of users on the Internet.
2. Through digital surveillance means, those third-party monitoring services or your ISP Internet Service Provider) will notice your large bandwidth use. You will then be regularly monitored and your downloads will be examined.
3. Once these authorities deem your downloading to be a breach of copyright law, and once they decide that you are worth prosecuting, your real identity will then be clarified. This is when your ISP divulges your home address and contact information, either willingly or under threat by the prosecuting entity.
4. You might be lucky enough to receive a warning email only. But if you are like some unlucky users, you will receive a threatening legal letter.

Now here is another description of how they catch you in different details:

1. The client connects to the P2P network, searches for sources of the infringing file, and collects the IP addresses that were gathered through the search.
2. The client requests to download (a piece of) the file from the host that was found through the search.
3. The filename, file size, IP-address, P2P protocol, P2P application, time, and the username are automatically inserted into a database, if the host permits the download.
4. This is the "best" part. The application does a WHOIS search for the ISP information and automatically sends an infringement letter to the ISP if needed.


Downloading is illegal and in the US your monopoly internet provider will be more than happy to sell you out. Thank God I live in a 3rd world country. :behindsof

Here's how:

My prediciton for the future of the internet is there will be a total "underground" movement the likes of which we have never seen...

Also you should stay away from shady trackers... honeypot danger a head

That is why you should download through multiple proxies like myself...

but i do... download every brand new movie that happens to be released i don't give a fuck about these copyright authorities.

before i used proxies, i actually had 27 of these so called letters

Use a VPN service to download from now on.
I'm so glad I live in India
And sorta sad. 60kbps download speed = not even good enough for streaming youtube videos

google phoenixlabs all you need to stay safe

when you connect to someone via p2p, they get your IP address.
from your IP address they can get your ISP, and send them a complaint.
the complaint would list your IP, torrent name, and time of the connection.
with this info, your ISP can determine which computer was connected to that IP at that time, and then send you a warning.

to prevent this, you can get a program called peerblock, which has a constantly updated blacklist of bad IPs that it prevents your computer from connecting to.

another way to prevent getting caught is by using private trackers instead of public trackers, as anti-p2p organizations usually only monitor public trackers.

there's also a few settings in utorrent you can tweak to minimize the number of stray connections it attempts to make, like disabling peer discovery for example.

usually the first message you get from your ISP is only a warning and no action is taken.
repeated warnings will likely result in actual shit happening which you'd want to avoid, like disconnection or legal action.

so if you already got 1 warning, definitely don't continue doing what you're currently doing.
take some steps to increase your anonymity, then pirate away.

Peerblock and try to stay away from public trackers. I have never received one letter from my isp about anything I download.