Regarding illegal music

[HaloCod27]

I used to download music for free, but now I realize it's wrong and I want to get rid of all traces I did it so I don't get in trouble

I am a member of Mediafire and Limewire, but I never got anything from Limewire. I was always weary of p2p, so I just didn't get anything.

Will me just being a member of that website cause any harm?

Now, mediafire. This is the big one. I downloaded lots of songs from here, through the "google song with mediafire at the end of it. "

My question is that is Mediafire p2p? If it isn't, I heard that the government can't possibly track you down, so I can just stop using that site. I'm weary though, because I downloaded like 500 songs from my method involving mediafire.

Also, I downloaded songs on my iTouch from mediafire, then synced it with iTunes on my computer.

Is there any way for the government to know this? Or should I just restore my iTouch?

I downloaded some songs from Mewseek, on the itouch. If I remember correctly, that is P2P.
What do I do?!




Again, I know I have a greater chance of winning the lottery than getting caught by the government, but I want to scrub all this clean because I find it morally wrong, and the first step is that I know nobody will know I did it.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

That's good you see the importance of supporting your local music artists.

I think the authorities are looking for the worst offenders. Those that download AND, more importantly, UPLOAD/share music to others. We're talking about thousands upon thousands of uploads/downloads a day.

To change the name of a song, or the information of a song, you can modify that stuff usually in any Music organizer. I used to use musicmatch and now I use iTunes to rename songs that I ripped that did not have any music data. But if you want to remove all traces, obviously you should delete them all.

 

[HaloCod27]

Midnyte sun, thanks for your reply!

I would appreciate if someone could systematically go through all the points and questions I stated in my post.

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

I can't do that, because I don't know all the legalities, but from my understanding, they aren't going after the people who download, they are really going after the people who upload / share.

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

I used to download music for free, but now I realize it's wrong and I want to get rid of all traces I did it so I don't get in trouble

I am a member of Mediafire and Limewire, but I never got anything from Limewire. I was always weary of p2p, so I just didn't get anything.

Will me just being a member of that website cause any harm?

Now, mediafire. This is the big one. I downloaded lots of songs from here, through the "google song with mediafire at the end of it. "

My question is that is Mediafire p2p? If it isn't, I heard that the government can't possibly track you down, so I can just stop using that site. I'm weary though, because I downloaded like 500 songs from my method involving mediafire.

Also, I downloaded songs on my iTouch from mediafire, then synced it with iTunes on my computer.

Is there any way for the government to know this? Or should I just restore my iTouch?

I downloaded some songs from Mewseek, on the itouch. If I remember correctly, that is P2P.
What do I do?!




Again, I know I have a greater chance of winning the lottery than getting caught by the government, but I want to scrub all this clean because I find it morally wrong, and the first step is that I know nobody will know I did it.

1. Too late, if you're going to get caught you're going to get caught for what you did. The more time passes the less likely it is to happen, but simply removing the music/files from your computer won't clear you of the downloads.

2. Possibly, if you're not uploading/downloading anything that is copy write protected, no. For example if it's freeware, or shareware or it personally belongs to you, say a paper you wrote, then no. But if you've previously uploaded/downloaded files or content that is copy write protected then possibly, but not likely.

3. Your I.P. address is traceable so it's possible, although not very probable at all that you would get caught for having used Mediafire.

4. No, no way for them to know that music is on your ipod touch or your computer, at least not just by you having it. Now if you were to get sued, pulled into court and they then had your HD, yes.

5. Not sure what Mewsweek is.

6. If you want to completely get rid of everything and, remove all traces, at least as much as you can from your end. You need to reformat your HD and scrub it with at least one if not several pieces of software that will overwrite your HD with 0s.

 

[HaloCod27]

So your saying that while it can be traceable that I downloaded songs from Mediafire, the govt. won't really care as it was a while ago?

 

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

So your saying that while it can be traceable that I downloaded songs from Mediafire, the govt. won't really care as it was a while ago?

No, that's not what I am saying at all. I am saying, even if you "digitally scrub" your HD and then remove it, and take out the disk itself, and sand it down with an electric sander then drill holes through it, all of your data will be gone.

But what you have downloaded, there already exists a record, a way to track what you did, but the further and further away time passes it's less and less likely anyone will come after you.

And it's not the Government, it's the Movie and Music studios that care. They're the ones that want their $$$ back for people illegally downloading copywritten material. But the chances of anyone coming after you are astronomically low.

The movie and music industries lawyer's even say that it's completely pointless to sue, the money that they spend on the lawyers, tens of millions, versus the money they get back, often nothing, or several thousands if they're lucky.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

VIVA LOS PIRATAS DE MUSICA!!!