Hypothetically speaking;
-Let's say that the RIAA scanned my computer and found out about all the music files I have, but what are the likely chances that I get sued if I had less than 150 files or what so ever (but they were in a different languange as in not in English)?
-What if I deleted them after they scanned me with Norton Wipe Info? Can they still sue me?
-Does the "do not list files" option in kazaa lite actually prevent other users from listing files on your computer?

I don't want to spread panic here, but I am just curious.

Well, if you're so afraided now, maybe you shouldn't have "stolen" in the first place... wait, did I just say "stolen", I meant to say "borrow"... but that's just me. Do whatever you want. I hope they don't get you.

You can set kazaa to share an empty folder and only that. But the best way to not get caught is to not start it at all. wipeinfo or even formatting won't stop them if they REALLY want to find your files, they can get your hard drive reconstructed (about USD 5,000 I think. I've heard as much as 50,000) and see what was on your drive. I'm sure that all of us have used kazaa, morpheus or the ill-fated napster, but lately the quality of all the files being shared on their networks are directly proportionate to the all the users IQ's (low to very low).

i find alot of uncensored news and great concerts that will never be released, all because of file sharing. Your small mind may look at a gun and think a killing machine. Then go out and kill someone, but a smarter mind will see a gun and protect themself from you. The point is everything in life is a tool. You can use for the (un)selfish advancement of ones being or use it in a reckless manner. Try expanding your search beyond the top 40 and expand your tunnel vision. Your right there has been alot of stealing going on in the music industry. Ask Puff Daddy to stop using samples, ask madonna to write an original song (no recording studios help/studio machines sit in), ask the record store to lower thier prices back to reseaonable, ask Britteny Spheres to write her next album by herself, ask Faith Hill to throw away her phone list of songwritters, ask the Graceland state to pay all the songwritters thier fair cut of the profits, and then ask the recording execs. to stop raping the artists at the back. To sum the big picture is to understand that, Instead of the Big Mob Boss stealing from everyone, a new low level street thug is taking back the street. So I hope your narrow scope of vision just doesn't include your asshole.

i dare them to bust me. i own my shares.

hmmm
From a legal standpoint, You can only get away with so much. If the RIAA hypothetically scan your pc and you have mp3's on there then, they used to sent a letter to your ISP first. Whether they do that now, might be different now.

If a song shows up on a search that has your IP, and its out there, and its the first time its showed up on there scans, then you may only get a first time warning. However if it repeatedly shows then, you might be liable for posting copyright material onto the internet. The industry knows that most people now a days do not want to spend a lot of money for a crummy cd with 1 or 2 good songs on it.

and yes data recovery from a harddrive is expensive, it is possible, just from the fragments that are still there after you delete something off. The only way to insure there is no recovery data is to destroy the harddrive. Some of the material can still be there after a format. When I say destroy it, I mean as in wiping the drive initially, sitting a magnet on or near it, then putting it on a drill press and putting 6 holes alway the way through it. I had to do that at a government project before. There is no way afterward to get anything off the drive.

Did the RIAA hypothetically send a IM to you telling you that you know are sharing by the way???

i know some dutch guys ( 2 persons) who got a warning from thier provider. They were told to get a good lawyer for when they get a visit of the RIAA.

The profider will work with the RIAA because they don't want the problems theirselfs (and they are right)

@ cloakdoa
No.
I have songs in a foreign language which are now on CD-R (very easy to destroy compared to harddrives).

On the data recovery issue:
I have thought about this and it seems to me that if you format the drive completly, then reinstall windows, then fill up the hard drive completly with junk data, and then delete that, wouldn't the junk data be all that they could recover??

Maybe im wrong.
By the way, this is tunring into more of a hardware topic.

do they worry about what you have on your drives?? OR will they just look and use the logs of the provider?
People can't destroy those logs, but they can swap their drives.

Hmmm... isn't scanning someone's PC illegal ?

That's what I thought!

but what if they scan your drive and see all those songs you've got and sue you. don't they have to get the drive to know that it was really the songs they thought not just some files renamed to song names or do they download all illegal files they find