I do not pirate movies or music, but I always wanted to know, what are the odds of getting caught by the mpaa or riaa?

My guess would be that you would have a better chance of hitting the lottery and getting struck by lightning in the same life time

I was curious about this myself, it seems to be popular these days.

Both the mpaa and riaa have very little ability to “catch” you due to the sheer volume of p2p users. They do like to catch the “big” users and make examples of them. (OiNK.cd)

What is “big” out of curiosity?

Love the disclaimer in your Q :)

I think Breefield said it. Unless you put yourself in an ‘exposed’ position, I think it would take a lot before alarm bells go off. But I have no idea what ‘a lot’ is….
Maybe ISP’s do some sort of stats where they look at the top % of downloads…? Just a guess…

@wildflower: In the UK anyway, they cannot share this information with revenue protection agencies (like the MPAA or RIAA) or any third party. I’m not sure about the US or elsewhere.

ISP’s have nothing to do with it really. Some will cut your bandwidth if you torrent. Others kept you from torrenting at all. But they won’t “turn you in” to anyone. They just want to keep their bandwidth open and clear of peoplehogging it while they torrent.

Peedub, I use big to mean users on sites who put out a lot of the content to download. Or the sites who condone it. They “expose” themselves.

Ahh, thanks, this coincides with what I had thought.
Why do people put so much out there if it puts them at a potential risk? Do they get anything from it? Is it merely a matter of showing off one’s collection?
[let’s say, music for example]

You have more chance of Vista crashiiiiiiiiii….....

The chance is so tiny it isn’t worth worrying. The news is full of scare stories but they have no way of stopping it. As soon as the laws change, so does the nature of p2p so it’s here to stay.

this is how I read this question:
“I do not act like a pirate, but I have always wondered, what are the odds of getting caught by the [random seafaring organization]?”
I laughed forever when I realized. Dyslexia at its best!

The RIAA are terrorist that use psycological weapons against the masses.

They have no real power. That lies in the peoples hands, the masses that is.

Slim to none in my eyes! Everybody does it!