File Sharing: What Have You Done?

I don’t think I need to tell you that sharing copyrighted files is illegal. Everybody knows that! Also, everybody knows most file sharing programs are used to distribute cracked software, and to spread illegal copies of movies etc. Now, piracy or no piracy, there are some things you need to know, in order to stay secure.

A lot of these programs are unsafe, and if you don’t have an AV, then you’re bound to get a virus. A few years ago, when DC++ was something new in my country, I was a bit fond of pranks, so I created an image with Paintbrush – it displayed a "Get a life!" message and I named the file "hot xxx porn sexy babes women sex" or something like that. It was a long filename containing a lot of the words people use when searching for porn. I shared the file and joined a few hubs – it was downloaded by many users, but what do you know – they didn’t get a porn pic, but a silly message. This just proves that you have no idea what you download with these programs. What I did was just an innocent joke, but other people could share malware tainted files. And with some movies and mp3s being so popular, virus infections can spread really fast.

In addition, to join some servers you need to share a certain amount of megabytes, or gigabytes. Some people simply share a huge part of their hard drive without paying attention to what they’ve actually made available for others to download. Not only could this lead to a privacy violation, but it could also make you a victim of fraud.

To be honest with you, the best solution to stay secure is trying to use file-sharing programs only if absolutely necessary. If something is free, you can get it from an authorized site (where you know what you download and where it’s safe). If it’s not free, and you download a cracked version, it’s illegal anyway, no matter where you get it from.