tracing files on p2p?

With the news that the RIAA is going to start suing people who have large amounts of shared music on kazaa (story at http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...loading_music_4 , as well as /. and cnn) along with the continuing speculation about the feds monitoring and tracing illegal files on kazaa and other p2p networks, I was just wondering how this is done? I haven't really been able to find much about how one would go about tracing files across such networks, esp. if the files are then removed from the shared directory. Does anyone here know how this is done or any resources (white papers, articles, etc) where I could learn more about this?

Also, what opinions do people have about this crackdown on p2p file sharing?

In any p2p application the ip address of the user has to be attached to the files they are sharing in order for a request to be made against these files for downloading.
They (RIAA) get this IP address, trace what ISP it came from and force them to give them your information. There was a story a while back about, I believe it was verizon but I could be wrong, one ISP refusing to give this up but I don't remember how this turned out.

I personally think that any song that is released on the radio, or is older that a year then it should be freely available to download off the internet. To me, the entire reason why downloading mp3s are so popular is because people are so sick and tired of paying ~$20 US for a cd that only has one song that they like. People are tired of supporting one hit wonders. I have no problem supporting the bands that I like, but if I hate one hit wonders and don't care to support them either.

That explains how they find the people sharing their files, but what about tracing/finding files that have been downloaded but are no longer shared? Is the downloader's ip cached somewhere?
(and I agree about buying cds with only 1 good song)

Bands DO release singles for that one song on CD.

I think that bands/groups should go back to relying on the concert
events for their money, not the CDs.

Take Britney Spears, She makes $800,000+ per concert (I don't
know if that includes merchandise). Do you think she should
give a rats a** if the people downloaded her music? She shouldn't
because there is more than 5% percent that went to that concert
that got her music for free but shelled out the $40+ dollars to
see her dry hump the dancers on stage.

Yes, bands release singles and that is fine, but it is rare that they put more on that single cd that just that song so you still don't know if the rest of the cd sucks or not. The last time I got one of those there was 5 songs on it and all just different versions of the same song. I'm personally not that big on downloading new music, but I have downloaded several old songs that are hard to find in stores now.
It seems like 6 months after a song has been released it comes out on a "Hits ####" from razor & tie or some company like that. Now I just wonder how much money from thier sales goes back to the artist? I also agree with you on the concerts.

Hey now, she's only making $800,000 per show. She can barely live on that. And what if the band has more members? A 4 person band is only getting $200,000/show and thats if its a sellout. I mean, that doesn't even buy you a Bentley. We need to think about these people's livelihoods here

I agree entirely with downloading older songs, more for ones
that you did own the albums and something happened to them
like tapes that wore out, lps that melted (remember these) etc.

I have purchased Metallica's Kill 'Em All and Master of puppets
more than once, Lars is going to tell me that I can't recoup my
album? F him. Ditto with Ozzy's bark at the Moon, Beasties Boys
and the list goes on. But, I still buy CDs like System of a Down's
'Steal this Album'

In total I have nearly 3000 CDs, I'd say i'm doing my part for the
industry.

Well the artist only gets a few cents per paid MP3 download, the Record company grabs the rest...

The last cds I purchased was Linkin Park and Godsmack. I am totally behind supporting the bands that I like, but I hear you on buying the same lp/tape/cd over and over. Before MP3s, I bought the same AC/DC album 4 times. Pretty much all of my cds are MP3s now, but I don't share them either.

Just to be honest, I have never delved that deep into the code to find out.
Your IP address may be cached by those that you downloaded from since most of the p2p programs do report what is being downloaded from you. So I'm sure that when the RIAA starts all of this mess that they could just as well set traps like the government does with child porn sites. Then they have your IP.

but existing songs/files previously downloaded and moved from the shared directory shouldn't be able to be traced? I'm not good enough to do any code digging or anything to see exactly how this stuff works, I just seem to remember something on the news about how the feds can find anything on your computer or something like that. Don't know how skeptical to be

Here's the short of it. Kazaa and the like may store your information
in some manner. But imagine that, since Kazaa has more than
4,500,000 people on in peak times, with average of 5 downloads
per person at any one time, they would need a room full of transaction
servers just to log info.

But, The P2P system is a good one and only the users break the
laws, not the providers. Everyone can thank Napster for setting
precedent.

c'mon Onslaught, pump out an encrypted p2p and set the new standard!