US peer-to-peer pirates convicted

Bad news for us pirates as they are really cracking down on file trading now.
They have just convicted two men in the US for running a Direct Connect hub.

BBC
The first convictions for piracy over peer-to-peer networks have been handed down in the US.

New Yorker William Trowbridge and Texan Michael Chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software.

The two men faced charges following raids in August on suspected pirates by the FBI.

The pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250,000 (£130,000) fine.

I used to be a big DC/DC++ user but stopped using it a while ago in favour of Overnet/Emule.
I use the programs for many types of files including footage of newsworthy events like the Hindenburg disaster, war footage and other events.
The programs have a lot of legitimate uses but can also be used to trade copyrighted materials like movies and programs, both of which I have downloaded in the past. I just hope a lot of these file share networks don't close down because some people are using it for illegal content.

AceOfBase, these networks will never shut down completely. It's on the 'net and there are lots of places, even if they have to set up shop in some godforsaken hellhole of a country it will still be available to people who are determined to download. What the Record and Movie companies don't get is the internet is just a distribution medium. Same goes for P2P. If they continue to fight it they are in fact fighting themselves and they will kill themselves in the end.