I guess it isn't illegal in the sense that the old bill aren't gonna pop round and chuck the silver bracelets on you, but in the sense that it is a punishable offence - again, given that a court order has been obtained and the appropriate charges filed with the courts etc... I can't see why the evidence wouldn't be submissable to a court of law, provided that they've logged their actions in a systematic way so as to prove beyond doubt... unless of course they can obtain physical access to your eqipment which would provide conclusive evidence? I would imagine that provided they can prove that they accessed files which were being shared with the rest of the world and that the source of the file rested upon your machine, then they'd have a damn strong case. It's all a matter of piecing together all of the bits of evidence and making a strong enough case.

kazaa has 5 million users and i think it will prolly take 5 million detectives to track them all down... we went through this same crap with cassettes , videos , cd-writers etc etc .
all magazine talk and poppycock

I am:)

But they don't have to get all 5 million. I assume that their tactics are to have a small number of high profile cases that put the fear of god into the rest. Don't forget that what they are threatening people with is not jail sentences, but some ridiculously high penalty per item downloaded. Essentially, they're talking about bankrupting you.

the riaa say it will be a gradual process of catching people there first swoop will be going after a couple of hundred then building on that as they process fines and applications for court etc

how many fines prosecutions have taken place outside the US?

a few in sweden and holland

successful prosecutions? u have any links?

on the .com site there are threads where i posted i think i cant find the direct links it has happened with big fines imposed in both countries sweden is wanting to ban a form of downloading ill try dig up that link

cant find that though i found this

boycott riaa has been setup for obvious reasons

http://www.boycott-riaa.com/forums/general/402

There was a recent case in Denmark.

EDIT (After a bit of quick Googling)
From The Register 9 June 2003

The Danish Anti Pirat Gruppen (Anti Piracy Group) has issued invoices of up to $14,000 apiece to approximately 150 users of KaZaA and eDonkey for illegally downloading copyright material.