my ISP has a neat little tool (fair usage policy applies so i have a view my usage tool, in this it has a breakdown of where the usage has come from, ftp, usenet, p2p, gaming, web and other.)
now knowing this they would know exactly what im doing - how much im doing etc. - Aslong as you ISP is getting your money and your not being a pain im sure they will keep shtum until the law states they *have* to give up ip addys/ details of offenders.
And whats wrong with usenet?? =\ i pay for usenet access does that count
Also - what if your using newsgroups for what they were intended for... not illegal now eh ?
and dependant on what your transferring - if your a neat little "haxor" like said before distributing your "program" is perfectly legal - unless it causes damage like a virus, malware ...etc. etc.
If people are strugglign for BW (such as people sharing the files to cut costs,) either set up a project on sourceforge or - check out rapidshare.de - they increased their filesizes from 100mb to 300mb this month - and is very very quick
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds29031.html
that the linky you meant ADd ?