Can I get arrested for using a P2P network?
With computer security and P2P networks, the legality of peer-to-peer networks is one that's very current in our laws right now. The actual act of a peer-to-peer network is not what's in question; you're allowed to connect to other computers. It's basically what information and what content is being shared on the peer-to-peer network. We see this with movies and music. You could potentially be at risk for being arrested or held liable for distributing copywritten material in the form of a movie or music that you don't own the copyright to. You could also be held liable and responsible for obtaining access to a copywritten piece of material that you don't own. It is highly unlikely that this would happen, but it is possible. It is not a legal act to distribute material that you don't own. Legal use of a peer-to-peer network relies on what data, what content, what media is being transferred. If you are accessing and distributing either public domain material or material that you or other members of the network have created themselves on a peer-to-peer network, then you are doing absolutely nothing wrong. The legality of it comes from who owns the content that's being distributed.
