Use BitTorrent to, cough, illegally download music, movies, games and whatnot? If you do, you might want to watch this video, which explains how tracking agencies (the companies the **AA hire to track your downloads, often leading to a letter from your ISP saying you’ve been caught) do what they do. It’s fairly informative and will tide you over until the MacWorld three ring circus begins in a couple of hours.
I do use PeerGuardian (well, SafePeer, to be exact) when I use Azureus, mainly for the illusion that I’m being protected. Who knows if it actually does anything.
Video: How People Are Tracked Using BitTorrent [TorrentFreak]
Can they prosecute you based on evidence such as “suckered into downloading a big false file”? Because if they provided the files for real… they would be in real trouble, also it would be the case if they entered to see peers by adding a download…
They have their means and (go google for it) even companies ask them to measure how much pull their products have.
Remember that ARG developed with Mr. Reznor featured in a wired article? Go see where he hid some info for it and how he expected it to be there for fans…
Companies (IMHO) should look into incorporating this into their distribution channels (seed ratio = discounts, because it would reduce the load on servers they own), mainly because this means that they are not spending on a physical product and its distribution.