What internet providers cut off internet for illegal music dowloads?

Answer 1

ISPs don't care what you download. It's the content publisher who cares. Under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) ISPs fall under Safe Harbor, which means they are not responsible for any traffic initiated by the users of their network. However, one of the provisions of the DMCA is that, in order to keep their safe harbor right, they have to comply with DMCA Takedown notices.

So basically, if you access a website or are downloading an audio or video file that you can't legally download/access, the ISP will _most likely_ not do anything about it. This is because, as before, they are covered as a safe harbor, and they don't want to make their customers angry by constantly shutting off their internet.

The problem lies in the uploading of content. Because you are technically "hosting" a file when you download it through peer-to-peer programs, the ISP is forced to take action whenever a DMCA notice is received for your computer. So a content publisher will go onto a torrent site or a p2p program such as kazaa, search for some of their own content, connect to a server, and then automatically send DMCA notices to the ISPs of all the IPs that they connect to. By the nature of the p2p protocol, your IP is not safe at all. You can potentially use a proxy, though your speed will likely be extremely slow then.

Essentially, any p2p software you use will be hindered by this simple fact. If you can disable sharing completely, then your ISP most likely won't receive a DMCA takedown notice for you. If you use something such as Peer Guardian, that blacklists content provider's ISPs, you will be slightly more safe.

The best way not to get your internet shut off is to never upload anything illegal, ever. And you'd be advised not to download anything illegal either, though it's less likely you'll get in trouble for that.

Note all this advice is IANAL and you'd probably be well off to consult an attorney on these matters, just to be certain.