Q&A: How do record companies win the law suits for people downloading/sharing music files?

Question by StickyIcky: How do record companies win the law suits for people downloading/sharing music files?
If the song is purchased once and you allow other people, friends, whatever to save that song to their iPod, and they can in turn save it to their library, etc, etc, etc. Is this the same as 500 people downloading from LimeWire, or sharing music otherwise?? How do the record companies win the lawsuits when there are so many ways around it with out being tracked?
The above is just one example, there are others like burning CD’s, etc. Any opinions?
If the song is purchased once and you allow other people, friends, whatever to save that song to their iPod, and they can in turn save it to their library, etc, etc, etc. Is this the same as 500 people downloading from LimeWire, or sharing music otherwise?? How do the record companies win the lawsuits when there are so many ways around it with out being tracked?
The above is just one example, there are others like burning CD’s, etc. Any opinions?
And also, how is software like BitTorrent and Limewire still available without repremand for supplying users with the means to (in essance) illegally share files? Shouldn’t the record companies be targeting these like Napster, as opposed to the users?

Best answer:

Answer by Pfo
Your example, purchasing the song and transferring it to your friends, is in most cases undetectable. Some applications and audio files use DRM, which can help record companies track the activities of these files, including when and where it is copied and to / from whom. Record companies primarily use packet logs and statistics examined through file sharing networks to determine who to go after. They pick a number X and go after the top X offenders. Other methods of sharing files, especially offline ones, are very hard to detect, and even harder to acquire accurate evidence, and so are rarely targeted.

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