Someone told me his friend got a $2500 fine for downloading free MP3s because...

[theatredaze]

...Vista reported it. Is this true? Does Vista report your free MP3's?

Are we being tracked?

Will Vista users be fined for using file sharing programs such as LimeWire?

[norcaljohnny]

it goes further back then vista , phone home app were embeded since days of 2000
but if your friend actually got fined theres no telling
you can d/l peerguardian2 prevents apps from calling home
free at www.methlabs.org

its def not a bandwidth issue cus with all these video sharing sites, they are not apt to care about all that

unless you live in sweden and have a 10meg upload link and run your own server to abuse bandwidth in that regards

[Game-Guy Pro]

Yes, as I've heard in multiple reports, Vista sends a report to Microsoft telling them if the user is doing illegal activities on there computer. If I remember correctly, it states that Vista does this in the Agreement EULA. Yes, if you read it, you would know that it does track ILLEGAL activities.

[Superandomness]

I think it tracks illegal activities.

[Laid back]

Vista itself does not report downloads. If he was reported then it was through the ISP seeing high traffic flow and him making the mistake of not using a bandwidth-limiter.