...and I couldn't figure out why. I was getting 140kbps download, and that's 10% of what even BT said they would cap my connection at (for having the cheek to download 100GB of data through Steam on an "unlimited" connection).

Anyhoo, it only transpires that my sister has been running Limewire. Now, since it is me who pays the internetz bill in this household, I am rather displeased. Not only does it mean my connection is slow and pretty much unusable for me, but it will also be me who gets stung with the fine/legal threats for downloading copyrighted material.

Now, my ethical dilemma is such: I've told her not to do it, but she probably will anyway. So do I lop her off the internet via the Router, and point the finger should any legal threats arrive, or do I say nothing?

As an aside, it also means my poor niece missed out on Peppa Pig & Timmy Time before bed because there wasn't the bandwidth to stream them.

It depends on what she has been downloading. If you have a cap between certain hours then ask her not to use during those times. Also bit torrent traffic is seriously hampered during peak evening hours anyway so stop all torrents from 6pm to around 11pm anyway. Then normal browsing is unaffected. If you are a heavy user like me you can notch up 700 Mb just with email and browsing, in only a day.

I'm more concerned about the legal implications TBH.

Well music and games are the problematic downloads. If she downloads that I would cut her off. It simply is not worth the aggravation. There are plenty of cases out there in the news to use as examples. Chances are that nothing will happen but if you keep Bit Torrent traffic outside peak hours the odds are that your ISP will not be that bothered by what you do. check your ISP peak hours on their website and switch accordingly.

It's Limewire, a heavily monitored program as it is, and it's music, so I'm pretty much expecting the letter, I'm just not sure what to do when it arrives. Dropping my sister in it seems harsh, but then I don't really want it against my name, being the account holder...

I would get rid of lime wire for just the reasons you mention. It is monitored and problematic. Chances are you might still be okay but with lime wire you are chancing it. i would teach her how to use a another torrent search and torrent program, particularly an encrypted one. That would be the least problematic all round.

Sod that. I've told her she can download music legally, or she's getting cut off my internetz.

Just make sure that she does not use your credit card then!

I'd probably put her on a secure VPN connection to somewhere very far away, and cap her bandwidth to maybe 20% of that available. Either that, or cut her off and suggest she hack into a neighbour's WiFi. Rather depends on how much you want to help her criminal activities.

The answer is very simple

1. Your sister is breaking the law
2. She is using your internet connection to do it
3. You are legally responsible for everything that happens on your internet connection
4. At the moment you are an accessory to her offence
5. As long as you let her continue, you remain legally liable
6. If you don't want to be liable, you need to either stop the offence occurring or inform the Police.

There is no ethical dilemma here.

Cut her internet. As in right now.

If she wants to carry on breaking the law, tell her to Foxtrot Oscar and get her own damned connection.

I was under the impression she's committing a civil offence that would require the copyright holder to prosecute, rather than the Police being immediately involved. But maybe I'm wrong.

NO you are not wrong but the other factor is that she uses lime wire which is a monitored service so the chances of trouble are larger than zero.

I remember Limewire. Didn't know it was around. I remember there was Frostwire, which was opensource I believe.

Why are people still using these programs?

Free stuff?

I'd stop it at the router without mentioning anything to her.

No doubt she will come and ask you for some free (and immediate) tech support and then you can fiddle around nicely with Limewire before shrugging your shoulders and saying you don't know what's wrong.

Simples.