The users of torrent clients have been watching for at least three years

British cybersecurity specialists conducted an experiment that proved the presence of a system that fixes the IP of each user of large torrent trackers.

During their research, scientists from the University of Birmingham have tracked popular distributions to 420 torrent trackers for three years.

According to the head of the group of scientists, Tom Koti, you can even sit even someone who downloads the film only once, Vesti.ru reports. In general, users who download information from torrents can be traced in three hours.

If the user gives out the content in the first hundred in popularity, then the systems will write it down the IP address within a few hours. Less popular distributions are monitored less often.

The British discovered at least ten companies that track the loads, but could not identify the owners or customers of hidden monitoring technology. Most likely, these are organizations for the protection of copyright and companies operating in the field of computer security.

Each user of file-sharing customers simultaneously downloads and distributes, so all participants in the torrent network violate the legislation on the protection of intellectual property operating in most countries. However, despite the ease of determining the IP address, lawyers believe that it is unlikely that network addresses can be proof in court, since they indicate a connection, and not a certain person.