Hello. This is the FBI. You are under arrest and we are taking your PC.

Are you breaking the law? Do you even know if you are? There are some laws on the books and some coming that may affect how you must use the Internet, and how you must not.

And I will tell you this:

Four of my clients have been fined by the FCC for copyright infractions due to illegal music sharing.

And we are not talking petty change here, either. One was for $13,000!

It is illegal (federal) for you to download free music using products like Limewire and the old Napster (Napster has reformed and sells music legally). It is also very foolish for other reasons (I will address this in a later post). Limewire uses a system of dispersed sharing sites to illegally upload music to your computer. And when you sign up, if you aren't careful, your computer becomes a sharing site. As a result, you are illegally distributing music and videos (maybe even porn) through the Internet. You may not even be aware this is happening. You can be heavily fined for this activity, and the FCC is looking for ordinary, everyday citizens to make examples of. It might be your kids that are doing it, but you (the parent) are responsible. Just buy the music for $.99 at iTunes or any of the other music services out there. Buying the music from a reputable source protects you from breaking the law and from possibly virus-laden downloads.
Plagiarism is a big one. Just don't do it. Always cite the place where you got the information and put quotes around any direct lifting of information.
In many states, it is illegal to steal Internet service from anyone. In Illinois, a man was arrested for sitting outside a wi-fi hotspot and using his computer to browse. He didn't buy a cafe mocha latte thingy (with lemon or chives or something), so he was taken away, fined, and the status of his PC is unknown. If you are attaching to your neighbor's wireless Internet, you are breaking the law.
It is illegal to circumvent copyright protection on music and movies (and other media types). Do you know if your kids are breaking copyright protection? Are you doing it? Heavy fines, confiscation of equipment, and penalties (including jail) time when you are caught.
Did you know that, if you enter the country with a laptop, that it can be seized and searched without probable cause at customs? If you travel out of the US, make sure you don't have anything embarrassing on your PC when you reenter.

Now, having said all that, including #2, I want to link you to the place where I got much of this information from. The article contains a few more gotchas, many of which most of us will never have to deal with. But it's good information to have.

Visit my site - plaitsolutions.com.