Hiding ip

Hi all.
A mate up the road has just had a letter asking him to pay £350.00 for downloading a song.
He swears he didn't do it.
I've looked into it and it appears it is happening to loads of people.
I thought about hiding my ip years ago but then thought what does a few cookies matter as long as you have virus security etc.
Now it's a bit more serious, people that have done no wrong being threatened with court action.
Does anyone know of a fool proof way (free if poss) to hide my ip??
Cheers.

 

ZoneAlarm has a setting to hide your octet and then another going farther to hide your IP address. This is from the Internet Security suite...although there must be another way to 'hide'.

 

Thanks for the suggestion BP.
I've looked at the security suite and asked Zone Alarm.
Unfortunately the software doesn't hide your ip at all times, only when browsing.
These people have been done for downloading even when they haven't been (don't know how!!) and the ip is still visible during any type of downloading using zone alarm.

 

You can also try using this free program.
http://www.proxyway.com/www/downloads/

 

your best bet is to use a proxy server, but that can get tricky. There is no real way to hide your ip.
I use a program that blocks connections to suspected computers while using emule or bittorrent. it's called peer block
more info about what it is, and how to get it: http://www.peerblock.com/