Illegal. Most countries have laws against file trading. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a cop, I don't care what you do with your bandwidth. As a helper, though, I have to warn you that you risk revocation of your ISP account, suspension from school/work, civil lawsuits, and trouble from law enforcement. For example, see the internationally synchronized busts in the Dept of Justice's Operation Buccaneer, or the US $12,000 to $17,500 legal settlements the recording industry won against several college students and even $2,000 against a 12 year old girl (if that link is broken, see our local copy), with hundreds of other cases still pending.
Dangerous. Downloading from strangers (especially fellow law breakers) can be as risky as opening email attachments blindly. New IRC useres are often infected with viruses and trojan horse attacks. Defenses like backups, anti-virus software, and firewalls can be helpful, but are never foolproof.
Difficult. IRC file trading isn't rocket science, but it is a relatively advanced subject. It takes experience and patience. You cannot install some dummy-proof application and start downloading files minutes later. You can master the basics in a few hours to a few days, especially if somebody shows you the way. Even then, however, there's a lot to learn because there are no standard commands or official file lists for IRC file trading. (Many web sites maintain opt-in file lists, but if you haven't found them yet on Google, that only shows once again that this is not exactly easy.) Finally, IRC's DCC file transfer protocol is relatively slow and inefficient, so expect long waits and frequent errors.
