Countermeasures
A common countermeasure used is concealing a user's IP address when downloading or uploading content by using anonymous networks, such as I2P - The Anonymous Network. There is also data encryption and the use of indirect connections to exchange data between peers. Thus all traffic is anonymized and encrypted. Unfortunately, anonymity and safety come at the price of much lower speeds, and due to the nature of those networks being internal networks there currently still is less content. However, this will change, once there are more users.
Read more about this topic: Privacy In File Sharing Networks