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[WarMachine]

saying the owner of copyrighted material has contacted them about copyright infrindgment, and that such infrindgement breaks the terms of service. that was all the letter said lol then it listed some website and a torrent file name with the date.

i duno if this is some wierd scare tactic or wat, but im pretty sure 'the owner of such copyrighted material' wouldnt be able to know wat i was doing without illegally looking at my computer, then harassing my isp for the logging info.

besides the fact, that for all the things they could have came down on me for.. they get me for a game i actually own lol i dont understand it.. how can they just assume i dont own the game and therefor have legal rights to get as many copies of it as i want. is it illegal to want all my games on one flash card instead of 30 lil easily loseble chips? theyd love that wouldnt they...then id have to spend 30 more bux buying the same shit.

[pte]

At least in most parts of Europe it is legal to have a backup of your data. The RIAA/MPAA/xxx stupid organizations just use big torrent trackers and start to DL files that they feel they "represent", then they check what IPs upload to them and start to send some emails to the ISPs. Most of the time that has been done due to illegal downloading but in your case it seems not. A program called PeerGuardian blocks spammer/virus sites and organizations like RIAA from connecting your computer. They should really concentrate on bigger issues than some Random John's but maybe that is one way as well.

[onekelly]

Warmachine, isp your isp comcast? If so they are owned by warner bros., and if you download any torrent movies, this will cause them to send a letter. A friend of mine recieved one of these for doing what I said.

[Devil_Spawn]

this isnt likely to happen on any other isp is it?

would a proxy trick my isp? or does it not work before its gone thru them?

[Perseid]

Comcast isn't owned by Time Warner. Roadrunner is.

In the US it is legal to have a backup of something you really own but it is not legal to download one at all.

And a single proxy will not trick the ISP(or more accurately, the meda company trying to snipe you). Something like Tor will but good luck getting a torrent to run through that.

My only recommendation, and this is far from foolproof, is to stick to smaller private trackers. The *AA are less likely to get you there than they are piratebay or something like that.

[Critical_Impact]

I've had this happen to me once. The company can only complain, they cant dont much about it, but some ISPS may disconnect you from their service for breaching their terms so i'd be wary in what you download. So basically, you shouldnt worry about it for the moment, unless you get caught again.

[rickf1018]

When I had adelphia a few years back, they disconnected my service until I called them to turn it back on, I think I was using torrents to d/l Gamecube isos. I got a letter from them what I was d/l and what site I got them from, It was a small site at that....It was just a warning not to do it again.  I switched to Verizon speed a little slower but my upstream alot faster and I have unlimited newsgroups with verizon so I use that now. Its way faster to d/l stuff and I believe safer.


Enjoy Rick

[soulie]

when you download a torrent you also *upload* at the same time and the excuse of "i'm going to use it as a backup" is therefore rendered useless.  If you do not want this sort of thing to happen when you download backups source your material where you dont have to upload

[fexo]

The best way to deal with this, if you are going to use a torrent appraoch, is to use "anonimity gateway". You can either buy it or get it elsewhere.

This covers the tracks very well as it indictates a completely different IP address and country and periodically changes.

[onekelly]

maybe it was adelphia owned by warner bros. I can't remember. Researched a long time ago.

[WarMachine]

well...theyve scared me shittless now. im not downloading anything now. i used to download the music i couldnt find anywhere in stores, like rare instrumental versions, acapellas, etc, but im afraid to even do that now. i have such an immense library of songs on my computer as well (im a musical producer) and they are all from buying records, and recording them onto the computer, so i can sample them for music. some of hte records were my uncles, and they got tossed, others i still have, etc. but like now, im just deleting everyhting, an throwing out all my back ups, becuz, i really dont want anything to do with it, if they are going to be harassing me like this. i mean if they knock down my door an search my house, i dont have the old records for some of these songs anymore, and thats really not fair that id be hit for those, crates of them got wet in my uncles basement and got tossed, i cant keep them, just so that my mp3s are legal.

[Perseid]

File sharing is not a criminal offense. They can't send goons to bust down your door. It is a civil offense which means they can sue you. The only way you could be arrested is if you were selling bootleg copyrighted material. So don't start having nightmares of prison and a man named Bubba.

EDIT: And I looked up Adelphia on wikipedia and it's some sort of weird joint ownership between Time Warner and Comcast. Sounds very bizarre to me.

[onekelly]

thanks perseid, I knew they had some sort of weird marriage together. My friend recieved a letter for only time warner movie torrents that he dl'd.

[WarMachine]

the whole ordeal has just been a nightmare. no one i know ever got a letter like this, which makes it even scarier, and then i just keep thinking back to like the fbi warnings on movies an stuff and thinking wat if they in involved somehow. i mean, i know wat i did really didnt violate any of that, but, its very hard for me to prove. the games, i have in my posesioin... some of the records and tapes, i dont. thats the point behind conversion... wat do i need to carry around a 12" record, or a tape when i dont have a tape player, if i can just convert it to mp3? i jus keep picturing the fbi busting down my door with a warrent becuz of some stupid torrent, then harassing me about every peice of blank media in my house. "paris hilton sex tape eh? do you have the original verison of this?"  "uh.. no one does...except..maybe..her"   "likely ecuse...book em Danno"

[Critical_Impact]

Legally they cant get your address so they cant come storming in unless you are distributing thousands of mp3s etc. You have nothing to worry about apart from them killing your service if you do it again. ISP's are legally required to send out messages but arent allowed to give out private details.