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[WegeHop]

Has anyone ever been caught for downloading Roms illegally?

Just wondering.

[onekelly]

doubtful, not that i do it,  :wink: , but i think the ones that the Po-lice go after are those who upload stuff, generally speaking.

[Gleasonator]

Well... people have been caught using torrents to download ROMs, but like onekelly said, it's uploaders that get the hardest slap on the wrist.

[Perseid]

Remember there are two different  types of copyright enforcement - criminal and civil.

Civil is what most P2P users do. RIAA catches you downloading and sues you. The other type is criminal. You burn movies on a DVD-R and sell them on a streetcorner. They are separate, and a civil suit won't involve men in black knocking down your front door.

Also, with most P2P, especially BitTorrent, everybody is an uploader. So you can potentially get sued for downloading anything illegal with BT.

And I haven't heard of any software industry lawsuits like the RIAA and MPAA are doing. So it's probably safe.

[lengz]

Well, to the police or anyone monitoring, why catch every single one of those.. let's say..2000 people downloadings roms from one guy when they can catch that one guy, and charge them for every one of those 2000 downloads?

[sneef]

like Perseid said, when you are running a bittorrent client, you ARE an uploader.

I got two letters from my ISP before on behalf of the MPAA, claiming I was serving copyrighted files illegally.  They even cited the two movies in question.  both I had downloaded from bittorrent, and I guess the fact that it was before the clients offered encryption allowed them to know what I was downloading/uploading.  either way, my downloading was considered "serving".. :S

[uzumakishade]

did you get anything else besides those letters? like extra charges or anything on your bill or something?

[Gleasonator]

Usually after a few letters, your ISP decides that you're causing them more trouble than your money's worth so they cut off your internet. That's the ultimate punishment, really, unless you made a company lose like a million dollars or something.

[Altor]

It's impossible without a search warrant to prove that you don't own something, and the courts have more important things to worry about than petty theft that may or may not be taking place.  This is especially the case now, when so many such lawsuits wind up getting dropped or being proven to be fraudulent, misrepresenting the truth, or involving claims that cannot be proven on the part of the company making the suit.

For instance, suppose you buy a game, download its rom (legally), are detected (presumed to be illegally), then sell the game and delete the rom.  In this case, neither party can be prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, and the case is thrown out of court.  The person that brought up the claim winds up with the court costs, not to mention lawyer fees, etc, etc...

Heh, to be stupid and simplify things too far, how far do you get in Phoenix Wright with no evidence?

It is not illegal to have/use a backup.

Even supposing you are caught uploading (seeding) the file via bittorrent, it would be difficult to prove...
1) that you did so intentionally - maybe you didn't realize you were sharing it, after all, bittorrent is such complicated and frightening software
2) that it was in fact you personally who did it - and not the guy who happens to be a skilled hacker sitting 5 feet outside your door with a wireless laptop

[Perseid]

It IS illegal to download a backup whether you own the original or not. The only way fair use can apply to your backup is if you dumped the ROM yourself. This is how the MPAA/RIAA lawsuits work.

[Altor]

Hmm... kinda back-asswards, but I guess we can't expect much better.

[KujaDS]

I just recently got a letter from my ISP too. I'm kinda worried because they asked my ISP for personal information but got denied. My ISP would not give out my personal information without a warrent from the court order. Do you think they would try to get a warrent and come do my door and seize my computer and take me to court action?

Do any of you guys use PeerGuardian? I just found out this program and it seems like everyone who download torrents should be using this. Did anyone that got a letter use a P2P protection?

[Shinster]

LOL Good thing I live where there are no such laws... yet.

[what]

LOL Good thing I live where there are no such laws... yet.

like most 3rd world countries, there is no such thing as illegal piracy. It's only "illegal" when it goes international like when you try to bring out pirated stuff out of the country (at airport checks). Heck, even members of the first family (saw them myself), some politicians and a couple of celebrities (even the business millionaire celebrities) buy pirated dvds.

Sure there are raids on pirated stuff but that's just for show to associations like the RIAA. They give back like a third of the pirated merchandise to the vendors. It's actually cool how we discussed in my polsci class why they're allowed to sell wares.

[Trunkzeh]

I'm not too sure on the UK's standing on this, but I know that selling pirated DVDs & games is illegal (we've seen raids happen), however downloading of mp3s & movies is illegal (to my knowledge), but we dont get hassled as much as u guys over the pond (America)