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Well this doesn't matter much. You can download your torrents from other sites. But an interesting new development has occured where I live (and what I hear i

Well this doesn't matter much. You can download your torrents from other sites. But an interesting new development has occured where I live (and what I hear in other europena countries as well). Lawyers get the rights holders permissions to enforce their copyrights, and then they connect to the torrent swarms and start collecting IP addressess. Then they get a court order for the ISP's to release the IP owner's personal information. Then they send a shakedown letter, were they threaten to sue you if you don't pay up 600 euros or some such sum. It's "nice" to know that it is that easy to get ISP's to hand over customer information. So, always use protection (VPN) when torrenting, kids! :)

myztic 11y ago
New development? Actually they have been doing that probably all around the world for years now. A friend of mine in Germany also got such a letter once and wrote something back along the lines of "Wasn't me, don't know what you are talking about" and he never heard from them again. They try to profit from the fear of everyday people who rather pay up front, because they don't want to risk that the case goes to court, no matter how unlikely this might be. And it's even understandable, ordinary folks probably really panic when they see such a letter and all the legal talk and underlying threats that are made. It's as despicable as patent trolling. First avoid such a situation: -) use vpn if possible (check with their policies, whether they allow torrent traffic or maybe they ban it from certain servers, preferably use a provider that does not log) -) quite simply never download newer material with big companies behind them from public trackers. most of the times these letters regard the newest Hollywood movies, a current album by a big pop star or the newest game everyone has been waiting for, not Taxi Driver, The Godfather Trilogy, Quake 3 or the weird Japanese pop band from the 80s you are into and if you are in such a situation: -) consult your lawyer or search on the Internet how to properly respond, do not just pay!
- JamyDev 11y ago
  Very interesting (Defcon) talk about a similar store from the owner of textfiles.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSWqx8goqSY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSWqx8goqSY
hellofunk 11y ago
This happens in the U.S. and has for years.
- kisstheblade 11y ago
  I read up on this when I got my own little surprise letter and found out that it indeed is quite common. I was surprised though that I hadn't heard about this anywhere. Maybe the most "shocking" part was how easy it is to get customer info from an ISP. And still I haven't heard anything about this. Even though there exists political parties around this (eg. piratpartiet in sweden and other countries.) Upon further googling I found some news articles where the lawyers try to drum up fear, but apparently only a couple of cases have gone to court here or are pending. One case supposedly ended in a secret(!) settlement. And this is the "market court" we are talking about, secret settlements seem weird. Has there been any public court cases where the "suspect" has been convicted of any meaningful sum? One would think that these lawyers would make it a very public as a "precedent".
rorykoehler 11y ago
In Germany the scam has been picked up by non-legal scammers (as opposed to the legal scammers you mention) who send out letters to ask you to pay but they have nothing to do with the copyright holders at all.

myztic 11y ago

New development? Actually they have been doing that probably all around the world for years now. A friend of mine in Germany also got such a letter once and wrote something back along the lines of "Wasn't me, don't know what you are talking about" and he never heard from them again. They try to profit from the fear of everyday people who rather pay up front, because they don't want to risk that the case goes to court, no matter how unlikely this might be. And it's even understandable, ordinary folks probably really panic when they see such a letter and all the legal talk and underlying threats that are made. It's as despicable as patent trolling. First avoid such a situation: -) use vpn if possible (check with their policies, whether they allow torrent traffic or maybe they ban it from certain servers, preferably use a provider that does not log) -) quite simply never download newer material with big companies behind them from public trackers. most of the times these letters regard the newest Hollywood movies, a current album by a big pop star or the newest game everyone has been waiting for, not Taxi Driver, The Godfather Trilogy, Quake 3 or the weird Japanese pop band from the 80s you are into and if you are in such a situation: -) consult your lawyer or search on the Internet how to properly respond, do not just pay!

JamyDev 11y ago
Very interesting (Defcon) talk about a similar store from the owner of textfiles.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSWqx8goqSY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSWqx8goqSY

hellofunk 11y ago

This happens in the U.S. and has for years.

kisstheblade 11y ago
I read up on this when I got my own little surprise letter and found out that it indeed is quite common. I was surprised though that I hadn't heard about this anywhere. Maybe the most "shocking" part was how easy it is to get customer info from an ISP. And still I haven't heard anything about this. Even though there exists political parties around this (eg. piratpartiet in sweden and other countries.) Upon further googling I found some news articles where the lawyers try to drum up fear, but apparently only a couple of cases have gone to court here or are pending. One case supposedly ended in a secret(!) settlement. And this is the "market court" we are talking about, secret settlements seem weird. Has there been any public court cases where the "suspect" has been convicted of any meaningful sum? One would think that these lawyers would make it a very public as a "precedent".

rorykoehler 11y ago

In Germany the scam has been picked up by non-legal scammers (as opposed to the legal scammers you mention) who send out letters to ask you to pay but they have nothing to do with the copyright holders at all.