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I've heard about how they cracked down on people for downloading on the internet but this is ridiculous.
Yes, it's my fault for torrenting something without paying for it but man, I didn't think it would happen to me.
Dear Charter Internet Subscriber:
Charter Communications ("Charter") has been notified by a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, that your Internet account may have been involved in the exchange of unauthorized copies of copyrighted material (e.g., music, movies, or software). We are enclosing a copy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice that Charter received from the copyright holder which includes the specific allegation.
Under the DMCA, copyright owners have the right to notify Charter’s register agent if they believe that a Charter customer has infringed on their work(s). When Charter receives a complaint notice from a copyright owner, Charter will notify the identifiable customer of the alleged infringement by providing them a copy of the submitted DMCA notice. As required by law, Charter may determine that the customer is a repeat copyright infringer and reserves the right to suspend or terminate the accounts of repeat copyright infringers.
It is possible that this activity has occurred without your permission or knowledge by an unauthorized user, a minor who may not fully understand the copyright laws, or even as a result of a computer virus. However, as the named subscriber on the account, you may be held responsible for any misuse of your account. Please be aware that using Charter’s service to engage in any form of copyright infringement is expressly prohibited by Charter's Acceptable Use Policy and that repeat copyright infringement, or violations of any other Charter policy, may result in the suspension or termination of your service. You may view Charter's rules and policies, including Charter’s Acceptable Use Policy, under the policies section of charter.com.
We ask that you take immediate action to stop the exchange of any infringing material. For additional information regarding copyright infringement and for a list of frequently asked questions, please visit charter.com/dmca.
If you have questions about this letter, you may contact us at 1-866-229-7286. Representatives will be available to take your call Monday through Friday 8am - 8pm, Saturday and Sunday 8am - 5pm (CST).
Sincerely,
Charter Communications Security Resolution Team
http://www.charter.com/security
Further info:
+ Show Spoiler +I edited out the names and important info. You are hereby notified that your unauthorized copying and/or distribution infringes the registered copyrights of - under the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 106. In this regard, demand is hereby made that you and all persons using this account immediately and permanently cease and desist the unauthorized copying and/or distribution of the registered copyrights listed in this notice or otherwise owned by -t. You may also be held liable for monetary damages, including attorney's fees and court costs if a lawsuit is commenced against you. You have until Sunday, December 12, 2010 to access the settlement offer and settle online. To access the settlement offer please visit http://www.copyrightsettlements.com/ and enter Case #: Settlement Information: Direct Settlement Link: Settlement Website: http://www.copyrightsettlements.com/Case #: Password: If you fail to respond or settle within the prescribed time period, the claim(s) will be referred to our attorneys for legal action. At that point the original settlement offer will no longer be an option and the amount will increase as a result of us having to involve our attorneys. Nothing contained or omitted from this correspondence is, or shall be deemed to be either a full statement of the facts or applicable law, an admission of any fact, or waiver or limitation of any of the -'s rights or remedies, all of which are specifically retained and reserved. The information in this notice is accurate. We have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of herein is not authorized by the registered copyright owner, its agent, or by operation of law. We swear under penalty of perjury, that we are authorized to act on behalf of -. Sincerely, Dale Spislander Copyright Enforcement Agent Copyright Enforcement Group, LLC 8484 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 220 Beverly Hills, CA 90211
I checked how much it would cost to settle online and it was around $120 or 140.
Do they not even give warnings out now? A friend of mine who illegally downloaded a movie received a warning from his provider and he stopped doing it.
I had no idea they just dished out penalties without warnings these days.
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Read about something like this being a scam in europe which got busted after they netted deep 6 figures iirc... maybe its worth finding someone who could verify all this shit isn't just a scam :O
dunno man, tread with caution is all one can advise!
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Lol I think this is one of those scams. Were you served ? Or did this just arrive in the mail. If it just came in the mail, ignore it. These kinds of companys are known to send out mess letters like these fishing for suckers to settle. And online setteling ? really without your signature or any other legal measurement.
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the e-mail was from abuse@charter.net, which I believe is legit. I hope someone more knowledgable can point out if its real or not, but I'm betting it's real.
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On December 09 2010 06:15 lastmotion wrote:
the e-mail was from abuse@charter.net, which I believe is legit. I hope someone more knowledgable can point out if its real or not, but I'm betting it's real.
Emails are no legal way to sue somebody in any way. Neither is setteling on a internet page. This whole thing just smells like a scam.
Also they don't point out what you have downloaded. They have shown no evidance.
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On December 09 2010 06:17 Marradron wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2010 06:15 lastmotion wrote:
the e-mail was from abuse@charter.net, which I believe is legit. I hope someone more knowledgable can point out if its real or not, but I'm betting it's real. Emails are no legal way to sue somebody in any way. Neither is setteling on a internet page. This whole thing just smells like a scam. Also they don't point out what you have downloaded. They have shown no evidance.
No, they listed exactly what I downloaded, they got the file name correct and everything. I just edited it out for my sake.
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Croatia9491 Posts
On December 09 2010 06:15 lastmotion wrote:
the e-mail was from abuse@charter.net, which I believe is legit. I hope someone more knowledgable can point out if its real or not, but I'm betting it's real.
It's probably a scam. A well thought out one.
Also, there's something as e-mail spoofing.
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It's called intimidation.
Be more careful about your sources. If you aren't very sure if a source is safe don't upload.
Also could be a scam I guess, but I see no reason why it must be.
Anyways, what you should do is just ignore it but be more careful from now on.
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United States24637 Posts
If you are being legitimately accused of copyright infringement then that means most likely that the copyright holder or their agent downloaded from YOU the illegal thing that you were sharing (such as uploading in the process of downloading a torrent). In this case they should be able to identify what copyright they hold that you violated and what file it was that you were illegally sharing.
You don't have to be afraid of 'downloading' per say.
edit: oh they told you the file... in that case they did download at least a piece of it from you. Whether or not they are the company they claim or a fake group pretending to be them I have no idea.
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well I downloaded the file from piratebay. I never uploaded or anything.
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Croatia9491 Posts
I edited out the names and important info.
What kind of important info exactly? Is it something only your provider would know or some general stuff?
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On December 09 2010 06:22 2Pacalypse- wrote:What kind of important info exactly? Is it something only your provider would know or some general stuff?
I can forward my e-mail to you. Maybe you could pm me your e-mail address or something? I don't want the entire TL community to see my case because the e-mail provides case ID# and password
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thepiratebay links to other sources, it really isn't a source in of itself
you didn't upload anything?? huh
well, im sure there are legitimate methods to protect yourself while downloading torrents if you are paranoid now. do a google search and look into it.
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On December 09 2010 06:19 lastmotion wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2010 06:17 Marradron wrote:On December 09 2010 06:15 lastmotion wrote:
the e-mail was from abuse@charter.net, which I believe is legit. I hope someone more knowledgable can point out if its real or not, but I'm betting it's real. Emails are no legal way to sue somebody in any way. Neither is setteling on a internet page. This whole thing just smells like a scam. Also they don't point out what you have downloaded. They have shown no evidance. No, they listed exactly what I downloaded, they got the file name correct and everything. I just edited it out for my sake.
Is it from a torrent site you registered to use?
Anyone in the world can see what IPs are connected to a torrent. if you actually use your comcast email it's not unlikely for someone to pull off a convincing scam like this
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Why not caller your IP and ask if they sent this e-mail? If they did, then you know it's legit. If they say they didn't send you an e-mail, then you're in the clear.
Obviously don't tip them off that you are pirating stuff before they even respond, lol. Just ask: "Hey, I got an e-mail the other day and just to be certain, I'm calling to see if this e-mail was actually from you guys", etc etc. I wouldn't use the number in the e-mail, use a past number you got when you signed up or something.
Best of luck man, hopefully this all clears up for you. It could have been worse. :/
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If you used a torrent file you did upload. Thats the way torrents work you download and upload at the same time. Still even if they rightfully accuse you it is still a bit scammy. They have no intentions to sue you since it would cost them way to much time and effort. Atleast thats what they do in europe. Where are you from ?
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@floor exercise: I don't have a registered account on piratebay. I just went to the site and searched for a file and downloaded it like 99% others. I have an e-mail account with Charter (my internet provider) but I never use that e-mail if that's what u mean.
@sagefantasma: I think I will do that. Thanks for that. At least I can try to verify if I got e-mail spoofed or not.
@Marradron: I live in the U.S.
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eh i guess maybe not responding to it is bad advice
but this was an email right? not mail?
I don't see how this could possibly be legal
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On December 09 2010 06:37 travis wrote:
dude why does it matter if it's a scam or not? just don't respond to it
If it's not a scam, there is a chance I might get sued by them, isn't there?
I can't just say "I never check my e-mails" can I?
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On December 09 2010 06:39 lastmotion wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2010 06:37 travis wrote:
dude why does it matter if it's a scam or not? just don't respond to it If it's not a scam, there is a chance I might get sued by them, isn't there? I can't just say "I never check my e-mails" can I?
I don't see why you couldn't.
I do know that I wouldn't respond, though.
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I'd say ignore it, but I'd also advise you not to post evidence on the net.
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Ignore them, unless and until you are dealing with legitimate Court documents (summons, subpoena). If you do not respond and submit your information to their website they will have to take you to Court, and that will take a lot of their time and money. You have to realize that this organisation is sending TONS of e-mails like this to people every day, and there is no way they can sue everyone that is not willing to settle this on that vague website, they rather get some fast bucks from people who are intimidated and pay up. Just don't download stuff from bit torrent for a while and see what happens after the deadline of 12 December.
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1. If you downloaded a torrent, then you have uploaded it as well. It uploads while you download it, unless you manually set it to not upload.
2. They can't legally sue you. In most countries, email is not considered an official form of communication. They have to send you a letter by mail in order to take any sort of legal action.
What I would do is reply to them asking for it to be sent by mail. If they do send it to you by mail, then you would probably have to pay the fine or w/e, but if it's a scam, they most likely won't send you mail since you are able to charge them for fraud.
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it's easy to say ignore it when you're not in my situation, but damn, I might fined in the thousands if they take action =/
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I got one of these a while back. The first one is usually just your ISP re-informing you that they're not responsible for your slimey crimey ways. In my case it was for downloading a Grand Theft Auto game. Maybe 3 years ago? I'm not sure. In any case I was pretty upset at the time and purged everything and anything they I'd torrented from my computer (looooooot of music :C). I wasn't referred to a settlement website like yourself. It seems a bit more serious.
I'd recommend switching to a more secure torrent site. Or stopping. Don't pay the settlement fee. Wait it out, usually nothing comes of these (I asked around after mine). It doesn't make fiscal sense for them to actually pursue you.
Edit: If you're really worried about it try calling your ISP. They want to keep you as a customer, and it's not as if you calling will be a sign of absolute admission to them and they will cut you off. Odds are the customer service guy will be honest with you and tell you what's the best course of action/what usually happens in situations like these. Good luck 
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it's probably legal.
ignore it and stop using bittorrent. they're not going to sue you for one minor infraction.
also, by posting here you're basically admitting to doing it, which you shouldn't be 
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On December 09 2010 06:54 lastmotion wrote:
it's easy to say ignore it when you're not in my situation, but damn, I might fined in the thousands if they take action =/
even if they brought a suit against you, it would still be in their best interest to settle. this is just a moneymaking scheme using intimidation. just don't worry about it, the odds anything would come of it are very slim
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Ignore it, it's pretty much guaranteed to be a scam. No law firm in their right mind (or not, even) would contact you via email to address legal matters. How would they even know the email address was yours? It's just completely ridiculous. Moreover, the whole online settlement thing is so incredibly fishy.
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On December 09 2010 06:58 zzaaxxsscd wrote:it's probably legal. ignore it and stop using bittorrent. they're not going to sue you for one minor infraction. also, by posting here you're basically admitting to doing it, which you shouldn't be
does that really matter? his posting here is private.
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here is a question
anywhere in this email, did it actually include your name/address ?
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On December 09 2010 06:59 travis wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2010 06:58 zzaaxxsscd wrote:it's probably legal. ignore it and stop using bittorrent. they're not going to sue you for one minor infraction. also, by posting here you're basically admitting to doing it, which you shouldn't be does that really matter? his posting here is private.
well, it is a public forum, but yeah, realistically, nothing will come of it
the same thing happened to me 10 years ago at college w/bearshare and mp3s. I lost dorm internet access for a year and had to use dial-up AOL (so I'm speaking from experience)
check out http://www.myaccount.charter.com/customers/support.aspx?supportarticleid=1948
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On December 09 2010 07:02 travis wrote:
here is a question
anywhere in this email, did it actually include your name/address ?
no, they didn't. Do just e-mailed the e-mail that was attached to the Internet Provider Account that I signed up with. Do you think I could forward you my e-mail so you can look at the actual thing? I'm kinda scared right now =/
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I personally wouldn't respond to this as they have no ways to verify it's your e-mail adress and that you're actively using it. Pretty much anything official will be sent to you on paper, if they don't want to spend the money to send you a letter they don't want to spend the money going to court. I'm pretty sure this is a scam based on intimidation and buying of your sins.
Edit: check the link Travis posted, they can't even send you a letter since they don't really know who you are. The only thing they can get is your IP adress and the only one who knows who that IP adress belongs to is your Internet provider. Internet providers never compromise their clients identity though, so they forward the letters sent to them to you.
It's really a scare tactic, they don't have your name or e-mail-adress so as long as you don't contact them you're fine 
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On December 09 2010 07:07 lastmotion wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2010 07:02 travis wrote:
here is a question
anywhere in this email, did it actually include your name/address ?
no, they didn't. Do just e-mailed the e-mail that was attached to the Internet Provider Account that I signed up with. Do you think I could forward you my e-mail so you can look at the actual thing? I'm kinda scared right now =/
you don't need to send me it
http://forums.phoenixlabs.org/printthread.php?tid=164
read the post by Aaron.Walkhouse
im sure he is correct in his assessment
don't worry about this bro. seriously nothing will come of it but in the extremely far-fetched chance it did im sure you would still be able to settle.
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Everythings gonna b k. ^^
Maybe next time just buy whatever u were torrenting or ninja it from some1 else via flash drive. Better safe then srry.
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Seems fishy. Did you call the phone number, and if so, what is it?
Edit: I just called the number and went to the website it tells you to visit for more information. You should probably stop torrenting, lol.
At first I was wondering how the copyright holders would have gotten your info, but I think all they would have to do is download their material via torrent to see the ip addresses of the uploaders. They probably then contacted the ISP.
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I've received legit cease and desist letters from Cox Communications via e-mail plenty of times, they shut off my internet until I call and promise not to offend the DMCA. I installed peer-guardian and they haven't contacted me in 3 years.
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I'm at college, and in our dorms we only have wired internet connection, so they basically know whatever's going on. If our volume of internet use is too high, they'll start looking at content, and if we're downloading illegally, they can stop our internet use.
I wonder if I'm safe on wifi, though. There are a bunch of places on campus that have wifi. It's still the school's wifi, but at that point, can they tell who's downloading the stuff?
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On December 09 2010 07:49 DTK-m2 wrote:
I'm at college, and in our dorms we only have wired internet connection, so they basically know whatever's going on. If our volume of internet use is too high, they'll start looking at content, and if we're downloading illegally, they can stop our internet use.
I wonder if I'm safe on wifi, though. There are a bunch of places on campus that have wifi. It's still the school's wifi, but at that point, can they tell who's downloading the stuff?
At mcgill, if you wana use school's wifi, you gotta connect with your mcgill email, so yeah my school knows who is on the internet or not...
Being in Canada though, it's awesome! You can download movies shows and musics legally as long as you don't profit from it. I knew some friends who checked deeper in the law, and it seems that they mostly go after people that uploads the content online and not the ones that download it...
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Here's a couple of things that seem fishy:
You can't get sued by email. If you get sued, you'll be given the same offer to settle with them. They have no evidence and they can't prove that you were the one that downloaded the item in question unless you stupidly admit to it. If someone feeds off your internet connection and downloads something, you're not responsible for what they did. (At least, this is what I'm getting from the 3 cases I've heard about.)
Speaking of which, I'm going to go buy an email list and just shoot off hundreds of emails stating that the person downloaded something illegally and they should pay me $20. I wonder how many takers I would get.
+ Show Spoiler +
I'm not really going to do it, but it would be interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if I get at least a 40% conversion rate or something stupid like that. After all, it wouldn't be hard to word the entire email to the point where I'm not saying you have to pay $20, but if you do it has the possibility of helping your chances in not getting sued. I'm so clever. <-Joke
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Run a google search on the company first. This is likely a scam, if not pay the fine and stop downloading.
Others have been fined millions of dollars..consider yourself kinda lucky.
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Even if it is legit, I don't see anywhere in that email where they ask you to give them money or to contact them at all. So don't. All they're asking you to do is cease and desist (i.e. quit pirating), so either do that, or use something like PeerGuardian to help you avoid to honeypots and other traps. If you keep torrenting and you do keep getting caught you might get sued, but (IANAL) I'm pretty sure the method for that is a tad bit more formal than just an email.
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Where are you from? I know charter's around the mid-west in USA, not sure if they're presnet anywhere else. I suggest you switch to AT&T, they dont give a fuck what you do. lol.
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Osaka27139 Posts
It is just telling you not to DL stuff. You aren't going to get sued.
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I received a couple of these a few years ago, generally the most serious thing that will happen is on the 3rd strike the isp will terminate your service. Suing is pretty rare, don't worry about it, just stop dling movies from major publishers on public sites.
I had 2 strikes against me a few years ago, and have since switched to usenet, look into it.
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On December 09 2010 11:36 Manifesto7 wrote:
It is just telling you not to DL stuff. You aren't going to get sued.
You saw the post in the spoiler tag where they asked for money right? I hope you're right
From doing a little research and really listening to you guys, I'm most likely going to ignore it. I don't doubt that its a real law group but as many have said, I don't think they will pursue it.
Anyway, after this, I'll let you guys know and keep you all updated with results
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Been said by others, but it sounds like a pseudo-scam to me. A legitimate company sending out intimidating e-mails because they know some people will feel threatened and pay up. They likely do not have anywhere close to the manpower required to follow up on your "case".
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Osaka27139 Posts
On December 09 2010 13:11 lastmotion wrote:Show nested quote +On December 09 2010 11:36 Manifesto7 wrote:
It is just telling you not to DL stuff. You aren't going to get sued. You saw the post in the spoiler tag where they asked for money right? I hope you're right From doing a little research and really listening to you guys, I'm most likely going to ignore it. I don't doubt that its a real law group but as many have said, I don't think they will pursue it. Anyway, after this, I'll let you guys know and keep you all updated with results
It is to scare people into paying. How can you not see the ridiculous nature of "hey you did something bad, so give us money and we will go away". They are not traffic cops giving our parking tickets.
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The letter does seem a little fishy to me! In my experiences, I had a roommate get so paranoid that Comcast was going to come after him that he literally took 2 Terabyte hard drives full of downloaded material and threw them in the dumpster out of an irrational fear that the government was going to come and wisk him away.
I doubt you have to worry about anything that much. Like others have said, just be careful!
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Start using private trackers and direct downloads.
Download stuff from rapidshare (using sites like warez-bb.org) or get on demonoid or whatever private tracker you want (bitgamer, passthepopcorn, bakabt, what.cd, etc.) and you're less likely to get "caught".
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Its a scam, anything that asks for personal information online under the threat of extreme penalties is usually just a phishing scam, expecially one that offers you a fast way out by paying a small amount of money. Now if you get served legit papers then you might be screwed O.o but its a 99% chance that message is bogus
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Turn on Encryption on Utorrent, install Peerblock & add exceptions for blizzard & steam ips(google for the premade links)
Other then that you could: dl via your ISP's newsgroups (dependant on your isp a lot do have them) dl speeds are usually max you can get to your isp and they are happy you use them rather then normal traffic for dling stuff via torrents and stuff.
Use an Anon proxy, move somewhere they don't care.
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nevermind...i think the article is fake..the site itself seems like a blog, and when i try to post a comment, it won't even show up
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Contact an attorney. If that's the only thing you've received, then you're not being sued yet. I would just stop downloading, contact an attorney and see what your potential liability is. Don't pay anything either as this may be a scam or could have other unintended consequences.
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On December 10 2010 09:12 Sultan.P wrote:
Contact an attorney. If that's the only thing you've received, then you're not being sued yet. I would just stop downloading, contact an attorney and see what your potential liability is. Don't pay anything either as this may be a scam or could have other unintended consequences.
you do realize that attorney would cost more than paying off the settelement fee
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On December 09 2010 06:22 lastmotion wrote:
well I downloaded the file from piratebay. I never uploaded or anything.
Im on my phone so forgive me but, if you torrent you upload its as simple as that(sorry if you already addressed this)
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If you go to the copyright settlements websites you can tell its fake by the terms of use section of the site
18. For Information Purposes Only.
Materials on this website have been prepared for informational purposes only and do not constitute a solicitation or legal advice. Transmission of the materials and information contained herein is not intended to create, and receipt thereof does not constitute formation of, an attorney-client relationship. The information contained in this website is provided only as general information. CEG expressly disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on any of the contents of this website. This website is not a substitute for legal advice. You should not rely on this website as a source of legal advice. Communications with CEG via email will not be treated as privileged or confidential.
19. CEG's website is operated by a private company not affiliated with or endorsed by any state or federal government agency or department.
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Not sure about international law, but in Australia you're only liable to the price of the product that you downloaded. Don't reply, and its your choice as to whether you continue or stop downloading copyrighted content.
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The best thing to do is just ignore these types of emails. Most of them are just scams.
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Please read the articel below and stop overreacting.
The US Copyright Group thought it had found the ideal scheme to turn piracy into profit when it started filing lawsuits against tens of thousands of BitTorrent users this year. But the defendants in the Far Cry lawsuits have now become the plaintiffs in a class action filed against the anti-piracy lawyers and their partners. Among other things, the lawyers are accused of fraud, extortion and abuse.Since the beginning of this year the United States Copyright Group (USCG) has sued tens of thousands of BitTorrent users who allegedly shared films without the consent of copyright holders. One of the copyright holders who teamed up with USCG are Achte/Neunte, the makers of the movie Far Cry.
What first seemed to be a relatively effective and profitable way to turn piracy into a healthy revenue stream, is rapidly turning into a nightmare for the anti-piracy lawyers and their partners.
To add to the growing problems and difficulties for the US Copyright Group (USCG), a class action lawsuit has now been filed by the alleged file-sharers. The accusations put forward in the 96 page complaint are not mild, and could potentially put an end to this and similar cases in the United States.
The class action lawsuit is targeting all the parties involved in the Far Cry pay-up-or-else scheme. It was was filed on behalf of one of those accused, Dmitriy Shirokov, but includes others who were included in the Far Cry case.
“This is a class action brought by Plaintiff, on behalf of himself and 4,576 other similarly-situated victims of settlement fraud and extortion,” the lengthy complaint starts. The tables are turned this time with USCG, law firm Dunlap, Grub and Weaver (DGW) and Far Cry copyright holder Achte/Neunte in the defendant’s seats.
The complaint goes on to describe the practices of the anti-piracy lawyers as “lucrative trade in monetizing copyright infringement allegations,” and carefully dissects the operation and the numerous offenses that were allegedly committed by the lawyers and their partners.
In total, the alleged BitTorrent users are seeking relief based on 25 counts including extortion, fraudulent omissions, mail fraud, wire fraud, computer fraud and abuse, racketeering, fraud upon the court, abuse of process, fraud on the Copyright Office, copyright misuse, unjust enrichment and consumer protection violations.
One of the most prominent allegations against the law firm is that the copyright of Far Cry was registered at the Copyright Office after the movie was published, and after many of the alleged sharers were caught. It is claimed that the copyright registration was “intentionally obtained under false pretenses” and subsequently used to back up “baseless threats in the demand letters.”
“The Letters falsely claim that the law allows Achte to seek extraordinary forms of relief, namely statutory damages and attorney's fees, for infringing Achte's copyright for the motion picture Far Cry, despite fatal defects in its copyright registration and the express provisions of the Copyright Act,” the complaint reads.
This then leads to the following allegations of fraud, extortion and related offenses.
“The Letters sent to the proposed Class are predicated on fraud upon Plaintiff and the proposed Class, and upon the ISPs, the United States Copyright Office, and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.”
“DGW and its fellow Defendants are directly involved in perpetrating, conspiring to commit, and/or aiding and abetting this massive scheme of fraud, extortion, abuse of
process, fraud upon the court, copyright misuse, and misappropriation of funds.”
The complaint
Another key issue is that DGW threatened to sue each and every individual they targeted, but that this would be practically impossible to achieve with the small team of attorneys they have. Also, they specifically stated to clients that cash settlement is what they are after.
“DGW does not genuinely intend to pursue most, if any, of these thousands of claims to trial. Operating through its alias USCG, DGW advertises its copyright business model to prospective clients in the film industry stating one overriding goal: to obtain settlement not judgments, which would require litigating and proving its allegations,” the complaint reads.
“With only thirteen attorneys on staff, DGW has issued a volume of demand letters that far surpasses its ability to litigate this volume of claims case by case. USCG tells prospective clients that civil prosecution of copyright claims has not been practical, in light of the financial status of individual infringers.”
The above is just the introduction of the complaint, which then continues with dozens of pages discussing the legal background, eventually concluding that DGW’s revenue model is not based on upholding copyright law, but that it capitalizes on fear and aims to intimidate. DGW extorted thousands of infringers by perpetrating fraud on the U.S. Copyright Office, the complaint alleges.
“Fraud has infected each stage of Defendants actions since that false registration, tainting their complaints, subpoenas, coercive demand Letters and websites.”
The conclusions lead to numerous allegations and eventually a long list of 25 counts for relief. The plaintiffs demand a jury trial and are seeking a wide range of damages as well as restitution and reimbursement of the money plaintiffs have spent on the extortion scheme thus far.
Among other things, the plaintiffs further seek dismissal of all court actions brought on by the anti-piracy lawyers, an injunctive relief to stop the scheme, and an injunctive relief to stop the identities of the proposed plaintiffs being revealed.
The above is just a selection from a complaint that may very well crush the future of USCG’s pay-up-or-else scheme in the United States. If anything, the lawyers and the other defendants have some serious explaining to do.
In recent months, USCG’s scheme has been copied by various other law firms, protecting a wide variety of copyright holders. Just last week the German based copyright profiteers Digiprotect launched their first two cases in the United States, and many more are likely to follow, unless a court speaks out against this type of creative use of the legal system.
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You don't download movies using torrent, use rapidshare or some other direct download site. Then it's the site's fault and not yours. The sites will protect themselves by removing the files and that's the end of it.
I only use torrent for TV shows now.
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Yeah I'd be kind of scared to get that kind of email myself... pretty sure you're not in trouble though. Most likely it's a scam, as most people have observed.
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You should be fine, ISP's get stacks upon stacks of these every day and send an email to people if you keep coming up. When you torrent your IP is fully exposed so basically people scrape torrent trackers and send the ISP lists of ip and what it is downloading.
I know many people that have gotten this and nothing happened. The ISP sends the email hoping you stop which benefits them mainly by you stopping which means you use less bandwidth and become a cheaper customer.
There are people out there that pretend to be "anti piracy groups" that spam ISP's hoping they follow through send the complaint and forward money to them. So the scam isn't visible at your level.
I'd recommend stop torrenting and forget about it.
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Seems fake and a scam. Its quite costly to engage in a lawsuit versus people and that company isnt a huge corporate giant. You wont get sued but id stop downloading stuff from torrents if i were you. Start using rapidshare and megaupload and start seeing movies streamed online if you want to get movies.
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Got two of the same emails today for two separate movies that were downloaded from my ip and have some thoughts...
First, the obvious...
The email is legit, as in, it's definitely an official charter email since the links take you right to their web site and there is plenty of documentation on the subject in their FAQ section. This is something that apparently is happening frequently. This lends enough credibility (if charter is recognizing them) that the The Copyright Enforcement Group is also legit (for what they are).
Offering a "settlement" through the email is where things get muddy. On one hand, you can say it's fishy because it's a settlement offer through an email. On the other hand even if they wanted to send you a more formal, physical document in the mail, they don't have your address. How serious they are with their threat of "settle or face an increase" I don't know and that's what worries me. If it comes to it, they can acquire your identity through charter by subpoena. Whether or not they will is the question.
Even so, if they chose to actually subpoena, that would mean bringing in a lawyer, which would cost them money. They would have to prove that the person being sued was actually the one who downloaded it- which I don't see how (especially in my case because I have an unsecured router and have caught people downloading from me in the past. After this though, I will be educating myself on how to secure it).
Logic leans toward the idea that this is a strategic way for these companies to make a quick buck. Yet 125 dollars is a lot of money to some people, and those same people who wouldn't be able to pay it, wouldn't be able to pay thousands in a lost trial to those companies. Also, that's provided that they actually lose based on evidence.
What I want to know is of the people who just ignored the settlement offer, if after the expired time, they were subpoenaed. My guess is hardly any, but there are articles floating around out there about mass people getting nailed at once. Either way, I have a month to make a decision. I will continue to research my options.
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On December 15 2010 08:07 Bonesaw wrote:
What I want to know is of the people who just ignored the settlement offer, if after the expired time, they were subpoenaed. My guess is hardly any, but there are articles floating around out there about mass people getting nailed at once. Either way, I have a month to make a decision. I will continue to research my options.
I received a very similar email from charter about 3 years ago. I didn't settle, I stopped torrenting files belonging to the company that owned the file mentioned (21st century fox). They never bothered me again. I've torrented tons of files since then with no issues. Some media conglomerations are more picky with their IPs than others. About 6 years ago I was hit by a similiar thing for a metallica albulm, again I just stopped downloading from that label for a few months and there were no repurcusions.
Honestly unless you're seeding terabytes of data of IP with high current value (like a movie before it's official release date) there's no way it's going to be costeffective for the media to prosecute you. And it's not in the ISP's interest to cooperate fully, because they don't want to lose your business either.
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Don't use thepiratebay, all I can say.
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Well I joined this for just to reply to this.
I got the same e-mail from charter and I settled. Just paid $125 and hopefully thats that. I don't want my parents to know I downloaded a porno either
Basically the letter came through charter and yes I believe that charter verified that this site is legit. They give you a case number and password that brings you to the site which I feel is legit as well. All in all i think you can get slammed pretty hard for downloading crap and $125 isn't the end of the world.
Let me know what you guys do or what you think.
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I have gotten a couple letters over the years, and my isp has a three-strikes policy so I have to be much more careful now.
The emails are definitely real though. Torrenting is still safe for the most part unless you are downloading movies close to its DVD/Blu-Ray release date (from months ahead to months after, stay away from it to be absolutely safe.) and even then,you can usually just delete all the public trackers for it and be pretty secure.
I am starting to look into VPN services now.
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Use direct download and you will pretty much never get in trouble because you're not really doing anything illegal. It's illegal to distribute, not to possess AFAIK(internet lawyer here)
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On December 17 2010 11:18 yesplz wrote:
Use direct download and you will pretty much never get in trouble because you're not really doing anything illegal. It's illegal to distribute, not to possess AFAIK(internet "lawyer" here)
User was warned for this post
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Whatever, you did. I hope you didn't respond. That's basically admitting guilt.
The best course of action was to ignore it and immediately stop seeding the specific file. These letters and warnings vary by ISP and the files you were uploading.
Uploading movies or hot television shows, especially from private channels like HBO and Starz can get you in trouble very fast.
Best advice is to either stop, learn what to avoid, or learn how to use a proxy in regards to bittorent.
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hey guys. It's been a while. Sorry for the really long bump, but I promised you guys I would tell you what happend with this problem. A person who was curious about my situation PM'd me so I figured I'd update this blog
so it turns out nothing happened. I didn't hear from them. I guess it was a scam after all. Or maybe they take 2+ months to prepare a lawsuit against me? I doubt it. Anyway, I didn't say earlier because I was kind of embarrased to say, but it was from downloading porn lol. Yes I'm embarrassed to admit it but most of you people are guys so you should understand. From doing research, it turns out that these porn companies upload their videos to torrent sites (as a trap), and when a person downloads it, they e-mail them with threats. Why they do this with porn, I figured it was because the person who got caught would be in a situation where they would be more likely to cough up the money, since if they are exposed, they would be exposed with porn and it would ruin their image.
So I hope this blog helps anyone who comes across similar situation as me. And just a side note, the torrent that I downloaded did not have any comments on it. (Meaning the uploader probably deleted the comments that would warn other users not to download this specific torrent)
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If you ever get torrents from sites like TPB or demonoid, just don't seed them. Seeding is more likely to get you in trouble with LEA's and seeding on public servers is pointless because admins don't care about your ratio.
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Nice update, but you should still be careful with torrents. Occasionally you'll get the MPAA or something who your ISP takes more seriously so the best way is just to use other sources.
The way this works is the copyright owner usually can't do anything except for send these scare letters to the internet provider. They don't actually know who you are until they subpoena the ISP (there might be other ways but generally your ISP won't release your identity unless forced to). What the internet provider does is up to them.
In your case, your ISP basically asked you to stop downloading stuff because they don't like getting these letters. If you stop nothing will happen. If you don't and you keep getting more letters, it depends how nice your ISP is. If they're jackasses they'll give them your info and hang you out to dry. This is when you find yourself in a lawsuit. Most providers don't do this, because customers don't like companies who sell them out. But if the MPAA or whoever is really serious, the ISP might have to do it or risk getting sued themselves. In most cases though, they'll just cut off your service because you're a dangerous customer.
How do I know this? My ISP is my school. I've gotten a bunch of these letters, and my ISP's policy is to make the person who got the letter take a course on how internet copyright works (with a course fee of course).
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EPT
