From: Comcast Network Abuse [mailto:abuse-noreply@comcast.net]
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 7:00 AM
To: Comcast Internet Subscriber
Subject: Notice of Claim of Copyright Infringement.
Notice of Action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Abuse Incident Number: NA0000001514784
Report Date/Time: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 02:24:20 -0700
LARRY RODRIGUEZ
[ADDRESS REMOVED]
Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Subscriber:
Comcast has received a notification by a copyright owner, or its authorized
agent, reporting an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works
made on or over Comcast’s High-Speed Internet service (the ‘Service’). The
copyright owner has identified the Internet Protocol (’IP’) address
associated with your Service account at the time as the source of the
infringing works. The works identified by the copyright owner in its
notification are listed below. Comcast reminds you that use of the Service
(or any part of the Service) in any manner that constitutes an infringement
of any copyrighted work is a violation of Comcast’s Acceptable Use Policy
and may result in the suspension or termination of your Service account.
If you have any questions regarding this notice, you may direct them to
Comcast in writing by sending a letter or e-mail to:
Comcast Legal Response Center
Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
650 Centerton Road
Moorestown, NJ 08057 U.S.A.
Phone: (856) 317-7272
Fax: (856) 317-7319
E-mail: dmca@comcast.net
For more information regarding Comcast’s copyright infringement policy,
procedures, and contact information, please read our Acceptable Use Policy
by clicking on the Terms of Service link at http://www.comcast.net.
Sincerely,
Comcast Legal Response Center
Copyright work(s) identified in the notification of claimed infringement:
Title: Munich
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 2 Jun 2006 09:15:43 GMT
Recent Infringment Timestamp: 2 Jun 2006 09:15:43 GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: Munich[2005]DvDrip[Eng]-aXXo
Infringing Filesize: 942893848
Infringers IP Address: 24.2.198.202
Infringers DNS Name: c-24-2-198-202.hsd1.ct.comcast.net
Infringing URL: http://tracker.sladinki007.net:6500/announce
87 Comments
Friday, June 9th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
[...] As you know, I got that e-mail from Comcast about the whole pirated movie thing. Despite it just being a notice and not taking any legal action, it did its job. I’m now very reluctant to download torrents. Mainly because the ‘copyright holder’ could set up their own tracker and nab everyone who connects to it and I’m not motivated/care enough to watch what trackers I’m connecting to for each torrent. [...]
Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
I got one just today. Have you had any other mail from Comcast on this?
Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
[...] I’ve been getting a lot of hits on my posting of the e-mail from Comcast. This leads me to believe that Comcast sends hundreds, if not thousands of these messages out daily. I’m much less worried about it now. Is the MPAA/RIAA really tracking this many people? Will they really sue that many people? I’m betting not. I know if I were to get sued I would fight as hard as I could. I would also never purchase anything from the MPAA/RIAA ever again. [...]
Monday, June 12th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Mar,
I haven’t gotten anything other than that one e-mail. I think if they were really serious than I would have gotten more, but I don’t really know.
See my newest post about what I think about it.
Saturday, June 24th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
Same thing happened to me.. =(
I got one on June 11th for “The.Omen” and it was a demoniod tracker.. -shrugs-
Monday, June 26th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
I got the samething. I called customer service to ask them what is that,because I never downloaded any movie. Second I was not at home when they said the movie was downloaded. Third I never use bit torrent to download movies. The only time I used Bittorrent was to download Linux from SUSE web page (nothing illegal). After I downloaded linux i uninstalled it rigth away.
The customer service lady toll me that there is no records or anything wrong with my account or some records of anyhing like that. She warned not to reply to that letter or call them and give them personal information. Plus I ask her about my IP address. She said since they use a dinamic IP address your IP may change time by time. So if they said that they know who you are by IP address that is not true. Customer accounts have no IP address assigned. So your actual IP maybe will be somebody else’s IP in a month or in a year.
Becausefull with this can be a scam or a hoax to get your information.
Thursday, August 31st, 2006 at 2:04 pm
yes but comcast has records of who has which IP’s at what time intervals. I got 2 of these emails both for entourage episodes, and I was on a different IP than I am now. who knows if they’re really cracking down, but it is a little scary.
Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
i got a email from comcast about internet abuse reporting an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works. what do i do about it and what can they do.
Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
First off, I’m not a lawyer, and I’ve only claimed to be once. Get legal advice from a lawyer, not the internet.
Here’s a good site from chilling effects that explains a lot.
My ‘expertise’ comes from an episode of DLtv and some podcasts.
As far as I know they can’t do anything right now. If you get another letter then start worrying.
Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 6:36 pm
anybody else ever had it happen to them email from comcast about internet abuse reporting an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works
Sunday, January 21st, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I got the letter today. what do I do?
Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 8:23 am
iceland air cargo
Value source for iceland air cargo.
Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
lol.. i already got 12 letters from them. I think it is a joke. So far noone has got in trouble over the letter from what i can see doing a google search. But then again that is just me. :)
Saturday, March 24th, 2007 at 1:40 am
rofl i got like 4 or 5 (each for diff file) of those letters so far,,, mostly its cuz of fake servers that they make to distrubuite their own things illegally. your isp can’t and won’t tell any of those organizations your name, address etc. All they know is your ip adress. Do NOT reply to any of those letters as it is simply a trick, by replying you are saying ” YES i am guilty, Here is my name,adresss etc, here is what i did wrong, and Punish me”. If isps were to terminate accounts connected to those letters than they could say Good-bye to about 35-40% of their business… you do the math.
Saturday, March 24th, 2007 at 1:52 am
They just want to scare you away from DL’ing anything, proving such cases in court for them is extremly difficult and costs shits loads of money …..AND they KNOW that you by downloading that and not purchasing it, have little assets and money… so they cant extract from you anything anyways… yet.. another way of making rich richer and screwing the poor, why am i not surprsied.?
Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
i just got 2 of them, i reported them as spam lol. Maybe if a lot of people report it as spam they will stop coming? doubt it but i’d do it anyway
Thursday, April 19th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
I have received two emails to my comcast account about this and it has me a little jumpy also… one was entourage and the other was my name is earl. I have never gotten a letter though just emails
Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 7:01 pm
I just got the same email today and was wondering if anything happened other then this email?
Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Nothing has happened. I’ve gotten another e-mail since I posted this one.
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 5:17 am
I got a letter in the mail, not email listing name address and all that stuff. The letter stated most of the above information and also listed the ToS agreement.
The letter ask me to reply in email to a REAL tds address saying I acknowledge the letter and understand the the acceptable use policy.
This is my first letter and I did send in an email but I did not say I downloaded anything, all I did say is that I would prevent it from happening.
I’ve been up sick at my stomach all night over this crap. Any one else from TDS get a letter like this?
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Well, I got a reply back from TDS and they did in fact send the letter to me. Here is the reply, hopefully this is all that will happen. I’m curious though, I went through all my torrent files since I’ve always saved them all and I noticed that same tracker in about 7 more torrent files. The letter I got goes back to Jan, the 22. What about all the ones I downloaded after that?
Thank you for your reply. By replying you are acknowledging that you have read and understood the content of the notification sent to you. Please understand that if we have a reasonable belief that you are continuing to engage in activities that constitute copyright infringement, your Internet service will be canceled.
TDS values your business and appreciates your attention to this matter. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.
Thank You,
TDS Internet Support
copyrightagent@tds.net
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
I’ve never heard of hardcopy letters being sent out. Honestly, I’m not sure what I’d do if I got one of these. I’d probably talk to my cousin who’s a lawyer and get a bit of advice.
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Has ANYONE ever heard of someone actually getting fined or anything from this crap?
Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Well, assuming nothing falls on my head over this, I’m actually a little glad for the notice I got. I had noticed my network was a little sluggish and damned if I didn’t forget to re-secure my WiFi after opening it up a while back to do some testing. I live in an apartment building so God only knows who the hell has been piggybacking on my connection all this time .
Locked WiFi back up and now my connection is zippy again but i’m nervous about how it looks.
Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 10:53 am
ive gotten 3 emails now
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I got a letter in the mail 2 days ago from TDS Telectom similar to the one Tdsuser mentioned. I’ve been looking on the internet for anyone else who may have recieved a letter in the mail fromn TDS like I did and so far, this is the only other incident that I’ve run across.
I havent’t replied to my letter yet as they requested. (The letter states that if I do not send an email to copyrightagent@tds.net stating that I recieved the letter in the mail within 10 days that TDS will suspend my account.) If i do reply the only thing I will say in my email is that I acknowlege receiving the letter. Short and to the point and not even mention the accusations of copyright infringent
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I got a letter in the mail 2 days ago from TDS Telecom similar to the one Tdsuser mentioned. I’ve been looking on the internet for anyone else who may have recieved a letter in the mail fromn TDS like I did and so far, this is the only other incident that I’ve run across.
I havent’t replied to my letter yet as they requested. (The letter states that if I do not send an email to copyrightagent@tds.net stating that I recieved the letter in the mail within 10 days that TDS will suspend my account.) If i do reply the only thing I will say in my email is that I acknowlege receiving the letter. Short and to the point and not even mention the accusations of copyright infringent
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 9:16 am
Thats all I did as well METOO. I think it’s obvious that there are fewer cases with TDS than with other isp’s so we should be a bit more careful handling our situation. I replied to mine only because they threatened to suspend my internet account. BTW, if you intent to continue downloading torrents, just be careful to watch out for the tracker that notified the isp and any ohter trackers that you don’t think are legit. Just remove any trackers from the list of trackers and you’ll still be able to grab the file with out them tracking it.
I think this whole thing is as lame as it gets. All they can do is tell your isp that you attempted to download it, they can’t actually tell if you downloaded the whole file or part of it. What makes this so lame is the fact that you can even go as far as accidentally loading up a torrent by accident and still get in trouble for it even if you didn’t download it.
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I know the RIAA and MPAA has gone after individuals for file-sharing, and as far as I know it was the P2P users (KAZAA, Limewire, etc) that they went after.
I also know there have been some high-profile bittorrent trackers and torrent indexing/search sites that have had the big guns blasted at them (Pirate Bay, Isohunt, Supernova, and others). Some of these trackers still exist and are going strong today while others are gone for good.
Does anyone know of any individuals who have been targeted and prosecuted (and convicted) of any related crimes for sharing files using the bittorrent protocol?
I think the whole thing sucks and I think TDS sucks too for sending out letters like these and talking about suspending accounts based on one momement of time where some tracker somewhere logged an IP as it was accociated with a bittorrent file transer of copyrighted material. The detail in my letter shows a specific time and date the tracker logged my IP and it also shows the last time my supposed IP was logged by that tracker – both times are exactly the same. So one fraction of a second is all that was logged and they are going to suspend my account if I don’t reply to their accusations of copyright infringement???
Sure they can legally do whatever they want to do – it’s THEIR network, but in my opinion this type of behavior and threats from TDS is not good business.
I have not yet replied to that stupid letter. I’m still debating with myself whether I should or should not respond. I have a rebelious side to me and that side is saying F*** TDS, but the sensible side of me says I should appease them and play their little game and acknowledge their stupid letter…which is what I probably will do. I would just like to find more people who have recieved such a letter and get thier story before I do anything.
Sunday, May 6th, 2007 at 7:47 am
I’ve gotten three of these emails from Comcast over the last month—all for HBO (Entourage & Sopranos) episodes. I dunno, must have been downloaded by someone using on my unsecured wireless lan. :-)
(this seems like a foolproof argument).
Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 8:50 am
That argument right there is making me think about getting wireless.. do you pay for wireless or just have a normal hookup with a wireless router or something…
Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
I got my first letter today, from Comcast. So no one has been cut off? Or knows anyone who has? I know that the ISPs have to cover their butts by going through the motions of noticing the infringer when someone complains, to satisfy the “Safe Harbor” clause. But are they taking action? It seems like a lot of effort on the part of the ISP just to cancel a customer. But large companies will move mountains to avoid a lawsuit. Also, it seems like movies and TV shows have been the subject of the complaints (in the posts above) as opposed to music or other media. I forwarded my notice to Comcast’s Legal Dept asking for the identity of the complainant so I could discuss the matter with them. Did anyone else ask who it was that complained?
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
I got a similar letter to the ones mentioned above, from TDS. All this morning I sat in a empty office here at work on my cell phone, trying to get in touch with someone, instead of of sending off an email into the void. Despite hiding their Abuse dept behind layers of voice menus, the people I talked to were very nice. The dude explained that one of the major TV networks had contacted TDS about some bittorrent traffic the _network_ (not TDS) had intercepted. TDS just matched up the dynamic DNS info to my account and sent the letter to me. My understanding is that my personal info did not go to the network, which is what freaked me out. This very much was just a warning, but I’m sweating pretty hard. It’s one thing to read about DMCA bullshit on boingboing or whatever, it’s another thing to get a damn scary letter in the mail. I’ll get netflix instead.
Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
I got the same copyright infringement letter from TDS telecom a few days ago. Wow! what makes the letter the scariest, i think, is that they are very vague about what they want from you, and what they intend to do about it.
“another tdsmetro user”, did you get any official response to the letter? Or has anyone heard back from TDS after emailing back to copyrightagent@tds.net?
Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 8:50 am
I received one e-mail yesterday from Comcast citing 4 downloads from PirateBay’s tracker. I got another one today…and I expect a few more tomorrow since I downloaded different shows at different times.
While it’s a lame excuse, I caught just one of the episodes on TV and wanted to watch the rest of the first season, they have all been shredded and removed…I just don’t want to get sued.
Have any prior posters gotten anything else a few weeks after their first notifications via e-mail?
Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 9:26 am
It’s been about 6 weeks since I received that letter from TDS that said if I did not respond by email within 10 days to their accusations of me sharing copyrighted software via bittorrent that they were going to suspend my account. I decided to go ahead and be a rebel and NOT reply to their letter and I’ve not had one moment of service interruption.
Threats…nothing more.
Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 10:46 am
To K-ral:
I actually talked to a person in their Abuse Dept, and was very careful to read between the lines with what he was saying, without actually admitting that I did anything. The gist was “this is a warning, NBC is the one who’s pissed, don’t do it again.” He was able to note my acknowledgment of the letter over the phone, so I didn’t actually email the copyrightagent@ address. Since then, I haven’t heard a damn thing – so I’m hoping it’s over.
However, I’m very glad I acknowledged the letter, unlike other posters here like Meetoo – because TDS would be perfectly within their rights to terminate your account if you don’t give notice to the letter. This way, I feel I know exactly where I stand.
I’m thinking, it was a good run while it lasted, and I think my “piracy” career is over. I’m not one to say that stealing movies etc should be legal – I know it’s wrong, it’s just really easy.
Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
To: ccastuser : I was reviewing the comments, and you seemed to
have several letters sent to you by email. I was wondering whether you got any follow up?
Everyone else: I’ve gotten one before, over 3 yrs ago. I even forget now whether I replied via email, but I think i did. But the email was the standard notice, and said something like.. if i feel theres an error or something reply to etc
So i replied i think. Probably said something like dunno anything about it, but will resolve the problem.
I did get another one though this month. Which since its been a long time was a bit scarry. Havent replied yet, still debating it, because this one didnt say to, it just said the standard notice, and they didnt say reply. So maybe it was jus that, a notice, letting me know stop doing what I was doing.
Which I intend to do now. Getting too old for this any way. Don’t need the pressures heh
Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I just got one from Comcast today for downloading “Hot Fuzz.” man that was a great movie XD
Obviously it’s nothing to get worked up about. I’ve pirated software and movies for several years and yet just recently they sent me a letter for ONE movie. This is because Comcast only looks into the matter when it has been notified by the company who rightfully owns what you’re downloading so it’s not something the internet service is going to look out for.
Your internet service provider will do nothing but send warning letters hoping to scare you, making it sound like a serious matter.
If they took it seriously there would have already been a case about it posted somewhere online. There are just too many people doing it that it would just cost the company too much time and money.
Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 9:30 am
I just got one yesterday, and after a somewhat frantic google search I came upon this site which (thank you) has calmed me down infinitely. Annnnd exhale! :)
Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Just got my letter from Comcast…popped my cherry
Copyright work(s) identified in the notification of claimed infringement:
Title: Rainbow Six
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Infringement Timestamp: 21 Jun 2007 17:16:49 GMT
Infringement Last Documented: 21 Jun 2007 17:16:49 GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: Tom_Clancys_Rainbow_Six_Vegas-HATRED
Infringing Filesize: 4906609176
Infringer IP Address: removed
Infringer DNS Name: removed
Infringing URL: http://tv.tracker.prq.to:80/announce
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Hi. Came across this website via Google for obvious reasons.
I too am freaked out. I’ve been checking my e-mail every hour it seems like for the past 2 weeks. Additionally, about 2 weeks ago, my ISP provider has come out and said that they are going to support the RIAAs and MPAAs efforts (*cough**cough* Ma Bell *cough**cough*).
But I want to thank everyone for posting re their experiences, it has calmed me down a bit.
Too bad the RIAA learned nothing about its customers and what they want from as far back as Napster, and too bad the MPAA is stupidly following their model/approach. I have noticed that (1) report of file-sharing continue to increase, inspite of these lawsuits (!), and (2) thankfully NetFlix has begun to allow streaming of movies, making the issue of having to download and such moot.
Peace.
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Use peerguardian. It is a self-updating library that tracks IP addresses known to be used by the MPAA and RIAA to identify file-sharers and blocks them out.
Other than that, leave your wireless network accessible to neighbors because it becomes much more difficult to prove who actually committed the filesharing.
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 11:15 am
PeerGuardian is not 100% safe. Also, the courts have laughed at the “open wireless router” defense.
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 11:25 am
PeerGuardian is not 100% safe. Also, the courts have laughed at the “open wireless router†defense.
Could you back this up with articles or something?
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 11:39 am
http://torrentfreak.com/do-p2p-blocklists-keep-you-safe/
In an attempt to find an answer, TorrentFreak asked an expert in the field, who worked with several anti-piracy organizations, how effective these lists are. His guess was that approximately 75 – 80% of IPs used by the anti-piracy companies he worked with are on these blocklists. This means that they offer some protection, but that they’re not foolproof.
Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 8:25 am
http://www.zeropaid.com/
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8877/Gotcha%21+New+MPAA+Site+Tries+to+Trick+Users+into+Illegally+Downloading+Movies
Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
I found a good article that might convince movie downloaders to give up their hobby….it might not be too late.
Plus, you have to scrub your hard drive BEFORE you receive a summons, etc. Use a hard drive file shredder and defrag your drive…….
Good article, folks:
http://www.citypages.com/databank/27/1344/article14682.asp?page=2
Sunday, July 15th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Looks like Chilling Effects changed their link address. Here’s some information about the notices that Comcast sends out.
http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi?NoticeID=808
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 7:51 am
The webpage you gave is from Aug 2003, it looks like. From what I’ve heard and read, most people don’t hear word one from their ISPs re downloading, esp. with movies. Typically when they do, they get an e-mail from the ISP alleging the activity, and almost everyone doesn’t reply. The end result for some is that they get their service canceled, and they find another ISP.
Personally I think illegal downloading is a waste of time except for stuff that is either public domain or that Hollywood has no intention of ever releasing, like cartoons that are in black & white or failed TV series.
The RIAA is 1,000% more insane than the MPAA, but they have always been so. And the MPAA tactic has been to target “super-seeders” and torrent trackers, etc.
Here’s an interesting article from a University of Chicago professor of Computer Science who says that having someone’s IP address technically means nothing with regards to evidence, given how the IP addresses are dynamically assigned, etc. It’s a good read.
Peace.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8909/U+of+Chicago+Professor+Questions+RIAA%27s+Use+of+IP+Addresses+in+Lawsuits
Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
I dont get it, there is alot of paranoia, fret, sleeplessness, stomach problems, but not one person here has said any thing about worring that the copyright person that complaind to your isp is going to sue you. Will they, do they? Everyone just seems worried about their service being cut off. What about the copyright holder that is complaining. Are you people not woried about them.,,,,,,has anyone been sued. Answers please. I am scared right now…..bubs
Saturday, July 28th, 2007 at 10:00 am
I agree with bubba. Has anyone been sued after the notice from comcast. I got a letter on the 23rd of july. I am so afraid of further action. Ive looked all over the internet for almost every waking hour and canot find any information on the letters except thees post sites and blogs. I even looked up the MPAA to see how many people really get sued, and still hardley any info. I have deleted all files downloaded deleted my p2p software. I am done before I even really got started. If all were smart you all would stop and just buy the item you are trying to obtain.
I canot beleive that people still continue to do this even after their first letter. You all start talking about pg2 or whatever that is and updating it, why not just stop and stop all the sweating. I know I will never download a single kb again for the rest of my life.
Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 7:58 am
To Bubba and David:
Yeah, today marks my 7th week since I “got my head together” and stopped, uhhh….you know.
Well, still no e-mails from my ISP and no letters in the mail. A lawyer I contacted 7 weeks ago who specializes in these types of lawsuits (RIAA and MPAA) said that it’s useless to worry about anything if and until I actually get a letter from someone. And once they catch you, they can take up to 3 years before they do anything.
I think that the RIAA is fixated on college students and such, whereas the MPAA is attacking websites, not individuals, although even individuals HAVE been sued by the MPAA……that grandfather in Wisconsin whose grandson was downloading from his PC, it happened recently. The grandfather said he didn’t do it, and that he couldn’t pay the fine, etc., but they are still pursuing him, last I heard.
I can’t believe the laissez-faire attitude a lot of people are taking to this. Lawsuit judgments can be good for 20 years. And most music and movies suck anyway.
Better to just get subscriptions to Napster for music and NetFlix for movies.
P.S. Use RegEdit to clear out any and all instances of “torrent” and other related references from your registry. Also, defragment your hard drive and use Fileshredder to completely erase all the deleted sectors from your PC.
Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
That grandfather setteled for 4,000 and had to talk to seventh graders on why not to download, as part of his settelment. I found this story and a couple of others on a google search. Why so few personal stories??? If this were happening to thousands of people, you think there would be hundreds of stories on line about it. Maybe not. I dont know. Anyway I will never download again. To scared to deal with any law suits. Its just not worth it people………..David
Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Where would you find the files in regedit????
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 2:00 pm
David:
When you use BitTorrent, for example, it puts a lot of “BitTorrent” and “DNA” files all over the place, including noting them in your registry.
Go to RegEdit (i.e. your registry editor – if you don’t have one you can download one easy) and Search for anything with the word “torrent” or whatever p2p software you were using.
Also, for BitTorrent, the program “DNA” gets loaded too. Search for that.
And chill, more than likely nothing will happen.
Good luck!
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Stupid RIAA finally coming to grips with the fact that you can’t continually sue your best customers and stay in business. Good article.
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8940/RIAA%3A+%27Lawsuits+Can%27t+be+the+Only+Solution+to+Piracy%27
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 8:13 pm
Thanks to all for easing my mind a bit, (a little bit) I am so scared right now. I went to a web site that said download over 80 million movies for one low yearly fee. Then it directed me to a p2p file sharing program. Did not know that at the time. Then I did not know that bittorrent forced you to upload. Found all this out after the Dmca notice from comcast. So I stopped. This is not what I wanted to happen. Why do they let those web sites exist and then come after the user. I payed 40 dollars. They should be sued. How many people get letters from their ISP. Canot find anything on line that much. What happens now, anything……….anybody……I am so going to give myself an ulser.
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 9:35 pm
You did remember to download a free copy of FileShredder, right? Run it at least with the 7x algorithm, then the 35x algorithm.
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 5:01 am
Yes. But do I choose shredd free space on the drive? Not really woried about my hard drive that much. I only downloaded a few things before I got a DMCA letter from Comcast. And stopped right away. I am not a big time pirate who has been doing this for years. I only thought that the web site I mentioned above was a leagle way to download movies. Then I realized it was file sharing. Mpaa and Riaa should take those sites down. Not its users. This is going to give me a heart-attack. I cant stop stressing over this. I really want to know what happens to other people who get the DMCA letter from their ISP. Cant find much info on line. How many get the letter. A few, a hundred, a thousand???
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 3:07 am
Ok whats the story? Since it looks like about 2003 people have been posting things about their dmca letters and everyone is worried. No other stories about lawsuits or anything else is ever said again. Can someone tell me for sure if dmca means lawsuit comimg>???
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 8:15 am
The Story is that the MPAA and RIAA hire companies that monitor the web and also they themselves post files for people to download to catch them in the act. Once they catch you at it, they record your IP address and send a letter at the ISP that owns that IP address. The ISP then, to cover themselves under the DMCA, send you a letter (see examples above in this webpage) telling you to stop and to delete the offensive files.
More than likely this is the end of it. However, when it comes to music, the RIAA has gone (actually, has always been) completely bat-shit over copying. I don’t know if you remember the old days, when cassette tapes were invented, but the RIAA was demanding that a heavy tax be levied on the sale of each cassette tape in order to fight copying.
The bottom line is that both downloading AND uploading is copyright infringement, is illegal, and can be actionable, both under civil and criminal penalties. Also, most movies and most music are crap, and not worth the heat.
Yes, you are correct. Lots of people seem to have gotten these letters, but the only mention of lawsuits against individuals that I have found are (1) that grandfather in Wisconsin that got sued because his grandson used his internet connection to download movies and (2) a link that said that the MPAA had filed suit against a couple of hundred people who were “super seeders”.
Lawsuits are possible, they have happened, but I think for the MPAA they focus on movies that are torrented prior to theatrical release, since that’s where they can legitimately claim that they have lost millions of dollars. Recently, this year, a Chicago man was arrested because he released, I think, episodes of “24″ prior to their release on TV, which means that everyone did lose a ton of advertising revenue, since everyone who torrented those episodes probably didn’t watch TV and thus did not watch those commercials.
People in other countries, like Canada, Britain, etc., have more lax laws and enforcement, so you’ll hear people in these countries boast about the gigabytes of movies they’ve torrented, and how they are not afraid of the MPAA, etc.
Even this is bullshit, since the MPAA has sued a British man who was a “super-seeder”.
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 8:28 am
Wow thanks , that clears that up. My mind is a litte more at ease now. But what is a SUPER Seeder??
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 11:55 am
A super seeder has tons of movies that he allows other to torrent off his PC, and thus is actively uploading movies to others. He’s acting like a clearinghouse for illegal downloading.
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5626029.html
But this applies to ANYONE who allows their PC to upload movies to others. Like, if you use BitTorrent, you are automatically allowing anyone who sees your presence on the web to copy movies off your PC. BitTorrent was created specifically so that (1) you could not disable the upload to others feature and (2) the less you offered up for others to share, the lower YOUR download speed would become – it’s called “throttling” the user.
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 8:51 pm
http://torrentfreak.com/rock-star-i-feel-im-going-to-jail-for-downloading-torrents/
Just came across this article. Thought I’d share it.
And thanks to the owner of this blog!
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 12:13 am
[...] by jrod on August 3rd, 2007 I know I’ve said this before, but one of my old posts still gets the most hits. Â The post was a copy of the Comcast Notice of Action under the Digital [...]
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 12:44 pm
[...] by jrod on August 3rd, 2007 I know I’ve said this before, but one of my old posts still gets the most hits. The post was a copy of the Comcast Notice of Action under the Digital [...]
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 1:36 pm
I’ve tried to answer many peoples’ questions and summarize all the comments here in my newest post.
http://jrod.wordpress.com/2007/08/03/answers/
Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8964/DOH%21+1st+Pirated+Copy+of+%27The+Simpsons%27+Gets+Traced+to+Australia
The first known pirated copy of “The Simpsons Movie” to make it onto the Internet was tracked to a home in Australia.
According to Australian authorities said, the first known pirated copy of “The Simpsons” to be uploaded to the Internet was tracked to a home raided by Australian police earlier today.
Police ordered a 21-year-old Sydney man to appear in a Sydney court in October when he will be formally charged, the Australian Federal Police said. Details of the likely charge or charges and fines have yet to be made made public.
The MPAA said the investigation involved News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox movie studio, Australian police and the private investigation group Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft.
The MPAA said the illegal “Simpsons” copy was the first on the Internet and was recorded by a cell phone in a Sydney movie theater on July 26, hours before its release in most of the world.
“Within 72 hours of making and uploading this unauthorized recording, AFACT had tracked it to other streaming sites and P2P (peer-to-peer) systems, where it had been illegally downloaded in excess of 110,000 times, and in all probability, copied and sold as a pirate DVD all over the world,” AFACT executive director Adrianne Pecotic said.
Sunday, August 19th, 2007 at 6:41 am
Hello, Your site is great. Regards, Valintino Guxxi
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 1:40 pm
so, getting these leters, (thou i only got 1) for downloading the Bratz movie, i wont be sued for anything?
Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 9:36 am
I got a letter for downloading Oceans 13 the other day ive been a little nervous but still very anxious to get back to demonoid. im addicted. i just downloaded peer guardian i didnt have any protection before, hope it works out
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Oceans 13 could get you 5 years in prison. I would stop being addicted. And for downloadin Bratz, you might become someones brat in prison..
Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
RIAA WINS LAWSUIT.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/riaa-jury-finds.html
Can’t wait to read your response, son.
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007 at 11:53 am
They can send notices and letters and try to sue me all they want. They won’t get anything out of me, so who cares?
If they try to send a mother of 2 to jail for downloading these songs, there is going to be some serious trouble!
I’m serious. People are starving, people are dying, people are sick out there. And this is what the “entertainment” industry is focusing on.
They can come and try to get me, but there better be a lot of them, and they better be well armed!
Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 3:41 am
Yea thats a total BS case. I got a Comcast letter. I was looking for mods for a game Crysis. It turned out I downloaded the full game by mistake on BT.
I’m not really sure of the outcome of these letters but there are a lot of people posting them online asking a lot of questions. So far I haven’t seen anybody return to their post claiming they have a lawsuit. Maybe its just a warning.
I guess everybody should just be more careful over what they download. I don’t think its good to download programs / art and not support the company producing it.
I understand many people just don’t follow any ethical code online, and thats totally up to them. After all, the internet is based off of such free thinking. I wish there was more certain information on such cases, so I wish all of you the best of luck no matter what your situation is.
Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
After doing some searching on google I found a scary thing.
“Typically, upon receipt of a properly and timely (within 6 months) submitted valid and
statutorily authorized legal request, Comcast can supply the subscriber’s name, address,
telephone number, email accounts, Comcast account number and current account status.”
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/docs/handbook.pdf
Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 4:01 pm
I got one of those letters via email about a movie a couple of months ago. i asked some people i knew who use torrents and they’ve heard about the letters but also said that’s why alot of people don’t like comcast cause he thinks the other providers just look away… no clue if thats true or not….
I think and hope this is all just a slap on the wrist. But how you gonna advertise you have a fast network when you can’t even use it for it’s true potential?
Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I got a voice-mail from my local server today saying they received a complaint from some company who owns the rights to something. I deleted it, got PeerGuardian and after what I’ve educated myself on — am substantially less worried
Saturday, March 8th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Got a letter to today from comcast. Was scared at first but after reading about all these other people im just going to stop downloading.
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 12:58 am
i gotten like 7 letters allready and nothing happens they just want to scare you
Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 12:37 am
F Comcast…sendin me this bullsh!t email bout dl’n. Skip everybody….
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 11:49 am
I got a notice 03-31-2008. I called the number in the letter and got a comcast voicemail. I left a message with my name and address (already on the notice), the complaint number and my phone number. The next day 04-01-2008 someone from comcast left me a message on my voicemail saying to delete the file and not to do it again, and unless someone subpoenaed the information it wouldn’t go any further.
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 4:16 pm
It’s me again, I still think this is some bull! I’ve been doing “this” for years, now all of a sudden, wham, a stupid email. I’m wondering if I will ever receive a second one because I haven’t stopped yet!
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Just curious, Lammy, what were you getting (d’l)?
Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 7:20 am
Well, its been a year now since my letter, nothing has happened. I heard they can take up to 3 years, but I belive that if they were going to do something, it would have happend by now. Think about how many more people have downloaded over this past year. Millions! – So I think everyone should rest. Look up at my postings from a year ago. I was so scared. I did stop. But now Im feeling great. Let me give you a hint as to why to stop downloading – Join Netflix. Then go to http://www.dvdfab.com and purchase it. Oh my god. Copies all files and menus from a dvd and places it on a blank Dvd + R. No more downloading for me. …………………best of luck….David
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Hey David, I’m glad to hear nothing happen. May these letters R.I.P! -Dark_817