HUGE FAT WARNING: I AM NOT A LAWYER. If you need legal advice, GET A REAL LAWYER.
Update 3, 2011-11-02: Added a new post with an analysis and the actual text of one of these notices.
Update 2, 2011-11-02: My little site at http://copyright-infringement-notice.com/ has been massively updated, including a guide for people who are panicking and feel a need to do immediate damage control.
Update: This is one of the most popular pages on my entire blog now…so, I’m now running a small website that provides information about copyright infringement notices. Check it out at http://copyright-infringement-notice.com/ and give me additional ideas, suggestions, or information to make it better!
I generally keep myself aware of what’s going on with the whole peer-to-peer file sharing scene, particularly because the case law it generates changes the nature of copyright law in this country, and as someone who writes software, I need to know about such changes. Additionally, because I download a good number of legitimate files from BitTorrent trackers (i.e. Linux distribution CD images), I want to know what I’m stepping in. I’ve noticed a very disturbing trend over time which concerned me enough to finally write a whole blog post:
“Copyright cops” who threaten users of BitTorrent trackers frivolously pursue anyone whose IP appears on their radar and their evidence would not stand up to even the most trivial review.
That’s right, companies such as BayTSP, Copyright Enforcement Group, U.S. Copyright Group, and other paid agents of large media companies are bringing claims against torrent users without even collecting evidence of infringement. For example, the University of Washington was able to trigger a DMCA copyright infringement cease-and-desist notice being sent to their technical department. The copyright cops caught the user at this UW IP address RED-HANDED, INFRINGING ON THEIR COPYRIGHT!
The IP address being accused of BitTorrent-based copyright infringement belonged to a network printer.
No, I’m not kidding. The recording/movie/television industry copyright “enforcement” corporations accused their network printer of stealing movies. That’s how easy it is to be wrongly accused. But what else? There’s another experiment from 2007 which was performed with a specially written BitTorrent client which explicitly did not download nor upload any material, only jumped on a tracker and added itself to peer lists. This client, which was designed to be incapable of actually infringing copyrights, generated copyright infringement notices from BayTSP despite the fact that such infringement was simply not possible with that application!
I find this to be absolutely ridiculous, particularly because of the nature of these notices. Many of them are also legal threats. Regardless of innocence or guilt, any filing of a lawsuit against you costs money to handle, and if it’s so easy for these automated copyright scanning processes to both target the wrong person entirely AND target people who didn’t provably upload or download file data at all, that doesn’t bode well for any of the parties involved. It’s fairly obvious that the “copyright cop” companies are basing their claims of infringement solely on the population of BitTorrent trackers’ peer lists. They don’t actually download the entire file from you and keep logs that show they did so as evidence that you indeed infringed on their copyright; they merely see your address in a particular list and send off the notice.
Study 1: http://dmca.cs.washington.edu/
Study 2: http://bmaurer.blogspot.com/2007/02/big-media-dmca-notices-guilty-until.html
TechDirt article on this topic: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100401/0846028831.shtml
What’s even more outrageous to me is that these companies advertise their services as being unethical right off the bat. They resort to legal threats and mass lawsuits against “infringing parties” but they advertise it to content owners and rights holders this way: “Monetize copyright infringement! We can bring you income from a surprising source: people who download your content illegally!” It’s not even about doing the right thing, it’s about the bottom line, meaning they have no reason to care about innocent people being caught in the dragnet.
Despite the risk of a lawsuit, if you happen to receive a DMCA copyright infringement notice which is forwarded by your ISP, either by email or regular mail, here’s my advice:
- DO NOT EVER CLICK ON ANYTHING IN AN EMAIL, VISIT ANY WEBSITE IN A LETTER OR POSTCARD, OR OTHERWISE REPLY OR MAKE CONTACT IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER! You run a plethora of risks if you respond in any way, even indirectly such as by visiting the “copyright cops” website out of curiosity. They can fingerprint your computer, you may be implicitly admitting guilt even if you’re innocent, you could hand them personal information such as your full name by accident…the list goes on. DON’T DO IT.
- Read the studies above, as well as any other relevant material you find online such as articles on p2pnet.net, just in case anything happens. If you end up in a bad situation, you need to be able to educate your lawyer on how their infringement detection tactics are grossly flawed. Be prepared, JUST IN CASE.
- If you really did infringe on someone’s copyright, do the right thing. That means disposing of the things you’ve downloaded and putting yourself in a position where you’re less likely to end up with more infringement notices. That doesn’t mean admitting guilt. Don’t ever admit guilt in any way, just delete the downloads, stop downloading stuff you shouldn’t be, and shut up about the whole thing. Admitting ANYTHING is just plain begging for a lawsuit.
- If you’re truly paranoid, back up your data, zero out your hard drive using something like the Tritech Service System (running “dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda” will do it on almost any computer out there), and reinstall clean so there’s no evidence left behind. If you get in a legal fight and your computer gets subpoenaed for discovery, you can’t do this, but there’s nothing stopping you from doing as you please with your hard drive before receiving a subpoena.
- Most ISPs won’t kick you off their service for this. Don’t respond to the ISP unless you receive direct threats from them. If your ISP threatens to disconnect your service, use the information in the experiments above to explain to them that these people are making claims for which they have no real proof, and that you are not infringing on anyone’s copyrights. Remember that the ISP has no reason to boot you unless you’re a very egregious media thief, and if that’s the case you probably can’t read this by now anyway.
As a creator of copyrighted works, I can’t condone the piracy of copyrighted material, but I also feel that the major media industry corporations have gone way too far with their “sue them all” tactics. If someone pirated my creation and I found out, I wouldn’t threaten them or demand a settlement payment so quickly; I’d ask them to do the right thing and just pay up for it if they liked it (or toss it if they didn’t and tell me why so I could make it better.)
Don’t steal stuff, but don’t let big companies steal from you for something you didn’t do either.
It would be nice to hear from a real copyright lawyer on this issue. Feel free to comment, especially if you’re a lawyer. I don’t post email addresses, your comment will be as anonymous as you name it to be.
61 Comments
Nicely done on putting this together. I am a developer as well and I have to be up on these rules. I have been running my own tests and these guys, simply put, are idiots.
Today my mother called me in a panic because she got one of those pre-settlement letters for supposedly downloading two porn titles (mind you this is a woman who can’t check her email unassisted) I know for a fact that her wireless connection is encrypted and there is no one else in the house that could have downloaded the alleged files. I am pretty sure my 50 year old, post menopausal, and frighteningly Cristian mum isn’t downloading porn.
These lowlife bastards are obviously running a legal scam and banking on people being either guilty of something close enough to what they accuse, or being just plain scared shitless, into paying up (like my poor Mum).
Just figured I’d share my little anecdote that screams relevance to your article.
I’ll keep you posted.
My mom called them too. Did they ever contact you again? Whatever happened with your case?
I don’t have a “case.”
Uh oh. I clicked the link from the email and called to see if I could get the settlement lowered. The business hours were closed though. Am I stuck paying $125 I don’t have or can I still ignore the emails?
I accidentally did the same thing…help?
From what I have read this does not seem like a legal way of doing business anyway. From CEG’s website I would need to upload my copyrighted content, Video, program or what ever and wait to collect money. It seems to me that I could video myself sitting in a chair for an hour doing nothing have it copyrighted upload it to their service with a title like “Girls gone wild” and sit back and start collecting money. The other problem I see is that you have no idea the content is copyrighted until you download it and view it and see that it is copyrighted. Anyone can title anything anyway they want copyrighted or not. What about all the spam vid’s these companies put on P2P advertising their website. It would seem to me that the title of the download would require a statement that it is copyrighted content be any kind of legal action could be taken in this manner. I would not respond to any of these treats because they do not want it to go to court. If it did and they lost their cash cow would be gone and they don’t want to take that chance.
Does anyone have any more recent info on this? Early comments in the linked techdirt article indicated to ignore the email but later (after confirming that there have been subpoenas) people indicate they are paying the settlement. I spoke with a lawyer who said it was best to wait until I get something in writing, but I’m losing sleep over this and I don’t know how good his advice really is. They sent out 8 redundant notices totaling $1600, which I expect is a ploy to ratchet up the pressure.
Recently, all but one of the lawsuits filed in the largest joined filing (with over 5000 Does) were severed. The court is forcing them to file each suit separately which is not economical. Unless you are served with a suit, ignore it all.
Thank you so much, this is a huge relief. I read your copyright infringement website, and I’ve already messed up on the whole “maintaining silence” thing…but only in a minor way I hope. I logged into one of the cases from work, but didn’t put in any info. I work for a gigantic semiconductor company and the ip address is usually logged on the other side of the country, so all they really know is someone looked at the violation…someone at Charter security accidentally clicked the link for all they know.
I appreciate you taking the time to answer me and am probably pushing my luck here, but I’m going to ask another question. If you think the mere fact that I logged onto the claim website from a work computer could potentially open me up to litigation please let me know. Based on the comments over at techdirt it seems that people who pay the settlement are left alone. I’m a worrier and the stress and sleeplessness will likely be bad for me. While I don’t wish to condone their practices it may be worth it to try and settle, assuming (as the lawyer I spoke with indicated) that they will eliminate the redundant violations and even negotiate for the real ones.
There is no way they can prove you logged on to it. Just like how it isn’t so easy to prove who was behind the keyboard with only an IP address.
I also have received DMCA copy right infringement notices. And the only entity that I have made contact with is my ISP. But I fear that I made a mistake when I called my ISP as they said that they would note on my account that I would delete the content from my computer. Could this be used against me in court?
It could, if they subpoenaed the ISP for that information or the ISP somehow delivered it to them. However, you could just as easily argue that the ISP misinterpreted your conversation and that you didn’t say any such thing.
Most larger companies record conversations now days. If they sue you. GET A LAWYER. Do not talk to anyone except your lawyer. That’s why they went to school and have jobs. They cannot do their part if you do not do yours.
I also received a notice from Charter. Unfortunately I used the Case # and password to log into http://www.copyrightsettlements.com/ . A fine of $200 is there. But no any further action yet.
Does that matter so much? I believe many person who received the notice did this for they know how much they were asked for. It’s disgusting that you can download it without any protection, but afterward you are informed that you commit a infringement. I dare not give them the money even though I did download that, ’cause they may not let me go as soon as they get the money and know whom I am.
did anything happen to you? I have that issue right now from the same company and I’m terrified. did your past due…past? and did anything happen?
You should be fine. It’s all a numbers game and they’d rather catch people who fall for it than pay out to take you to court.
I just wonder why the seeds could exist and available for the user to download. Why don’t the copyright holder and CEG delete or sue the one who manage the torrent website. Isn’t that much easier than try their best to go after and scare the users? I doubt if it is themselves put the torrent there as a bait, and fishing the users who bite.
the pirate bay is a torrent website and the reason why they can’t sue the website is because the country where it is hosted does not have such copyright laws.
I saw some people post there case# and password somewhere which was months ago. I log on https://www.copyrightsettlements.com/ with them, said “Your case is currently past due. Please fill out the contact information below.” What the hell are they up to, desperately eager to collect your information.
what can you do if you accidentally gave your address to this people copyrightsettlements.com also i I did not give them my name just my address should i pay them or should i just ignore all the emails they send me after wards because the told me i have until Nov 10 to pay or my case is subject to legal action
I wish i had read this before i made such a stupid move so am i in trouble please respond to me soon i want to be able to sleep again
Stop talking to them. If anyone asks, you know nothing about it. You’ll probably be fine. It’s costly to take someone to court. Don’t fall for it. Just lay low. And follow the instructions given regarding any copyrighted content you may have on your systems.
I think that should be fine. I believe they dare not take any action to you until they can prove that IP address belonged to you. Imagine that you may also have input the address or name of anyone else. You can talk back with ” other people input my information accidentally.” unless you have input your visa account number. Here is the reply from a IP lawyer as to my issue for your reference.
So this is a tricky situation. Copyrightsettlements.com is probably a
legitimate company. Its working model is probably uploading files to P2P
network, and finding the IP downloading the file. Then it will send a letter
to ISP and ask ISP to send the letter to the Internet user for collecting
money.
Therefore, it is true that at the moment copyrightsettlements.com does not
likely have your identity. And if you pay through the website,
then it will have your identity. From this point of view, you should not
pay. And even you pay, there is no guarantee that there will not be future
suit.
However, copyrightsettlements.com does have the option to sue. There is no
way to figure out whether it is the owner of the copyright of the file that
your friend downloaded. If it does, it indeed can sue. Of course, suing
someone is not cheap and time consuming. So copyrightsettlement.com may not
want to go that far to collect money. From this point of view, not paying
does have the risk to be sued.
This decision has to be made by you. I don’t think there is perfect
solution here. My guts feeling is not to pay and take the risk of being
sued. I think voluntarily giving up your identity and admitting infringement
is a bad idea.
The best advice is really NEVER illegally downloading. It is as illegal as
drunk driving.
thank your for your help i think i will go with what you and i both think and not pay its all ready past the settlement date both of this guys game me one was for October 29 and the other was for November 10 and i have not receaved any other notices also what i did was to spam their email hopefully if anything else turns out i can argue me email was hacked or something. my hope is to change my ISP provider and hope fully it will go a way by itself i truly beleave that they will not sue because as you say its costly and as things stand they don’t have anything but my address hope fully they wont ask my current Internet provider (charter in this case) for any info for a while. i also was wondering if anyone knows if charter or internet providers get rid of logs or records they create for their customers after some time if any one has any info about this please tell me
I opened my browser ans i found a messege that to call my ISP provider and give them a case number to reactivate my interner service, so it said something about copyright infridgement.. So i called them my isp and i gave them the case number.. And now i have back my internet service… Now i want to know whats going to happen? Or what do i have to do?? Plz help i sont know this.
Stop talking to them. If anyone asks, you know nothing about it. You’ll probably be fine. It’s costly to take someone to court. Don’t fall for it. Just lay low. And follow the instructions given regarding any copyrighted content you may have on your systems.
thanks for your reply I also found out that my isp isn’t giving me any new IP adress like the used to when i rest my modem is this a sign that they are watching me or am i paranoid also can you tell me anything about contenxtechnologies LLC because i recived a letter from them as well at almost the same time i recieved from the other one (copyrightsettelments.com) so do you know anything about this one please respont
thank you for responding but I didn’t talk to them I found out through My email I am just learning about computers and saw it on my email i thought i read it and i stupidly clicked on the link they provided with the password and case number then it told me how much i owed i panicked and accidentally gave my address not my name they labeled me as John Doe so i got suspicious about it and started to look around and found this website also another stupid thing i did was to download their PDF with the Mailing information for sending my payment through the mail it all happened in seconds that i now wish i had taken time to think about things before making a dumb mistake like look at their email and click on their link.
So what is your advice for this situation because as it stand the send me 2 emails 2 days appart for the same movie but from different companies one is copyrightsettlements.com asking for $ 200 and the other is contenxtechnologies LLC asking for $25 please respond soon will help me a lot more
I think it is pretty odd to receive 2 same settlements from different companies for the same movie. There only can be 1 copyright owner or agency for 1 movie. At least 1 of them lied.
Anyone knows how long it will take the copyright agency sue you after the due date of the settlement if they decide to?
Look up the Wired Magazine articles regarding the voluntarily dropped lawsuits regarding the film “Nude Nuns with Big Guns.” As for the length of time they might take to file a lawsuit, it would typically fall under your locality’s statute of limitations on general civil suits. In North Carolina it’s three years. Once the statute of limitations passes, you cannot be sued for damages related to that incident ever again, generally speaking.
Hi, against my better judgment I went and visited the site (copyrightsettlements.com), and entered my case number and password. From your experience or the information you’ve gathered, how much more likely am I to be pursued for having done this?
I really appreciate this article, your site and your continuous support for readers, and what I’ve read has eased my mind significantly.
I need to know this too!!!!!
I just got one too. I entered the info on their site but my firewall told me it was not safe and so didnt let the page load hopefully not letting my info getting through. I really believe these people are uploading the material themselves and doing this. How else would they get your isp to begin with. I’m ignoring it. We’ll see what happens.
I just got popped by my ISP and I agree that their proof that I can not see is probably pretty sketchy. While not totally technically correct I wrote up the incident here:
https://thingsyourlocalpaperwillnevertellyou.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/the-inernet-nazis-come-to-seyour/
My main gripe is that it is impossible to tell if a file you DL has an owner that wants to be compensated.
(In reply to the contents of your blog post…)
Everything is copyright by default so that people cannot steal other peoples’ work; the copyright registration process costs money and takes quite a bit of time, and can you imagine if you had to register every blog post with the US Copyright Office and receive confirmation of such BEFORE you ever posted it, or risk someone stealing your work and calling it their own? You don’t want that.
As for packet sniffing: your communications provider can examine your packets anytime they wish, and as a private entity who is providing the service to you they don’t require a warrant to do so. The government would need a warrant to have access to your packets though.
The way BitTorrent copyright settlement companies “discover” that you’re infringing is to look at the BitTorrent peer list on trackers you use, see your IP in the list for a supposedly infringing torrent hash as an available peer, and automatically send a settlement message. It’s largely robotic in nature. All the company has to do is write the software that looks up hashes on trackers and sends notices to every IP, and from there it’s just some human being plugging allegedly infringing hashes into said software.
They never download the data directly from you and only you, so they never actually prove you are infringing. They never sue because it costs money. They hope that even only 1% of sent notices result in a $200 settlement, because if they sent 100,000 notices in a month, that equates to $200,000 in “settlements.”
Check this study out, it has lots more information: http://dmca.cs.washington.edu/
I got one of these a few days ago by CEG. My biggest concern is that paying it gives them my information and sets me up for them to come at me again (which is a main concern I have seen amongst others as well). In my case my router is password protected, but others (like housemates), or guests (which are frequent) could have downloaded the file. They are asking for 200$ which isn’t so substantial, but again I do not want to see another come at me for the same file because these people are a-holes. With that in mind, at the moment my battleplan is:
1.) Contact others who have received this notice and are in similar situations to see their action vs. consequence.
2.) Wait till a much closer time to the deadline for settlement (I’m hoping this expands the chances that if they have multiple cases for the same file they will present them, if they do that changes the game).
3.) Pay the settlement, and wait to see another response
4.) If they respond with another fight tooth and nail dragging it out to be as costly for them as possible
I’ll update this to give you guys an idea of what is going on.
Don’t pay anything! Just don’t waste the money! Paying into this crap is what makes it continue!
I would much rather NOT pay into this, but I have been onto their page with my IP address to view the case, the same IP address they are claiming downloaded the file. I haven’t contacted them, nor have I paid them in any way. My fear, and from what I gathered again from others, is that if I don’t pay this ‘small’ fee then the next settlement will be substantially higher with possible litigation.
I have seen the posts on other sites Techdirt that said ignore it, but on Techdirt I also saw that someones ISP was provided with a subpoena. Granted this may be a rare case, but should I continue to think that I am one anonymous person amongst thousands undergoing the same process when in reality I am only one of a few so litigation would go smoother on their end? Ideas?
Also as I said in the first part, thanks a ton for the website it has helped out quite a bit, wish I could have seen this before I even clicked on their damn link.
Copyright Enforcement Group hasn’t taken a single person to court as far as I know. Ira Siegel is what I think the name of the lawyer is that’s been the latest focus. Read the guide at copyright-infringement-notice.com and you’ll understand things better.
They can all go to hell. I sent them a copy of the article that nctritech gave me a link to.
http://dmca.cs.washington.edu/faq.html
I ranted for over 5 hours over 3 days giving them my side of it and openly said I was doing it to cost them money since they were costing me time and loss of service with no due process: https://thingsyourlocalpaperwillnevertellyou.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/the-inernet-nazis-come-to-seyour/
Then I filed an FCC complaint about it asking 2 months credits and both the warnings to be wiped out as punitive damages. http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
If push comes to shove I get another ISP or put in someone else s name.
I just received one of these extortion notices from CEG. I’m pretty sure that nobody in my house actually downloaded the porn movie, as they claim. My wireless is password protected. Also, I think the IP address they have identified is for my IPhone. If I can download movies on my iPhone, I don’t know how. Anyway, I messed up and clicked on the link in the email because I had not read this article and wanted to see what it was all about. But I didn’t put my address or anything in. So, I’m going to try to just ignore it. I’ll let everyone know how that goes. I figure if it really comes down to it, I have a couple of friends that are lawyers. Maybe they can send some intimidating letters or something to get them to back down. Hopefully it will just go away as I ignore it.
I have been ignoring it and have not received any notices or an further actions and my settlement date is already past due by about 3 months so i would suggest to ignore it also you should make a copy of the letter on some other email acc and then spam the one they sent you that way you can argue you thought it was a spam letter just don’t click on any thing any more
Ok this is what happen… I got home from work i open my browser and it lead me to a page that said to call my isp provider and give then a case number to reactivate my internet back.. It said something about copyright infrigement… Ok i called my isp and gave them the case number and they reactivated my service.. Ok whats going to happen imma going to receive any further notice?? Or whats next?? What do i do? I have no idea whats this?
first if you did do it stop doing it. 2nd if they have no proof of you doing the crime they cant do much unless they got u saying u did infringe then you could be in trouble. 3rd as mention in this page they could sue if the want but it costs money to take you to court so they might not go there. you should not mess with anything don’t mention the event any more. you should be okay if you didn’t admit to infringement and if they ask pretend not to know anything about it. if they are not desperate this counts as a warning.
I have filed an FCC complaint along with a link to the school study that shows they are using voodoo science and am asking for all strikes to be taken off my record and free service for a year as damages.
Don’t know where this will lead but I am going to fight the SOB’s
Please help. I am only 17 and recieved one of these notices by email. In panic i accidentally went on their website but did not enter any info. I really want to believe its just a scare tactic but i see a bunch of articles saying these guys actually have lawyers. And im even more scared bc..well theyre close to me (at least their main office.)
Really i suffer from anxiety/depression already so getting this email was like the straw that broke the camels back..On this site you talk a lot about things to do like erasing everything. Does that mean they actually come after you?
Please wtf do i do, besides ignoring it, i cant tell my parents about it. Does anything come in the actual mail?
I havent got any reassurance that ignoring it will make it go away. Someone said nothing happened for three months but what about afterwards?
I posted back in October ( http://nctritech.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/did-your-isp-forward-you-a-dmca-copyright-infringement-notice/#comment-623 ), and I remember when I was looking for help on this, I found a lot of people asking the same questions I had. The replies were always the same comforting “just ignore it, you’ll be fine,” but what what I found disconcerting was that none of the people receiving these settlement emails were posting to say whether or not the group actually followed through with threats of action.
So for anyone looking for some reassurance there, my “deadline” to settle passed on November 20th. I’ve received no further correspondence from the group or the company they represent since I stopped seeding the offending torrent, so all evidence that the process is both automated and nothing more than a scare tactic to squeeze some money out of people.
Hey i just got one of these notices and i logged in with the password and everything and i got so scared about the whole thing that i just wanted to get it over with and so i paid them the $200. I also gave them all my info
. After reading this blog i am even more scared that they will now come after me. I wish i would have read this before. Now i just received another one and i dont know what to do. should i pay it again or should i leave it? Oh man i feel terrible now i wish i would have read this. I didnt even know the thing was copyrighted. Why is it even on the internet to download if it is copyrighted.
Oh also i got a liability release after i paid the $200. Here is what it says below. Well if im screwed i hope i can help others out.
RELEASEE understands that RELEASOR asserts that, before the Settlement Date set forth above, infringement of the
copyright in the above-titled work occurred on the computer associated with the IP Address and Timestamp listed above.
RELEASOR and RELEASEE are willing to settle and resolve any claim against RELEASEE for that alleged infringement
under the terms and conditions set forth herein, it being understood by both that this Liability Release represents a
compromise and that nothing herein is to be construed as an admission of liability on the part of RELEASEE.
RELEASEE represents and warrants to RELEASOR that, to the extent, if any, that RELEASEE has ever had an
unauthorized copy of the above-titled work in RELEASEE’s possession, RELEASEE has removed any and all copies of the
above-titled work from all of RELEASEE’s computers and has destroyed all other copies of the work prior to the Settlement
Date written above except for any copies lawfully obtained from RELEASOR.
RELEASEE further represents and warrants that RELEASEE will not hereinafter make any copy of the work except as may
be allowed by law, and that RELEASEE will not engage, directly or indirectly, in any reproduction or distribution of the
above-titled work on the Internet.
In reliance on the representations and warranties made above by RELEASEE, and in consideration of the settlement
amount received by RELEASOR from RELEASEE on the Settlement Date, RELEASOR hereby releases and discharges the
RELEASEE, and RELEASEE’s heirs and successors, from and against all claims, causes of actions, lawsuits, damages and
demands whatsoever, specifically arising from, relating to, or in connection with RELEASEE’s alleged infringement prior to
the Settlement Date of the copyright in the above-titled work on the computer associated with the IP Address and
Timestamp listed above. This Liability Release applies to no other claims, causes of action, lawsuits, damages and
demands that RELEASOR may have against RELEASEE (e.g., for subsequent infringement of the same work or for any
infringement at any time of the copyright in another work), any and/or all of which, if existing, shall survive this Liability
Release. Further, this Liability Release applies to no infringements of the copyright in the above-titled work that have
occurred on computers or other devices outside of RELEASEE’s household.
I honestly think this whole thing is a scam. I’ve actually been reading articles and posts about this and there seems to be a common thread. Anywhere from $125 to $200 is asked for payment, Charter seems to be the ISP that’s always contacted, people with wireless internet always seem to be accused, and it always seems to involve porn flicks. Apparently these fly by night lawyers get most of their business from the porn industry which leads me to believe that no legitimate enterprise such as a major movie studio or record label hires these people. And quite frankly I wouldn’t want to be a lawyer who goes in front a judge (judges being mainly conservative family values people) and say “I’m suing John Doe because he downloaded a porn flick and we want him to pay.” That’s why I think this stuff never actually makes it to court aside from having to pay to file these motions. Also I think taxpayers would probably have an issue with their courts being used to defend porn film makers. Piracy isn’t a cool thing but who is going to feel sorry for someone who makes a film called “Spin On My Cock” which is one movie people seem to be contacted over. There’s something a little weird about this whole thing the more I read up on it.
The whole idea behind these threats is to shake down enough people to make it worthwhile. There is zero actual intent to sue. The company who is doing this advertises their services as a way to “monetize infringement.” It is a simple numbers game. If people stop paying up out of fear, the business model collapses, end of story. Suing people doesn’t work, as the RIAA and MPAA have learned, so the new approach is to threaten to sue if a rapid settlement isn’t paid. Since no suit is ever filed, no judge steps in and rules…thus they can threaten as much as they want.
I think the more this type of crap gets into the public eye, the better. They sound like debt collectors who call people on the phone collecting on old debts that they bought up. Same type of thing just on a cyber level. Debt collectors wound up being regulated and I have no doubt these shady people will be too. This whole thing is a crying shame. People live in fear of so many things now like losing their jobs, terrorists, you name it and now these jackasses jump into the fray. Shameless.
Ju, whatever you do–do not give them any more money. Stop corresponding with them, and ignore them. They are just out to get money through scare tactics. Relax.
I have recently received one of these letters from my isp with the attached correspondence from CEG asking me to log in and pay up. So far I have done nothing other than educate myself using wonderful websites such as this one.
My questing is this…. should I be expecting a notice in the near from my isp that my information has been subpoenaed? In other words, are most people who do not pre-settle pursued? Or is the subpoena for personal information limited to a small percentage of the people who get these shakedown letters?
Thank you in advance for any responses
This is not a lawsuit nor any part of one. This letter is solely meant to scare you into paying up without them having to prove anything in court. All reports seem unanimous that you face zero threat of being actually sued.
Thank you, I gathered that thus far. I guess my question is more related to the further use of this scare tactic. I have read about the next step….. isps being subpoenaed for their subscribers personal information. Once they have that the personal threats of suit can follow (phone calls, letters in the mail ect.) While I realize the threat of actually being sued is very minimal, I’m asking about being personally identified to these companies….. That is my question, how often does this next step happen happen? Do most people threats stop with this initial email(s)? Or are most people’s isp’s actually subpoenaed?
Once again, thank you for hosting such an extremely informative page!
From what I understand, that never happens with CEG/USCG. If the ISP is subpoenaed for your name, I understand that you are typically given an opportunity to fight the subpoena, but as I said before, this isn’t likely to ever invoke the legal system in the first place.
Thank you sir.
Good luck to all in fighting this nasty and low practice extortion!
Has anyone else paid the settlement?
I thought I would post my thoughts here if it can help anyone. Although the couple blog posts on this site alone should help significantly.
I received two emails from my ISP just a bit over a month ago. They were DMCA notices, if you want to call them that. The email started off with the ISP’s part then it was the same automated email sent from a CEG representative in California claiming a file from two different companies was downloaded by myself illegally. First of all, I don’t have the files they said on my computer. Second, they wanted me to go to the same site and pay up by a certain date which had already passed by the time I noticed the email. It has been over a week since then and Lord willing, I haven’t gotten anything else.
When I first noticed the email, I said what the heck and called my ISP out of confusion. I told them I didn’t understand what this was about and I don’t have these files on my systems. Talking a bit further I had an epiphany about my Wi-Fi connection. I spoke to them and to make a long story short, they said someone probably used my compromised Wi-Fi connection and I didn’t realize it. I told them I re-secured it and they said no problem and noted that on my account and the ISP hadn’t received anything else from someone the initial emails. As a matter of fact, the IP they listed didn’t even seem remotely close to mine but since they are dynamic, the gentleman on the phone said it was probably an IP address logged onto my network at the time.
Regardless, I didn’t go to the site they wanted and pay up with my information. At that point, you are basically admitting guilt whether or not you downloaded said file to begin with. It seems from researching everywhere, they ask for the same settlement amounts and a lot of times these files aren’t even the official release titles by the apparent copyright holder. My guess is that they either just tag onto some trackers out there to see who is downloading things then send out a bunch of emails or they might just upload random files by their own accord to set people up. I imagine if they send out a few thousand of these and a small percentage pays up on average of $200, all of a sudden a $15 porn movie/file is making them some quick change, especially if a single person with 10 different notifications at once pays up.
It is basically extortion but they are not breaking any laws. I feel the more people get educated by this the better. These are quick cash schemes that go after people who are in sensitive situations such a husband not wanting his wife to know, etc. There are other sites out there to help people about the larger methods of these shysters.
http://www.dietrolldie.com and http://www.fightcopyrighttrolls.com
There are also numerous other articles and websites out there. Get educated and don’t talk to them, log into anything, download anything, or pay anything. The burden of proof is on them and besides basic jurisdiction issues, if this even went to court, an IP or MAC address alone is a weak argument from what I understand.
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