Anyone got in trouble for piracy?

[Rock Raiyu]

I've never got mail from my ISP for pirating but then again, I don't really use my torrent for pirating. I use things like Megaupload or DDL places cause my connection is fast enough to download a 1GB file in at least 3-6 hrs.

 

[Awdofgum]

I got a C&D notice from Comcast, that scared me off for good.

Really?, my friend who has Comcast has been pirating ever since he was 10 and i don't think he ever got a warning of any kind.
I only thought Comcast prevented you from seeding torrents.

@Infinity-X: i can get a 1GB file in 45-min to 1-hour

 

[jaxxster]

I've never got mail from my ISP for pirating but then again, I don't really use my torrent for pirating. I use things like Megaupload or DDL places cause my connection is fast enough to download a 1GB file in at least 3-6 hrs.

1gig in 3-6 hours is a sucky connection, most connections give you about 8 gigs just over 3 hours.

I've still not heard anything and dont expect to hear anything, i download a few games n tv shows each week but i dont think it warrants harassing me and going through hassle just to warn me off....anyways isnt it piracy legal now aslong as you dont make a profit from it in the EU?

 

[acoustic.digital]

piracy is a really tricky thing in germany. 3 years ago when i was still a school in my hometown, the police
pulled off a big raid in our town, about 32 ppl got caught. you don't get a letter first, they cops come straight to you : )
one of my schoolmates got caught as well, and they took everything computer-related away. he violated some copyright laws (of course, when you pirated Oo) and he sentenced him to pay a fee about 250000$. because he was not over 18, he didn't have to do it straight away, and the amount got a bit reduced, but i don't know how much he has to pay finally.
yeah, he was pretty much a hardcore dl'er, he downloaded every movie that was available, day and night.
in germany you can download as much as you want, but the isp's look around. and if you're suspicious, they'll get you.


now that i'm in australia, i don't have to 'fear' it anymore. i hardly dl anyway, and yes, australia has download restrictions which suck balls.
internet here is the biggest shit i've ever seen, you pay 40$ for 10gb with a 256kb/s connection (and you actually surf with constant 25kb/s!) i don't have that much money, so i can't really upgrade it. internet itself here is already a piracy prevention ; p

 

[Dylaan]

now that i'm in australia, i don't have to 'fear' it anymore. i hardly dl anyway, and yes, australia has download restrictions which suck balls.
internet here is the biggest shit i've ever seen, you pay 40$ for 10gb with a 256kb/s connection (and you actually surf with constant 25kb/s!) i don't have that much money, so i can't really upgrade it. internet itself here is already a piracy prevention

Wrong, you just have to look around, and do a bit of haggling... (We certainly don't have the best either though) I've got 8mbps 25gb/month with BigPond, I only pay $59 for it!

Never got in trouble off anyone so far, except I got yelled at for using school for warez... (Which is fair enough)

 

[acoustic.digital]

haha thanks for that, but i can't change the isp anyway. our landlord provides us with internet and phone, the costs are included in our rent.
60$ for internet is still a lot, i paid 60$ for 12mbps with unlimited dl/ul, phoneflat within germany and free cable tv : )
i think it will get better when the 3g network is finally upgraded : )
since i don't download, its fine for me anyway hehe

 

[podunk1269]

I got a cease and desist email from metallica's lawyers in the glory days of napster

 

[boblen]

i'v only goten 2 emails.
1 - Was from downloading a torrent asking me to deletethe TV Show i had downloaded - just emailed them back saying deleted lol.

2 - I uploaded some game onto a fileshareing website - they said they would be calling the feds unless i pay them $20

Nothing from my ISP tho.

 

[~Westside Till I]

I never got a REAL e-mail from my ISP, however on april fools, I got an fake email from "Universal" about how I pirated over torrent, and that I am in deep trouble and that I must contact them at once at the email address given. When I clicked that address I got rick rolled...

 

[Panzer Tacticer]

Interesting common theme here, most of you sound like you're teens.

So here's a parent's perspective I guess.

My broadband costs me 45 bucks a month. It's unlimited. What do they think I need 100-200 gigs of bandwidth a month for anyway?

I pay Giga news 30 bucks a month for access to news hosting services. They know how much bandwidth I employ a month.

All this is backed up by credit card records eh.

Then there is how I can go and buy spindles of 100 dvd blanks from Futureshop for 30 bucks a shot. They have piles and piles of 100 disk spindles on sale in stores everywhere. Why exactly do they think joe consumer needs blank dvds in massive quantities for really? It certainly isn't so you can back up your entire computer every single day of the year!

I KNOW the law. I think the laws are idiotic, ineffectual, pointless, moronic and quite a few other things. I also think the industry is either run by fools, or the truth is they just don't care. The MPAA and the RIAA like to occasionally beat up some wretched torrent site online and then claim how great a job they are doing. They are useless really.

As I see it, I am PAYING each month solid good money to use the internet. And Bell Canada and Giga news willingly, and knowingly sell me data which I gladly BUY off of them. You can spin that any way you like. I don't care.
If Nintendo, and Sony, and god alone who knows who else want their money, Bell Canada and Giga news has it.
I haven't done anything I feel bad about. I sleep well and I download.

Thus, my son is not hassled by me when he does the same (unless he downloads junk that makes me need to sort out his computer for him

).

I've never met or heard of anyone getting in trouble though.
But recently Bell Canada has elected to throttle the ability to use torrents. It's really got a lot of users irate. It's also costing them a lot of customers.

 

[ozzyzak]

Interesting common theme here, most of you sound like you're teens.

So here's a parent's perspective I guess.

My broadband costs me 45 bucks a month. It's unlimited. What do they think I need 100-200 gigs of bandwidth a month for anyway?

I pay Giga news 30 bucks a month for access to news hosting services. They know how much bandwidth I employ a month.

All this is backed up by credit card records eh.

Then there is how I can go and buy spindles of 100 dvd blanks from Futureshop for 30 bucks a shot. They have piles and piles of 100 disk spindles on sale in stores everywhere. Why exactly do they think joe consumer needs blank dvds in massive quantities for really? It certainly isn't so you can back up your entire computer every single day of the year!

I KNOW the law. I think the laws are idiotic, ineffectual, pointless, moronic and quite a few other things. I also think the industry is either run by fools, or the truth is they just don't care. The MPAA and the RIAA like to occasionally beat up some wretched torrent site online and then claim how great a job they are doing. They are useless really.

As I see it, I am PAYING each month solid good money to use the internet. And Bell Canada and Giga news willingly, and knowingly sell me data which I gladly BUY off of them. You can spin that any way you like. I don't care.
If Nintendo, and Sony, and god alone who knows who else want their money, Bell Canada and Giga news has it.
I haven't done anything I feel bad about. I sleep well and I download.

Thus, my son is not hassled by me when he does the same (unless he downloads junk that makes me need to sort out his computer for him

).

I've never met or heard of anyone getting in trouble though.
But recently Bell Canada has elected to throttle the ability to use torrents. It's really got a lot of users irate. It's also costing them a lot of customers.

Holy crap. I wish you were my parent when I was growing up. If I had gotten in any serious trouble, I would have been in deep shit. Not that I completely blame my parents, especially when you end up seeing what these companies can do to you financially. There were a few times I probably could have gotten my parents in a lot of trouble.

Hopefully nothing bad ever comes your way in that regard....and keep on keepin' on.

 

[Hitto]

PeerGuardian protects unwanted IPs. I do not see how can "raise the heat."

Probably my paranoia acting up. I grew up in a time when pinging a range of IPs got you a visit from the military... My point is, peerguardian is useful for blocking ads and spyware, sure, but blocking the cops MEANS inviting them, or inviting the ones who are hired to "search deeper" when nothing has been found, when flying under the radar would be so much simpler.

 

[Defiance]

i'v only goten 2 emails.
1 - Was from downloading a torrent asking me to deletethe TV Show i had downloaded - just emailed them back saying deleted lol.

2 - I uploaded some game onto a fileshareing website - they said they would be calling the feds unless i pay them $20

Nothing from my ISP tho.

Wait, what the difference between an email asking you to stop and an ISP?

 

[Prime]

it was when i found out about Bit Torrents. i thought i'd give it a go.

Downloaded about 4 movies (not all at once), got a little letter from my ISP. Got in trouble from my mum (i was only 14 years old). Stopped doing it for a while.

I still download movies and especially romz.

 

[xalphax]

a close friend got in deep trouble, so that i reconsidered my whole attitude concerning piracy.

now i buy what i like.

 

[CrEsPo]

Being in Canada I can't get in trouble for piracy. I got some emails a ways back, but I safely ignored them because they don't enforce anything.

I still buy what's good though. There's a lot of crap out there so I "test" it first by downloading and if I'm a fan of it I'll buy it. I just counted and I only have 14 bought movies. That's pretty low

.

 

[Panzer Tacticer]

CrEsPo touched on a valid detail.

When reading the comments, make sure to look at the flag of the person posting to keep track of the relevance.

Here in Canada, if I was caught downloading, I have just had my privacy violated. In a court, I likely win more money suing them for violation of my privacy. That's a very significant detail.

It might seem stupid when you try to reason it out logically, but it's still significant to remember, my privacy is more important than your copyright.

Right now Bell Canada is playing with fire interfering with the downloading of torrents. Because to do so they must actually invade my privacy to accomplish anything.

Now in other nations, it's a whole different ball of wax. I heard you can get in serious trouble in Singapore just being caught with an R4 in your possession. They beat people there

Most of the greatly varied wordings on things like films coming out of the US, and all those FBI warning etc etc etc, you have to remember, the FBI has no power off US soil. All they can do is hope the other nation is interested in being mutually supportive. You scratch my back I'll scratch yours. But in Canada, Canadian law is all that applies. Thus, US law, written on a film out of the US, has no power out of the US.

That basically applies to any product. It's what keeps lawyers rich and happy. It's a wonderful mess trying to sort it out.
It's why a well known site based in Sweden has so much fun laughing off protests. Swedish rules apply in Sweden.
It explains why a lot of cool web sites, don't exist in some nations.

 

[GizmoDuck]

One of my friends got his internet suspended at UC Davis for downloading Scarface. As for me, I've never got in trouble for downloading stuff. I used to be an avid downloader of games, movies, music, and whatever, but lately I've been too busy (and lazy) to do so. Most of my friends don't mind pirating, except for one strange fella. He owns a G6 Lite and downloads movies and music, but hates pirating (??). Basically, he's a hypocrite. My parents know I pirate, but they don't seem to mind. In fact, they seem to like it when I burn Chinese movies for them to watch.

 

[Defiance]

Here's my story copied straight from a thread I made:

Well I was downloading a Wii Iso, Twilight Princes, and it was in the uTorrent like usual. I already had Mario Galaxy and Battle Revolution downloaded too. Anyway, my cable company sent an e-mail saying they found me downloading the file and was going to shut down the internet!

This was about 2 weeks ago (Two months ago from now), but I think I realized why I got caught. I didn't put the Encryption one because I was trying to make it go faster.

I know now to keep it on, but is there anything I can do to make sure I don't get in trouble again? Someone recommended me PeerGuardian and it seems to be working, but I can't be sure. I'm even afraid to download DS backups.

 

[xalphax]

.... I didn't put the Encryption one because I was trying to make it go faster....

hmm... my isp somehow blocks unencrypted torrent traffic, so i have to ENABLE it to make it go faster