I Finally Got Caught - HELP

[Synbios]

Since the beginning of Napster I've been downloading music and then later movies.

For the first time, today I received a letter from my ISP explaining that I had got caught downloading moives from Paramount Pictures. I'm going to scan a copy of the letter later today.

It was using BitTorrent, uTorrent more specifically.

Has anyone ever gotten a letter like this? I'd like to hear your situation. I want to find a way I can continue downloading without getting caught again. From what I can tell this letter is only a warning.

I've never had a problem with Comcast at my house in Boston, MA. This happened to me in my apartment in Worcester, MA, with Charter Communications as the ISP. I've had them as my ISP for almost a year now and I've been using BT since I've had it.

[chip!]

wow.. yeah let us know when you got it scanned.. i have to go to class now, but here are some resources:

http://www.chillingeffects.org/     (upload your notice there, and you might be able to get some help, or have other law students answer questions, etc)..

http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php  - a little outdated, but still some good basic info, with links to other resources..


http://tor.eff.org/    - Tor: anonymity online

[Quantum]

Wipe all your data, remove programs, format hard drive, do a like a 7-pass clean etc..

Typically the first letter is a warning letter, so if you just don't do anything again it shouldn't be a problem...

[TheNightWatchman]

Wipe all your data, remove programs, format hard drive, do a like a 7-pass clean etc..

Typically the first letter is a warning letter, so if you just don't do anything again it shouldn't be a problem...

So you're saying you think it's some kind of spyware program that's seen he's downloading movies?

[Synbios]

Here is the scanned PDF file from BayTSP.

I don't think it was spyware, from what I understand this is what happened:

Paramount Pictures hired the company BayTSP (http://www.baytsp.com/) to help track pirating movies.

Possibly, BayTSP has setup a false tracker and records IP addresses that request files from that tracker. BayTSP then contacts the ISP who owns the IP address. In my case, Charter Communications. I got a letter in the mail from Charter saying that they were notified by BayTSP about my infringement. They attached the letter which BayTSP gave to them, which is what I have scanned for you guys. The letter addressed to me from Charter contains personal information and is really of no use to you guys.

In other words, the pdf I have attached is a file addressed to Charter Communications, from BayTSP.

[chip!]

alright, dont know if you already read this or not, but here's an FAQ with good info:

http://www.baytsp.com/downloads2/Bay_Notice_FAQ.pdf


you can either respond with a counter notice saying you did nothing of that sort, that you've never downloaded or shared that movie in question.. or you can reply i guess with the REMOVE/DELETE notification... either way, BayTSP states that "unless we discover additional infringements you should not expect further contact from us regarding this matter."

which brings an interesting point, they really have no idea IF you had that file in question, if they setup a fake tracker and just sent out notices to everyone who tries to download it, where there might be intent to commit copyright infringement, but it did not actually happen, and the whole entrapment could equally be some sort of legal defense..   

however, looks like you're in the clear. just a reminder to everyone to be careful when downloading.. move to private trackers whenever possible, not that those are safe, but have to be safer than public open trackers.. i've seen many users on PirateBay claim to receive copyright infringement notices after downloading specific files from there.. thanks for the heads up Syn... but maybe its time to switch to Tor proxy service, so they wouldnt be able to tie down you IP to anything you're sharing.. ?  (dont quote me on thats how it works, but thats how it should work.. and it is a proxy service..)..

[MinLo]

Here is the scanned PDF file from BayTSP.

I don't think it was spyware, from what I understand this is what happened:

Paramount Pictures hired the company BayTSP (http://www.baytsp.com/) to help track pirating movies.

Possibly, BayTSP has setup a false tracker and records IP addresses that request files from that tracker. BayTSP then contacts the ISP who owns the IP address. In my case, Charter Communications. I got a letter in the mail from Charter saying that they were notified by BayTSP about my infringement. They attached the letter which BayTSP gave to them, which is what I have scanned for you guys. The letter addressed to me from Charter contains personal information and is really of no use to you guys.

In other words, the pdf I have attached is a file addressed to Charter Communications, from BayTSP.

your ip is listed on there,Syn........IDK if u care but maybe you might want to edit that part........Too bad we don't have the private forum anymore since this can be viewed by anybody and everybody

[Quantum]

I wasn't implying it was spyware. I was implying it was what Chip was saying, a warning letter. Your ISP will probably monitor your activities at this point and they don't have any hard evidence, so if remove EVERYTHING and don't download any more questionable torrents again, you should be fine.

[Synbios]

MinLo, I appreciate your concern but my IP address is dynamic and it has since changed since that date

chip, thanks for the link to Tor. I'm going to download it and see if I can get that setup to work as a proxy for BT. I'm going to wait a little while or maybe indefinitely to try and download here in Worcester on Charter again. I'll use Tor when I'm using Comcast in Boston for sure.

[chip!]

well.. which ever the case, i read over that notice and since it really doesnt have anything for you to worry about (legally) other than knowing that a robot (BayTSP explains how it works on their website) basically joined a tracker pretending to share a file and then logged all the peer's IPs and systematically sent out warning notices to them...   here's the fun part..  because the RIAA has actually been taking people to court with little more than an IP and a Filename and a subpoena (to the ISP for your name), the evidence of an IP alone signifying GUILTY copyright infringement is becoming weaker and weaker... as seen:

http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/weather.cgi?WeatherID=581

this ruling (still on going, but in favor of the defendant, not the RIAA) is about to make it MUCH harder for anyone to sue anyone based simply on the IP address alone. from the summary: "If other courts take hold of this reasoning, this will make it very hard for the RIAA to go after individuals for file sharing based on the IP address alone. Evidence of knowledge and participation will become much more important."

what I find interesting about this is......   just wait until one of these groups (RIAA, MPAA) etc file a law suit against some mom and pop who have their wireless router open for public access, mom and pop never downloaded anything in their life, and later turns out later that someone in the public domain, unrelated and unknown to mom and pop,  was using the wireless access to download music.. now I dont do this (because I never download music illegally.. thanks to the new Zune Marketplace), but I do have neighbors with open wireless routers..   what would the result of that court case? practically impossible for the RIAA, MPAA, etc to take anyone to court over an IP alone...

and adding more fun to this, using a proxy network like TOR will only help speed something up like that... the good news, if you're brought into a lawsuit and did not do what the person suing you claims (as in the case posted above).. you're almost certainly going to be award back a all of your legal fees defending yourself...

the bad side, is that our DMCA is sooooo screwed up, that its going to take a few more lawsuits of those mentioned's nature to finally put an end to all of this. hopefully.



EDIT:   if   TOR doesnt work out for you, and privacy is a big concern, you can go with another option of something like:

http://www.guardster.com/?Home-!Home

where you can use a secure SSH SOCKs tunnel with just about any internet application... their servers and management is in the Nevis Islands which has very strong privacy laws. I cant confirm that they'll allow you to use the service for downloading, but if so, no one in the US or any other country will be able to subpoena your real IP information from them, and when you are downloading, your IP will just show up at a guardster.com IP address..

[TheHalf™]

You may want to read the article that I am posting from the University of Wisconsin:

http://badgerherald.com/news/2007/03/19/uw_warns_music_share.php

Here's a quote from a Wisonsin administrator; "These settlement letters are an attempt to short circuit the legal process to rely on universities to be their legal agent,”,  “It basically says, you are illegally downloading and/or sharing information; and before we take legal action, you can remedy this situation and pay for the music or movies that you’ve downloaded.”

[norin]

Another option to get rid of AL those nasty agency's that are watching what you download is to download PeerGuardian.
It monitors al your contacts and automatically refuses all the ip's that are known to be from governmental institutes or anty pear to pear networks, you can even shut out specific ip's and also university ip's an ip ranges.
It is a nice small program not only useful for torrent downloading but also for other sharing systems,
I should take a look at it

[Quantum]

Another option to get rid of AL those nasty agency's that are watching what you download is to download PeerGuardian.
It monitors al your contacts and automatically refuses all the ip's that are known to be from governmental institutes or anty pear to pear networks, you can even shut out specific ip's and also university ip's an ip ranges.
It is a nice small program not only useful for torrent downloading but also for other sharing systems,
I should take a look at it

PeerGuardian breaks some games and has dubious effectiveness. If a company wants to spy on people, they will likely not use their publically listed IP. Also the RIAA rarely present any evidence at all that the person in question is responsable for the actions that they claim.

[Exous]

Never had a warning mail like that before in my life, what country are you from? I know the USA is harder on people than here in Holland... alltough with the EU and their new laws comming up things get ALOT harder for us

[Synbios]

Yeah I'm from the USA.