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well my family recently received a letter from our isp informing us that they received an email from nbc (and included a copy of said email) informing them that they believe we have been infringing on their copyright, that they might be liable if they don't take appropriate action, and to please stop us and let them know the result. they list a single video file, the ip address and the network it was downloaded from. so the isp explains very nicely that sharing copyrighted materials is against their terms of service and maybe you weren't aware it was happening. so here's what you can do to find out if someone in your house is doing this and stop it. in the interest of full disclosure my brother did in fact download this file. or at least he was in the process of downloading it when he got caught.

now then the question is what is likely to come next? is there an article like this one out there that describes the MPAA's practices? or does anyone know how similar their process is? anyone already been through this? i would of course like to help mitigate or possibly make this go away for my brother. he's 21 and should be able to handle this himself but obviously he's not as smart as i thought he was.

**** the MPAA.

He needs to educate himself on how he got caught and what he can do to prevent getting caught in the future (example: not download said files).

If the MPAA is like the RIAA they will try and bully you into an out of court settlement. I believe there is a post somewhere in here about a woman who sucessfully beat the RIAA in court.

Seeing as how your brother was caught red-handed though I'd say make him pay whatever the penalty is.

Did they say they are going to sue you or is this just a warning? If it is the latter, consider yourself lucky and never do that (or get caught) again.

Normally if you just download a file from a website or something, you should not get caught that easily. Was you bro trying to "download" using those file sharing programs like BitTorrent? They include an upload component and can be easily monitored.

Let's keep the details out of this to avoid potential rules violations, please.

He must have been sharing the content. You don't get busted for downloading the file, you get busted for sharing it / redistributing it.

Very simple. Don't illegally download copyrighted material, and you won't have any worries.

Vrock wrote:

Very simple. Don't illegally download copyrighted material, and you won't have any worries.

Agreed, it's much easier to grab it from someone else who's illegally downloaded it and make yourself a copy.

Hell of a lot simpler to just buy the movie in the first place. One of the things I was happy about my brother in law moving out after he and my sister divorced was the bandwidth for my internet gaming cleared up. No more P2P crap on our network.

mantismag wrote:

now then the question is what is likely to come next? is there an article like this one out there that describes the MPAA's practices? or does anyone know how similar their process is? anyone already been through this? i would of course like to help mitigate or possibly make this go away for my brother. he's 21 and should be able to handle this himself but obviously he's not as smart as i thought he was.

Just tell the ISP that the offending file has been removed. From what I've heard, that's usually all it takes for this kind of thing. If the MPAA (or whoever) was going to sue you, you'd know about it already. Although it's likely that after the 2nd or 3rd warning that the ISP will terminate your service.

The RIAA will get your name from the ISP and then send you a settlement letter. It seems like the MPAA is still just asking ISPs to make sure the content is removed.

to everyone asking how it was he got caught: he was using a P2P network that uploads as you're downloading.

as for everyone talking about how he shouldn't have gotten caught: yeah i know. i've berated him on this already.

Flying Fox wrote:

Did they say they are going to sue you or is this just a warning? If it is the latter, consider yourself lucky and never do that (or get caught) again.

at the moment they only asked the isp to stop us. all the isp has done is send us that letter. there was no indication as to whether they will pursue this further. the letter from nbc was not directed at us but at the isp. is the mpaa known for sending warnings that are not followed up by lawsuits?

mantismag wrote:

at the moment they only asked the isp to stop us. all the isp has done is send us that letter. there was no indication as to whether they will pursue this further. the letter from nbc was not directed at us but at the isp. is the mpaa known for sending warnings that are not followed up by lawsuits?

IANAL, but it seems to me that if their intent was to sue no matter what, the first you would've heard about it would've been when you got sued. So the fact that they sent your ISP a "takedown" warning instead is a good sign.

mantismag wrote:

is the mpaa known for sending warnings that are not followed up by lawsuits?

I think the only thing they are known for at this time is price gouging on sub-standard products.

mantismag wrote:

is the mpaa known for sending warnings that are not followed up by lawsuits?

Everyone that I know that's gotten such letters/emails has just been warned.

well that's good news. i guess we'll just give him a beating and hope nothing comes of this. thanks everyone.

The first thing he should do is to admit to downloading the file but deny in the strongest possible terms any knowlege that it was copyright protected material. If the MPAA wants to proceed with any legal action they first have to show intent to defraud. If he admits that he knew what it was then he's just won their case for them.

Does the letter require a response at all? You don't have to say anything at all if they are not asking for one. Of course, stop what you are doing and don't get caught the next time.

Flying Fox wrote:

Does the letter require a response at all? You don't have to say anything at all if they are not asking for one. Of course, stop what you are doing and don't get caught the next time.

Well, I imagine he at least needs to respond to the ISP, who may then forward it on to the MPAA...

Rhuobhe wrote:

mantismag wrote:

is the mpaa known for sending warnings that are not followed up by lawsuits?

I think the only thing they are known for at this time is price gouging on sub-standard products.

Then don't buy their products. But don't steal them either.

Vrock wrote:

Rhuobhe wrote:

mantismag wrote:

is the mpaa known for sending warnings that are not followed up by lawsuits?

I think the only thing they are known for at this time is price gouging on sub-standard products.

Then don't buy their products. But don't steal them either.

I have no reason to do either

On the rare occassion there is actually a movie worth watching, I'll sign up for netflix for $15 for a month and get to watch that movie and more if I wish. I MUCH prefer to give my money to a company like netflix.

Rhuobhe wrote:

On the rare occassion there is actually a movie worth watching, I'll sign up for netflix for $15 for a month and get to watch that movie and more if I wish. I MUCH prefer to give my money to a company like netflix.

Yeah, because Netflix is a fine, upstanding company who hasn't screwed any of its customers.

Besides that, I got news for you: the MPAA still gets its cut from video rentals.

Vrock wrote:

Yeah, because Netflix is a fine, upstanding company who hasn't screwed any of its customers.

Besides that, I got news for you: the MPAA still gets its cut from video rentals.

Who has it screwed? You? Someone you read about? They've never screwed me over. Infact, I've had 3 disks lost in the mail and they didn't charge me for them, just sent new ones.

News for you: The cut they get is substancially less for rentals, which makes me happy.

just brew it! wrote:

Flying Fox wrote:

Does the letter require a response at all? You don't have to say anything at all if they are not asking for one. Of course, stop what you are doing and don't get caught the next time.

Well, I imagine he at least needs to respond to the ISP, who may then forward it on to the MPAA...

the tone of the letter was more of a "hey, FYI we got this email about you. we haven't released your information yet but if they pursue it legally we'll have to. here's what you can do to stop infringing. give us a call if you need help." they haven't asked for any sort of response. my brother is actually no longer even here. he's back in his college dorm. of course he still cancelled the download. the tone of the email from nbc that was forwarded was "it's better if we all just cooperate to stop this infringement. depending on the service you (the isp) provide you may be legally responsible to actually stop them or have a policy in place that allows you to terminate services. please do something and let us know what happens." then there's the legal bit that says they can still do whatever they want because the email isn't a full disclosure of their rights or their intentions. i may just have my dad call them up and tell them we stopped it so that they can let nbc know that they took appropriate action and we're no longer infringing.

mantismag wrote:

just brew it! wrote:

Flying Fox wrote:

Does the letter require a response at all? You don't have to say anything at all if they are not asking for one. Of course, stop what you are doing and don't get caught the next time.

Well, I imagine he at least needs to respond to the ISP, who may then forward it on to the MPAA...

the tone of the letter was more of a "hey, FYI we got this email about you. we haven't released your information yet but if they pursue it legally we'll have to. here's what you can do to stop infringing. give us a call if you need help." they haven't asked for any sort of response. my brother is actually no longer even here. he's back in his college dorm. of course he still cancelled the download. the tone of the email from nbc that was forwarded was "it's better if we all just cooperate to stop this infringement. depending on the service you (the isp) provide you may be legally responsible to actually stop them or have a policy in place that allows you to terminate services. please do something and let us know what happens." then there's the legal bit that says they can still do whatever they want because the email isn't a full disclosure of their rights or their intentions. i may just have my dad call them up and tell them we stopped it so that they can let nbc know that they took appropriate action and we're no longer infringing.

Not a lawyer, but... Don't call, write. And if you want to be extremely sure they get it (if MPAA does sue, it'll look better), send it certified, return receipt.

Mike.

Rhuobhe wrote:

Who has it screwed? You? Someone you read about? They've never screwed me over. Infact, I've had 3 disks lost in the mail and they didn't charge me for them, just sent new ones.

Not me, I don't use Netflix. They've been accused of deliberately delaying shipments of discs and sued over it. Last I checked, they settled out of court and changed their business model, but not before they were called out on it.

Rhuobhe wrote:

News for you: The cut they get is substancially less for rentals, which makes me happy.

You have issues then, if something like that makes you happy.

Vrock wrote:

You have issues then, if something like that makes you happy.

Whats with the personal attack?
Who are you to judge?

Rhuobhe wrote:

Vrock wrote:

You have issues then, if something like that makes you happy.

Whats with the personal attack?
Who are you to judge?

Oh please. That's not a personal attack.

Your hatred of the MPAA is the issue, but that seems to be all the rage on the internet these days....people ranting about RIAA and MPAA. Whatever.

Vrock wrote:

Oh please. That's not a personal attack.

EDIT BY MOD - Captain Ned - That WAS a personal attack that went too far.

Ned: I apologize for the silly jr. highschool minded statement that I made, which was of the same tone as what Vrock said to me, but it was uncalled for because I had no observation on which to base that statement.

However, I would like to say that Vrock, you have issues too. We all do. At least I can claim with a clear conscience that I am not a fanboi of RIAA/MPAA. Seeing you defend them and your distaste for people who are not exactly pleased with them, I certainly hope you have something to gain by defending them or are on payroll from one (or both) of them. Otherwise your effort is well, lame.

I love this. Vrock wasn't really defending MPAA/RIAA, he said

1) If you think their products suck, don't traffic in them, legal or illegal.
2) Don't break the law

Really, you could apply these principles to any company.

But, of course, defending common sense and the rule of law must mean that he is a fanboy for MPAA.

Glorious wrote:

I love [...] Vrock

Whats worse is that you're a fanboy of Vrock.