I got a notice about copyright violations

i'm at a university and my internet connection was shut off for copyright
infringement. i had to go sign a form to get it back. apparently nbc detected
me downloading friday night lights and sent my school an email. has anyone else
received anything like this? are all the networks doing this? i'm starting to
wonder how safe bt is now. do you think they can detect irc transfers?



============ amended july 2014 by mod =================


copyright notices:

the issue is not with specific scene groups, or with specific torrent groups, or what website you
obtain your torrent files from. tv networks (especially hbo, showtime and other cable networks)
have been randomly monitoring torrent swarms and sending out notices through isp's for several
years now. this is nothing new, although they have greatly increased their activity this past year.
there are thousands of tv/radio/print/online news articles about this subject. please read up,
educate yourself.

there are many options/methods for keeping your identity private when online...even when
torrenting. one proven method of protecting your identity online is to use a vpn. here is an article
about vpn services form the good folks at torrentfreak.com

https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/

yeah that happens. along as your ip's are not being filtered/blocked, they will
get you. look into peer guardian and ghost surf.

i got to a university in canada, and while no one i know has received a copy
right violation for tv, it has happened for movies. all the people get is a
slap on the wrist and then their internet use is "monitored" but most of them
continue to download with torrents.

i doubt anyone in canada has received one because out copyright laws are very
different and especially with tv it's too much of a gray area. as such, if you
are in the us as previously mentioned, then it's a big deal...so i guess it
depends on where you are on whether or not it is very serious or just minor.

i got one of these notices a few months ago, then another the next month.
started running peerguardian, haven't gotten one since then.

first off... beware of hbo.
peerguardin will protect you from most things.. it likely would have saved you
from that nbc violation... but hbo is known for going to extreme measures, and
slipping past pg blocks.. so be extra careful with hbo content.

second... yes, they target universities above all else.. because they can catch
a whole bunch of people at one time in one place..

and thirdly.. i personally know three people in canada that received copyright
infringement warning letters... so believe all the urban myths and internet
rumors you want, but i'm telling you, they can hit you in canada too...
it's just less common.

if you are seriously worried about it... get a laptop and go download off a
wi-fi connection at a coffee shop or something.. it's anonymous..

i once got a message sent via my isp.
they had recieved one from paramount, about me downloading a korean film???
i checked on amazon & it was listed as being up for release by them in the us in a few months.

i don't think my isp gave a crap.
they never followed it up. just relayed the message with no remarks of their own.
the next month i doubled my download allowance.
they'd lose so much business if they pissed off their paying customers for 'abusing' bandwith allowance.
i don't think australian law is too concerned with this stuff as yet.

people put too must trust in peerguardian..
peerguardian does not hide your ip, it blocks all the ips on its list from
connecting to you. but they can get your ip from the
tracker or something else instead.

the good thing about peerguardian is that in many countries just having your
ip is not enough. to be prosecuted they require more evidence, and therefore
they will also try to connect and download from you.

the majority of file sharing lawsuits made by the riaa and mpaa involve only
the ip address as evidence though. this might be because most of the cases are
settled before trial. i don't know if an ip adress is all they need
to get you convicted in for instance usa. there has been a couple of cases
where mpaa dropped the lawsuit after they were ordered to show their evidence.

therefore use peerguardian, but don't blindly trust it..

nothing yet in austria 🙂

thats why i prefer downloading from rapidshare... you don't have to worry about
mpaa/riaa/the studios connecting to you and logging you downloading stuff. http
is generally much much safer.

josh

my understanding is that the law in the uk is vague on tv shows as they are in
the 'public domain' i think there is an issue over distribution though

that is not true. it is not legal to download music and movies in canada. it is
very illegal. the thing is we don't realy have anyone looking into it as the
business is not run by canadian's so why would we care if us loses money!?
tv shows are not really illegal to download, but not really legal neither. it's
more of a gray area.
plus, there is no difference in the downloading/uploading process if you're
downloading it for yourself or to sell to other. unless you're one of those
peopke who only download but don't upload worth mentionning!

safer as in chance of being prosecuted.

so far all the lawsuits in the us are for distributing (uploading/seeding)
copyrighted material. none have been issued for just downloading. and since with
torrents you have to upload, but with http you don't, there is, imo, a lesser
chance of being caught.

that said, i download from both daily 🙂

yeah, in canada they haven't really figured out what is legal and illegal, but
you should still be very carful

i a canadian recieved and email about downloading stargate atlantis along time
ago one of the first episodes. my isp said they recieved a complaint about me
downloading copyrighted material from the mpaa. my dad wasnt to happy about that
had to stop downloading for a while. there are safer forums of downloading tv
shows[nzb], but hey eztv us awsome so it will feed my addiciton for now.

here in the netherlands it is legal to download, and by downloading the law
says; getting something (copyrighted or not) off the internet is legal.

music, movies & tv-shows are legal, i don't know for sure about music (mp3,
etc.) though. uploading, distributing is illegal, and that's the big problem
here but no one has ever been prosecuted here for uploading!

i once got a letter from my internet service provider, telling me that they
recieved a complaint from paramount pictures, paramount pictures detected me
downloading (by bittorent) a copyrighted movie, so my isp told me to stop
doing that 😛 well i didn't and nothing happened. paramount pictures or any
other foreign company has no jurisdiction here!

the isps and their customers are protected by law, so a company like mpaa
cannot acces information about downloading/uploading of any customer!

softdrugs is also legal here, the one and only country in the whole world! :d