EEHHHHHH Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Well, after P2P'ing tens of thousands of Megabytes of anime files, I've finally found myself in hot waters. I recently received an email from my ISP (Charter Communications Inc.) that I've been flagged for copyright infringement by the content owner/parent company, and have been offered to settle the case out-of-court with a $200 fine. It is a legitimate email. I did a quick google search, and the answers people give seem to contrast with each other. Some suggest that I should just ignore the email, not click on the link they send me (which would, in return, vindicate my admittance); while others suggest that paying $200 is like being offered the lottery. Has anybody been in a similar situation? If yes, what was your course of action? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N7Spectrewolf Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 If it truly is legitimate I would find a lawyer for advice. Advice, only. Some will offer it for free rather than making you pay to fight your case. Honestly it'd just be easier to pay the $200 though. You admitted to doing what you were accused of here in this thread. Your ISP could see that easily. So could any other investigator out there. As a criminal justice student, I find you are indeed guilty as charged and it's better to just settle out of court. You could have been fined a lot more, and been forced to go to court which would cost you even more unless you decided to represent yourself (which is a foolish thing to do with little legal knowledge). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisheadshot Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 If it's definitely legit just pay the fine. It's not worth the hassle going after lawyers for a $200 fine especially if you know you're in the wrong, and ignoring it will not work as a defence. This is the first I've ever heard of something like this though, I'm assuming it's through monitoring your usage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thiagoft_55 Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Never seen anything like that... I think you should pay the fine, as you admitted you're wrong. Just be sure the email you received are "official". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N7Spectrewolf Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 If it's definitely legit just pay the fine. It's not worth the hassle going after lawyers for a $200 fine especially if you know you're in the wrong, and ignoring it will not work as a defence. This is the first I've ever heard of something like this though, I'm assuming it's through monitoring your usage? ISPs are legally allowed to monitor what you download or view. However, the OP probably should have received a couple warnings of his activity beforehand and so this would not have come as a surprise that he would be fined now. However, even without the warnings he apparently has full mens rea of his pirating. So it's neither here nor there about the warnings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Figure Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 I'd pay it. If you refuse and it gets any further the fines could be more than 10x that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nostros Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 if real i would pay it. but i would allso ask your provider if they heard anything about it before you pay if you are willing to. i only say that because my friend awhile back got hit by his isp for downloading and they disconnected his net till he called them and talked to them about it. lucky at the time he was downloading the anime bleach and he debated with them as to why he would download something about detergent lol. with all the spam "money" e-mail's going around, who's to know anymore what is real and what is false. but if it was from your isp then they would have it on record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisheadshot Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 ISPs are legally allowed to monitor what you download or view. However, the OP probably should have received a couple warnings of his activity beforehand and so this would not have come as a surprise that he would be fined now. However, even without the warnings he apparently has full mens rea of his pirating. So it's neither here nor there about the warnings. It seems from the OP though that the settlement is coming from the content owner not the ISP, so does that mean the ISP has been passing download information onto media corporations or do the media corporations have direct access to the download information? Or is the ISP bringing the settlement on behalf of the content owner or just as a general deterrent against piracy? Either way, you are correct about mens rea being satisfied and I would wager these laws might even be strict liability in that mens rea (knowledge for everyone else:p) isn't even required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xander45 Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 You've got to be very, very careful with stuff like this. It could well be legit, but it could also (and even more likely) be a scam trying to scare you out of your money. So make sure you thoroughly check this out before paying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K1NG_NAZARA Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 /scissor Next time.. use peer-block and a few other tools that mask your identinty online Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vowel Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Phone your ISP and tell them you got the email (don't mention what's in it) and everything. Basicly fish them for information as to wither they know what you are talking about (by saying things like you got a suspious email on x date and time, it's from y address and if they know anything about it). If not, it's likely not as real as you think. If it is, ask to pay over the phone and you can say that's why you called. If it's real you definitely should pay and you'd be stupid not to imo. You have no case to fight it, you've admitted to the wrong doing and your ISP just needs to check the history of your IP to find more of it. Either way though, do not click on the link in the email. And if it's real, change ISP's or stop what you're doing. This ISP will be monitoring you more closely from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHChiBulls Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 What Vowel posted is what you need to do. If its a scam opening up the link and paying them with your banking details will mean they will probably have your details. So call your ISP and make sure its real or not. If its real, then the only thing to do is pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skippy198230 Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 I'm lucky, where I live it's not illegal to download movies or music. Just illegal for me to share it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N7Spectrewolf Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 It seems from the OP though that the settlement is coming from the content owner not the ISP, so does that mean the ISP has been passing download information onto media corporations or do the media corporations have direct access to the download information? Or is the ISP bringing the settlement on behalf of the content owner or just as a general deterrent against piracy? Either way, you are correct about mens rea being satisfied and I would wager these laws might even be strict liability in that mens rea (knowledge for everyone else:p) isn't even required. Mmm. I am not entirely versed in copyright and such like that. I deal more in murder and the like. However, from what I know of the ISPs, they can send it to the proper copyright holders if they think they need to. However, you're right in the fact that most of the time it's just trying to lessen piracy in general. As far as I'm aware the corps don't have access, but they can ask for information from the ISP. It's kind of a murky deal, honestly. Me, I don't have to worry about that from my ISP. Even if I did dabble in such things, heh. Next time.. use peer-block and a few other tools that mask your identinty online That doesn't work when it's your ISP you're trying to hide from. Not entirely, anyways. It's more to hide from the other side of the line. Such as me getting to this site under a proxy. And anyways I wouldn't be suggesting such things. In the end, OP, I'd be 100% sure it's legit then pay the fine. As I said before. And good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Krid Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Do what Vowel said first. But yeah, you should definitely pay it if it's legit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PainOfDemise Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 If it's legit, you should probably pay it. If you don't, that could end you up in more legal trouble, which you probably don't want. I've have something similar to that where I have received a letter from my ISP, but I didn't have a fine. Basically they just told me to knock it off and that they are watching everyone for things like that and if I do it again they may terminate my service. I just learned to be more careful and haven't had any issues since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvaferreira Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 I'm lucky, where I live it's not illegal to download movies or music. Just illegal for me to share it. Like me, I don't know if it's not illegal or if they just don't care. You can buy pirate movies on about every flee market in the country and the police doesn't do anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyanide Breath Mint Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Pay it. Don't bother with a lawyer. I'm using one now and she charges $250/hr which is more than your fine. You can consult one for a one-time free visit though if you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMeeks Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Well, after P2P'ing tens of thousands of Megabytes of anime files I had a then stopped reading, Bloody anime! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyoRML007 Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 i though they were supposed to give you a warning or 2 before charging you for anything... anyways, as most people wrote, first of all, check if this is a legit mail, and if is, you better pay, i dont think you would want this to go more... "troublesome", for saying a thing. although, i think is kinda cheap, so maybe it IS a scam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NY_Madness Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 That is incredibly rare but it does happen to some people, I stopped sharing files years ago when they took down Kazaa+ and LimeWire. You can usually tell if it is real or fake by the payment method they want. Look at who you are paying it to and where. Obviously if you are about to make a payment to someone in Nigeria, its a scam. And try Googling the address of the place they want the payment to go to. You will probably find out that it is a scam if it is not real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryukori Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 That is incredibly rare but it does happen to some people, I stopped sharing files years ago when they took down Kazaa+ and LimeWire. You can usually tell if it is real or fake by the payment method they want. Look at who you are paying it to and where. Obviously if you are about to make a payment to someone in Nigeria, its a scam. And try Googling the address of the place they want the payment to go to. You will probably find out that it is a scam if it is not real. I would do this. If it is legitimate, then I would pay the fine if I was in your situation, just to save myself the hassle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyanide Breath Mint Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 Here they'll contact your ISP and ask for your information but (for now, that'll be changing soon) my ISP will politely tell them to piss off but that they'll contact me personally about it. A coworker had this happen to him about 2 weeks back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeliana Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 I'm a little surprised that there was no "cease and desist" letter or any other warning before the threat of a $200 fine... I know a couple folks who've gotten themselves in a similar pot of hot water, and in both cases, they were warned well in advance that their conduct was being monitored and they chose to ignore it. Like others have said, definitely make sure it is legitimate, and if it is, just pay the fine. $200 is a drop in the bucket compared to the entertainment value you've derived from anime over the years, I would think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Phantom_89 Posted January 31, 2013 Share Posted January 31, 2013 As the others have said, make sure that it's legit before proceeding. If it is, then pay the fine. The value of all the stuff you've watched far exceeds the requested amount I'm sure, so you should consider yourself very lucky. EDIT: 'ed by Aeliana who basically said the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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