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I've been emailed a notice of copyright infringement
MetroidZoid
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Just checked my email inbox, and I have this, specifically from my ISP:
So apparently I have downloaded what I can surmise as bad porn. Except, I haven't. And this is where my leaving-my-network unguarded has bitten me in the ass; my router has been shit lately, won't get along with my firewall or my modem, so for the last few months I've been leaving it off. I occasionally used a MAC address filter, but had it turned off after the last reset. There was one time that I saw someone log onto the network, and I blocked their address, but haven't since.
Now I'm a little freaked out. One on hand, quick googling shows that this isn't a lawsuit persay, but how do I keep it from going that way? Also, when I have NO money right now? All I know is that apparently there's companies out there who buy up these things like companies buy up credit collections.
Help me not freak out here.
E: I haven't followed those links, not have I written back any explanation.
Dear Charter Internet Subscriber:
Charter Communications ("Charter") has been notified by a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, that your Internet account may have been involved in the exchange of unauthorized copies of copyrighted material (e.g., music, movies, or software). We are enclosing a copy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice that Charter received from the copyright holder which includes the specific allegation.
Under the DMCA, copyright owners have the right to notify Charter’s register agent if they believe that a Charter customer has infringed on their work(s). When Charter receives a complaint notice from a copyright owner, Charter will notify the identifiable customer of the alleged infringement by providing them a copy of the submitted DMCA notice. As required by law, Charter may determine that the customer is a repeat copyright infringer and reserves the right to suspend or terminate the accounts of repeat copyright infringers.
It is possible that this activity has occurred without your permission or knowledge by an unauthorized user, a minor who may not fully understand the copyright laws, or even as a result of a computer virus. However, as the named subscriber on the account, you may be held responsible for any misuse of your account. Please be aware that using Charter’s service to engage in any form of copyright infringement is expressly prohibited by Charter's Acceptable Use Policy and that repeat copyright infringement, or violations of any other Charter policy, may result in the suspension or termination of your service. You may view Charter's rules and policies, including Charter’s Acceptable Use Policy, under the policies section of charter.com.
We ask that you take immediate action to stop the exchange of any infringing material. For additional information regarding copyright infringement and for a list of frequently asked questions, please visit charter.com/dmca.
If you have questions about this letter, you may contact us at 1-866-229-7286. Representatives will be available to take your call Monday through Friday 8am - 8pm, Saturday and Sunday 8am - 5pm (CST).
Sincerely,
Charter Communications Security Resolution Team
http://www.charter.com/security
--- The following material was provided to us as evidence ---
BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE
Hash: SHA1
***NOTE TO ISP: PLEASE FORWARD THE ENTIRE NOTICE***
March 20, 2012
Re: Notice of Unauthorized Use of Registered Copyrights Owned by Paradox Pictures
Case #: <redacted>
Dear Sir or Madam:
This notice is intended solely for the primary Charter Communications internet service account holder. Someone using this account has engaged in the illegal copying and/or distribution of pornographic movies. This notice may contain the titles of those movies, and therefore may contain text that is offensive to some readers.
Copyright Enforcement Group, LLC, ("We") represent Paradox Pictures. Paradox Pictures owns all right, title and interest to the registered copyrights listed below.
Evidence:
Infringement Title: OMG... It's The Flashdance XXX Parody
Infringement File Name: OMG.Its.The.Flashdance.XXX.Parody
Infringement Hash: ef702039504a7bb9570014370964fe4871566550
Infringement File Size: 1462718464 bytes
Infringement Protocol: BitTorrent
Infringement Timestamp: 2012-03-20 00:45:12 North American Eastern Time
Infringers IP Address: <should probably block this out>
Infringers Port: <this too>
The following files were included in the download:
File 1: OMG.Its.The.Flashdance.XXX.Parody/starlets-flashdancexxx-cd1.avi
File 2: OMG.Its.The.Flashdance.XXX.Parody/starlets-flashdancexxx-cd2.avi
You are hereby notified that your unauthorized copying and/or distribution infringes the registered copyrights of Paradox Pictures under the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 106. In this regard, demand is hereby made that you and all persons using this account immediately and permanently cease and desist the unauthorized copying and/or distribution of the registered copyrights listed in this notice or otherwise owned by Paradox Pictures.
You may also be held liable for monetary damages, including attorney's fees and court costs if a lawsuit is commenced against you. You have until Thursday, April 19, 2012 to access the settlement offer and settle online. To access the settlement offer please visit http://www.copyrightsettlements.com/ and enter Case #: P12064680 and Password: xpnsm. To access the settlement offer directly please visit https://www.copyrightsettlements.com/?u=P12064680&p=xpnsm.
Settlement Information:
<there's a link, and a password, and a 'settlement case' number here>
If you fail to respond or settle within the prescribed time period, the claim(s) will be referred to our attorneys for legal action. At that point the original settlement offer will no longer be an option and the amount will increase as a result of us having to involve our attorneys.
Nothing contained or omitted from this correspondence is, or shall be deemed to be either a full statement of the facts or applicable law, an admission of any fact, or waiver or limitation of any of the Paradox Pictures's rights or remedies, all of which are specifically retained and reserved.
The information in this notice is accurate. We have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of herein is not authorized by the registered copyright owner, its agent, or by operation of law. We swear under penalty of perjury, that we are authorized to act on behalf of Paradox Pictures.
Sincerely,
Dale Spislander
Copyright Enforcement Agent
Copyright Enforcement Group, LLC
8484 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 220
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Toll Free: 877-5-COPYRIGHT (877-526-7974)
Email: support@copyrightsettlements.com
Website: www.copyrightsettlements.com
So apparently I have downloaded what I can surmise as bad porn. Except, I haven't. And this is where my leaving-my-network unguarded has bitten me in the ass; my router has been shit lately, won't get along with my firewall or my modem, so for the last few months I've been leaving it off. I occasionally used a MAC address filter, but had it turned off after the last reset. There was one time that I saw someone log onto the network, and I blocked their address, but haven't since.
Now I'm a little freaked out. One on hand, quick googling shows that this isn't a lawsuit persay, but how do I keep it from going that way? Also, when I have NO money right now? All I know is that apparently there's companies out there who buy up these things like companies buy up credit collections.
Help me not freak out here.
E: I haven't followed those links, not have I written back any explanation.
MetroidZoid on
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This discussion has been closed.
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*EDIT* Here is a "what to do" link that may be relevant for you.--->http://www.homelandsecureit.com/blog/2011/07/have-you-received-a-letter-or-email-from-the-riaa-unsecured-access-points-could-cause-this/
Even if the email is really from your ISP it could still be, for all intents and purposes, a scam.
There have been in the past law firms that essentially spam out these kinds of letters or emails regardless of truth, evidence, etc, hoping that people will shut up and pay up to avoid a hassle.
If you genuinely and honestly know that you did not do anything then you need to speak to a lawyer, try and get a free consultation and take a printout of the email with you for them to read.
E: It's also looking like the standard 'fee' for this thing is about $125 ... I hate the notion of paying even $10 for this, but I cannot afford any time or money for court stuff right now. Is settling for this kind of abuse the cowards way out, or the easy way out, or both? BUT what if I go on that site and it's not $100 or $200 but something huge, at that point have I 'admitted' in their eyes, even if it's legal BS? Uggghh hate the internet so much right now.
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137751
I'm also not sure how calling them would fuck you over either. What's wrong with saying "Hey I got this bogus email about downloading something I didn't"? If you're lucky they may be able to help you out. I mean, probably not but I don't know why it would make things worse.
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
Charter don't give a shit, they're just required to pass these things onto you. Even if the people that sent them a notice aren't just a scam outfit, they don't have any of your info. All they had was an IP address, and you can't (yet) sue an IP address. The only way to really fuck yourself is by following their links through and saying "Yes! Here's some contact info you can tie to that IP address!". Charter can't give that to them, and they want to trick you into doing it. Just put a password on your wireless and move on.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Pretty much this, there is a massive chance these guys know nothing about you other than your IP address. Their success rate for these things is really low, that's why they'll charge a lot of money hoping you'll be one of the low percentage to fall for it. I'm not saying there's no chance at all this could go to court just that it's unlikely. But bear it in mind as others have said if you do choose to reply to this message you'll be marking yourself as a priority target among the thousands of other people they probably sent this message to this month.
so get your internet secured ASAP.
Fix that shit fast. MAC address filtering is hardly ideal but it's a world better than nothing.
Ignore the letter.
Here's the EFF page on it, as well as your best approach for a response to your ISP. Personally, I think it's worthwhile to respond because of privacy concerns -- if your personal contact information is sent around to whoever subpoena'd charter, they may not sue you, but they can definitely harass you and sell your information to telemarketers and more.
https://www.eff.org/issues/file-sharing/subpoena-defense
It's not even at the point yet where they're suing Charter for info. This is all preemptive scaremongering.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
If this is your first letter or notice, ODDS ARE (capitalized because I'm speculating and I'm not a lawyer) it's a warning, and nothing will come of it. Especially since you didn't do anything wrong. Change the password on your router to mitigate any further wifi jacking (if that's what happened) and keep doing what you're doing. Many of these cases don't actually go to court, it's usually just a lawyer somewhere looking for a quick payday from settlement money. ODDS ARE (again) that they do not have enough evidence to prosecute. You SHOULD be in the clear.
Again, I'm not a lawyer, but I follow news attached to cases like these closely. There's a lot of coverage about IP law on Ars Technica.
I didn't say they're suing Charter, I said they're subpoenaing Charter. That's precisely what the email he received says, that based on the DMCA they are required to forward the email to the person with a certain IP, and Charter can provide the customer's details back to the copyright troll.
I say this because the exact thing happened to me -- I received a notice from Comcast saying my IP was identified, and that was it. I didn't think much of it at the time. Then, I received a packet in the mail threatening me with a lawsuit unless I paid them. I also received multiple harassing phone calls from a "lawyer" in Chicago. Nothing came of it because I ignored them, but it was still unsettling, and I could've avoided it entirely had I responded as the EFF suggests, with a letter back to my ISP preventing them from sharing my personal information.
That isn't to say that that's what'll happen for you, but I would imagine that it's a lot less likely than you're probably thinking right now. I guess I don't have any real advice, I just wanted you to know that the end is not necessarily nigh.
Also if you do plan on torrenting, make sure to wear a condom.... errr use PeerBlocker
Did you end up paying them?
I received exactly the same letter from exactly the same troll "[name deleted - ceres]". I made a mistake and click on the links to see what the heck they are talking about. I thought it was from my ISP. It took me a while to understand that my ISP was forwarding the messages from these trolls. The posts and the comments I read later on advises not to click on any link they sent ... OR they may get a hold of your contact info. I did not know what I was doing
I am not very computer literate
From what I read, the company is real, BUT in order to get any money from you, they need a court order. I read it on CNET that they hired a lawyer to sue 1,568 people in the country but the article did not say what the outcome was.
What should I do? I did not download any of the material they mentioned
What did you do? Did you pay? It is bothering me that I am asked to pay for someone else's crime. If someone grabbed a knife from my kitchen and hurt someone else, why should I pay for his/her crime?
Let me know what you decided to do. Also if anyone else has any information about this company or any similar case please let us know
Thank you,
Blue
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
technically, yes.
from the current legal standpoint, you are responsible for everything that is done with your internet connection, and it is up to you to secure it properly
good news though - just ignore this email. its just a scare tactic to try to get you to pay. Nothing will come of it.
In addition, secure your wireless.
...which is an absolutely and completely absurd law. Putting the onus on an average user to secure their connection against those who would hijack it is like putting the onus on the average motorist to maintain their car without the help of a mechanic. Even if you know what you're doing, it's only a matter of time before you either find something you're unequipped for, or you face a problem that it would take an expert to solve.
But that's just my opinion. And in either case, yes, no wireless network ever should go without at least a password. Secure it.
especially considering there were people in publishing houses who got accused of piracy and successfully used the my IP was spoofed defense
2) throw it away
3) secure your access point.
4) Cool it on any downloading you may or may not do for a while
It's not a legal service, it's basically just a warning saying they think you may be a pirate, and that they think you may have pirated the following.
My ISP will cut you off if you get three in a year, but other than that they're pretty toothless, legally. Their are too many other possible things going on for them to prove this is you pirating.
I host a podcast about movies.
Also comcast is reportedly no longer providing customer information to those claiming their copyright has been infringed. Also many judges are throwing out these john doe enjoinders, or telling the rights holder's lawyers they have to file each individual sperately. Which from what I understand caosts the plaintiff a few hundred each.
So the landscape of copyright enforcement or rather these shakedowns is changing and it will be interesting to see how the industry scrambles. hopefully to change the way they do business. Since their current model is starting to hit their bottom line.
Oh I agree its absurd. But there is evidence of similar laws elsewhere.
For example, in Australia if your car is flashed by a speed camera and you weren't driving, the onus is on you to prove who was, not on them to prove that it was you. By default you are assumed to have responsibility for where your car is and what it is doing.
To be fair, in the case of a car, you usually know exactly who is using it - you can't really impersonate someone else's car without going through more trouble than it's worth.
Not to mention, not only does someone need to know to secure their wireless, they need to know how to - if they use WEP... well, one lawyer is going to say "It's a secure network!" and the other is stuck explaining cryptography and such. (Not to mention devices that, for some reason or other, can't use anything more secure than WEP... which is, frankly, little more than a "Do Not Disturb" sign in terms of security)
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
People with the talents to crack proper encryption don't spend their time stealing people's wi-fi.
I've had a simple WPA2 encryption on my wi-fi with an 8-12 digit passkey (i've changed it twice in seven years) for the entire time I've had wi-fi, and never had a single issue.
Uh - no it is not like putting the onus on the average motorist to maintain their car without the help of a mechanic. Securing your network is the same as locking your door when you go outside. At least over here, if my door is not locked and my place gets burglarized, insurance won't pay up.
And that is wrong how? It is your car, it is registered to you - so why shouldn't police automatically assume that you are responsible for what happens with the car (except when it got stolen)?
Putting a password on your network is indeed like expecting you to lock up your door. Did you read to the end of my post and see that I do indeed expect the average user to at least secure their network with a password? Because if you did, you have a very odd definition of secure.
A single password does not a "secure" network make, especially when stuff like file sharing, p2p, hosting servers, botnetting, and all those other infosec buzzwords come into play. If you click on a malign link, it doesn't matter if you have a password on your network. Someone can use your wifi now in their botnet to participate in distributed denial of service attacks. Are you secure? Were you secure? There are times when you don't even have to click the link. There are exploits out there (I'm sure for current versions of stuff, though they perhaps have or have not been found yet) which can allow a person who knows them to gain full remote access to your computer without you ever knowing, if you happen to have adobe, or flash, or java installed. In the OP's case, there was downloading going on, which could have just as easily been someone using his computer in a zombie network to distribute the files to himself like a tiny private p2p network.
Would he have been "secure" then?
Given the nature of his letter, I think it's more likely someone leeched his internet, so most of those examples are largely irrelevant to the topic at hand.
However, the key and relevance is that putting a password on something absolutely does not secure it. It is simply one gate the attacker must breach. And while it is a gate that we should rightfully expect everyone to have locked, if it happens to be overcome, it would be preposterous to punish the end user for it.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
That's still not going to stop someone from breaking your window or kicking down the door, you're not really liable even if someone does burgle you and then takes your knife and stabs people with it.
Well, all analogies aside - what constitutes "secure" is debatable. But if the network owner did nothing to secure the network, I don't see why he shouldn't be liable.
But I agree - especially with network security it is pretty difficult for the average user to do much more than just put a password on it. Btw, I think that should be enough to not make him liable for anything that happens. This was the gist of my "locked door" analogy. If I don't at least lock it, I lose all insurance and I am blamed partially for the burglary. If it is locked - different case alltogether.
Somebody just has to define what "locked" means when it comes to networks.