Copyrighted content notice from Verizon.

[Matee]

How did this come to be? What can I do?

I have been using uTorrent, should I do anything different?


"Dear Valued Verizon Customer,

Verizon has been notified that copyrighted content may have been shared using your Internet connection without permission of the copyright owner.

What does this mean to me?

Content owners (for example, artists, moviemakers, authors) and their representatives routinely monitor peer-to-peer and file sharing networks to see if their content (like music, movies, and TV shows) is being shared without their permission (without it being paid for). If they notice somebody sharing their content without their permission through a Verizon account, they inform Verizon by sending us a notice along with information about the copyrighted work and the Verizon Internet protocol (IP) address of the computer sharing the content. As the primary account holder, you are responsible for making sure your account is not used for copyright infringement. Sharing content without the copyright owner's permission is a violation of U.S. copyright laws, and our terms of service and acceptable use policy.

What was shared and when?

File Name: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty 2013.CAM.RIP.XviD-FANTA
Content Title: SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, THE
Timestamp: 03-04-2014 19:31:15 UTC
IP Address: --- --- --- ---- ---
Notice ID: 22286767700

Did Verizon give the content owners my personal information?

No, we will not share your personal information with the content owner without either your permission or the receipt of a court order or subpoena. The way the process works, the content owner provides Verizon with an IP address. We then match the IP address to a Verizon account and contact the account owner directly on their behalf without identifying you.

What do I need to do now?

If you have been downloading or sharing content illegally, you must stop doing so immediately. Make sure that everyone who uses your Internet connection knows that you received this alert and advise them to use only legal sources for music, television and movie content, For information about the many ways to find the music, movies and TV shows you want legally, please see copyrightinformation.org/a-better-way-to-find-movies-tv-music/.

Secure your home wireless network by activating encryption on your modem or router so that nobody who is unauthorized to use it is able to do so. To learn more about securing your home wireless network, please visit verizon.com/support/residential/internet/fiosinternet/networking/
"

[shirepirate]

it's not clear what you're asking, as you didn't use anything to distinguish what was in the notice and what you yourself typed. but it doesn't matter anyway, search the fucking forum you posted in. it's all been answered dozens of times before.

[Matee]

it's not clear what you're asking, as you didn't use anything to distinguish what was in the notice and what you yourself typed. but it doesn't matter anyway, search the fucking forum you posted in. it's all been answered dozens of times before.

The fucking quotes at the beginning of the sentence starting with Dear Valued Customer should have been enough.

My questions are before that, and the title of the content is also in the body of the letter.

[shirepirate]

then your ignorant questions have been addressed multiple times before, as i said. perhaps someone will spend a paragraph to answer them again, but not i.

[akun]

I will, just by a simple quote by joew found in 2 seconds about copyright notices:

Ignore them completely. I've gotten a couple of those myself over the years, though not from comcast, and do you know what happened? Nothing, that's what.

[NIK]

How did this come to be?
- The copyright holder/their agent joined the swarm you were in, noted your IP address and emailed your ISP. Your ISP (without revealing your identity to the sender), forwarded the email to you).

What can I do?
- Anything you want. I'd suggest ignoring the noticed and carrying on exactly as you have been. I'd strongly recommend not replying to your ISP (who really don't care, as long as you continue sending them cheques each month) or Verizon (who don't know who you are yet but will if you reveal yourself to them).

I have been using uTorrent, should I do anything different?

- Should you? Not particularly.

- Could you? Yes, you could pay for one of these VPN services to hide your IP address http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-tha...3-edition/

[Matee]

Nik and Akun, thanks for the detailed reply. Your response is helpful... I'm new to this Torrent stuff and its nice to be able to get a bit of guidance.

[KadrianBlackwolf]

If you look at your uTorrent client you'll see a tab at the bottom labeled "Peers". Click on it and you'll see the Internet addresses of the peers you are connected to. The MAFIAA does the same thing to find a downloader's Internet address and what they are downloading. From what I understand, this is a time-consuming process that must be done by a live body receiving monthly wages so it's not cheap. For this reason, the MAFIAA mostly watches recent, popular releases. You can hide your Internet address by subscribing to a VPN service but unless you plan on doing a LOT of downloading, I wouldn't bother with the expense.

Granted, the MAFIAA set the standards for unethical behavior and outrageous lawsuits, but when the MAFIAA's minions found themselves wiping dogshit off their faces after being held up to public scrutiny for their despotic actions they decided to back off. Last year, the MAFIAA and all major Internet Service Providers adopted "The Six Strikes Rule" which basically allows anyone downloading copyrighted material to play stupid a few times before any meaningful action is taken against them. That notice you received was strike one. The MAFIAA noticed the file in question was being downloaded by someone at the Internet address you were using, forwarded the time, address, and file name to your provider, and your provider forwarded the complaint to your email address.

I usually stick to older stuff so I never had any problems until I decided to get a new album by one of my favorite rock groups. I found the album in a torrent that contained their full discography, but I downloaded only the dozen or so files of their newest album. A couple hours later my email box was spammed with over 400 DMCA notices, one for each and every song on each and every album in the discography, all of them identical except for the file name. Other than that, there was nothing: no personal warnings sent to my email address, no reduction of my connection speed, no note included in my bill...nothing. Based on that I think I can safely assume that the entire process is fully automated, and although my provider probably tallies my transgressions, DMCA notices aren't a major concern.

I later talked to someone who works for a provider and he told me roughly the same thing NIK told you: an ISP's interests are best served by keeping their customers happy so that their customers will keep sending them money. But even though it's unlikely that a provider will give out personal information unless compelled to do so by a court order, they're not going risk substantial penalties by disregarding a constant flood of DMCA complaints generated by a problem customer with an OCD complex for copyrighted material. Providers are still legally required to take action against ongoing copyright infringement, and these actions can include throttling your bandwidth to dialup speeds, suspending your account for a couple weeks, terminating your account and charging you a fee to get your service back, or permanently blacklisting you as a customer.

So, for some guidance in the matter, if you want the latest and greatest in movies and music, get it legitimately; it's not that expensive. You can get a VPN, but you'll have to pay extra for service and they aren't without drawbacks. If you want stuff for free, stick to stuff that's a minimum of a year old. I've downloaded hundreds of gigabytes of old stuff without a single DMCA notice. If you get a DMCA notice, don't worry overmuch about it. Just don't get too many of them. Even if you do get a load of them, your provider will probably just kill your account rather than turn you over to the tender mercies of the MAFIAA.

[Matee]

Thanks for taking the time to post this.