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[Gabriel]

Hoi Chummers,

Well it looks like I may be getting sued or arrested. Although I am really not sure yet. I recieved the following e-mail from Comcast, my loal ISP. I'm kind of worried. Can anyone advise? Please respond ASAP!

Gabriel

Notice of Action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Abuse Incident Number:      NA0000004302421
Report Date/Time:           Fri, 5 Oct 2007 17:36:06 -0700


MICHAEL FREEMAN
XXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXX, SC  XXXXX


Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Subscriber:

Comcast has received a notification by a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, reporting an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works made on or over Comcast's High-Speed Internet service (the 'Service').  The copyright owner has identified the Internet Protocol ('IP') address associated with your Service account at the time as the source of the infringing works.  The works identified by the copyright owner in its notification are listed below.  Comcast reminds you that use of the Service (or any part of the Service) in any manner that constitutes an infringement of any copyrighted work is a violation of Comcast's Acceptable Use Policy and may result in the suspension or termination of your Service account.

If you have any questions regarding this notice, you may direct them to Comcast in writing by sending a letter or e-mail to:

   Comcast Legal Response Center
   Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
   650 Centerton Road
   Moorestown, NJ 08057 U.S.A.
   Phone: (856) 317-7272
   Fax: (856) 317-7319
   E-mail: dmca@comcast.net

For more information regarding Comcast's copyright infringement policy,
procedures, and contact information, please read our Acceptable Use Policy by clicking on the Terms of Service link at http://www.comcast.net.

Sincerely,
Comcast Legal Response Center

Copyright work(s) identified in the notification of claimed infringement:

Title: Shadowrun

Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Infringement Timestamp: 6 Oct 2007 00:21:35 GMT
Infringement Last Documented: 6 Oct 2007 00:21:35 GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: Shadowrun
Infringing Filesize: 1019089486
Infringer IP Address: 68.47.12.56
Infringer DNS Name: c-68-47-12-56.hsd1.ga.comcast.net
Infringing URL: http://tpb.tracker.thepiratebay.org:80/announce

[mercy]

ok unless reading it wrong you recive the notice on 10/5/2007

but the allagde voliations ocured on 10/06/2007
I could be wrong but I think someone is messing with you

[Ingo Monk]

He received the notice 10/5/2007 at 17:36 (-0700).
The infringing took place on the same day at 00:21 (GMT = -0000)
17:35 +0700 = 00:35 GMT
Infringing took place 00:21 GMT, e-mail received 00:35 MT, about 15 minutes after.

Gabe:
Stop downloading that file
In the future only use piratebay to get torrents.  I stopped using TorrentSpy once I found out they report their server logs so they wouldn't get sued.  PirateBay is based in Sweden and they're dedicated to fighting 'the man'

EDIT:
Forgot to mention, my coworker has Comcast and he got a similar e-mail when his brother was downloading something on their connection.  Nothing came out of it and he only uses pirate bay now.  PirateBay FTW!

[Gabriel]

Thanks, Ingo. I have to wonder, though, is this just  warning or what? I keep expecting a federal martial to show up at my door with a warrent. Any ideas??

Gabriel

[mercy]

plus if they were going to sue you or arrest you they wouldnt warn you with a email

[kv]

I know that it's probably scary as drek to have this happen to you, but it's probably a scare tactic meant to dissuade you from downloading illegal stuff. I think the RIAA managed to include the ISP in the recent lawsuits, so ISPs are protecting themselves by pushing that crap off on the people who use thier service.

There are a lot of simple ways around it- claim that a friend used your computer and downloaded it without permission. Unless they have a private eye tailing you and keeping track of who you let use your computer and when, you should be okay.

If you're not comfortable with that, stop the download and start it up again at Piratebay. Like Ingo says, they're good and they haven't sold their souls to the Man yet.

Last defense (not a good one) is to claim that you were trying to obtain rare or out-of-print books with it. The company can't fault you for trying to obtain information that they no longer provide, and most of them will be happy that a customer has been so loyal. But I wouldn't trust in that.

I'd go with the first method- this is a scare tactic. I'm fairly certain that Comcast doesn't have any authority to send a marshall to your door, so you don't really have to worry about it.

  -kv

[Gabriel]

Well, I hope you're right. And since I haven't really heard from them since this happened, well, it gives this runner hope. Of course, I pointed out to my Girlfriend last night that this is EXACTLY what Shadowrun is all about (getting the paydata and getting away clean) and it is a bit hypocritical of FanPro to bust ANYONE for pirating Shadowrun products.

Gabriel

[Ingo Monk]

Comcast reminds you that use of the Service (or any part of the Service) in any manner that constitutes an infringement of any copyrighted work is a violation of Comcast's Acceptable Use Policy and may result in the suspension or termination of your Service account.

Be a good boy or Comcast will turn off your intarwebs.

Generally it's a scare e-mail which is pretty good at stopping most people from downloading stuff.  Most people don't realize that every server/hub you connect to keeps a log of your information so administrators can see who connected to what, where, and when.  Most people thing that the internet is totally secure and no one can find any information about you unless you willingly give it.  Most people are dumb.

I now link you to a story:
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=65408
Not sure if you've read it or not, but a woman in Minnesota was fined $9,250 for each of the 24 songs she shared on Kazaa.  I'll help with the math, that's a total of a $220,000 fine!  Ridiculous, I know, but she's appealing and I think she'll win the appeal. 

Moral of the story?  Don't use P2P programs.  Wanna be a cut above the rest?  Use Torrent files, but be smart about it and connect to torrent servers outside of the US.  Want to be l33t?  Use proxies

[kv]

Technically, it was a setback for the RIAA, because they tried to charge her for the THOUSANDS of songs she had downloaded and/or shared. They got her on only 24 of them, which I thought was pretty cool, but the $9K apiece was a little steep.

She's actually the first person to take the RIAA to court, so it looks like thier little terror parade is over. It was mostly done with the popularity of iTunes, and it's only getting weaker now.

Yay for the fall of the Evil Empire.

  -kv

[Gabriel]

Hoi Chummers,

I have been reading your recomendations, but I was a little confused about Pirate Bay. As it turns out, I checked the original post, and it turns out the last line was left off of it. I guess I didn't catch it in the Copy. So I have put it back in. It lists the Pirate Bay as the infringing url, so that seems to say to me that Pirate Bay in not exactly safe. What do you guys think?

Gabriel (NOT a decker)

[Ouija]

Well I went to PirateBay to download files, only I can't get them to open once I download them.  Is there certain software that is required?  I agree it is a scare tactic, but passing the buck is always the easiest thing to do.  I hope it all works out well for you.

[kv]

I think Piratebay is full of torrents, so you need a torrent downloader (I stick to bittorrent myself, when I find I have need stolen sourcebook pdfs). Other than that, I don't know what to tell you.

  -kv

[Ingo Monk]

I recommend Azureus for torrent downloading.  I used to use BitTorrent all the time until I started downloading 4 things at once and the program was eating 4x the memory and CPU time.  Azureus can download a whole mess of stuff at once and will only have 1 instance of itself running at once.

Piratebay is kewl in that they know that they're outside of US jurisdicton (sp?).  From their home page you can go to view all the legal threats they've received (and their replies!).

[Ouija]

Hmm... Thanks a lot.  I'll be sure to get that.  I hate to get shadowrun stuff for free, I think they need the money!  Perhaps I'll just buy the books...  But I'll keep that in mind if the funds get too low. 

[kv]

Download old out-of-print books. Buy the new ones.

That's how I keep my conscience clear.

  -kv