Busted for bittorrent!

By Jojo81
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jasondefaoite

Posted
Posted

The use of peerguardian to protect you for BT is a joke. Once you are connected to te tracker, your IP is visible. If the RIAA are connected to the tracker, they can see you. This would only work if the tracker itself is actively blocking "dodgy" IPs. Some forum based sites actually do this.

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Ruciz

Posted
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Socks and proxies might work, I wish tehbox didn't die. that was such a good proxy archive! I know things are changing to randomly generated ports, but usually they are generated in a range, and SMTP, FTP, HTTP will probably not change for a long time yet.

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Grand Master

Malisk

Posted
Posted

Why would an *ISP* use it as a scare tactic?

YOU are funding their services, after all.

If they become known as the ISP that didn't want P2P, guess how popular that one would become?

I don't really get it.

Sounds more likely MPAA/RIAA had found out something, contacted your ISP and put pressure on them if it continued, and your ISP contacting you.

I can't imagine an ISP *willingly* doing this.

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Old Oak

Posted
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Dont get paranoic, change the isp and when they ask you why you changed it, just tell them you dont want to get spyed by n00bs, and if they keep doing this you are going to start a boycott against them telling every isp what is going on.

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Shane Pitman

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Using torrents is in itself not illegal. However, even those who are avid proponents of torrent viability will agree that the majority of torrent traffic is in pirated material. ISP's know this, and most (I know Charter does) monitor for torrent traffic. Charter does it by looking for traffic on the default ports that most torrent downloaders use. I would say that the call your parents received was just to scare you, to make you aware that they are monitoring torrent traffic. Can they tell what you downloaded? Yes. Will they inform some law enforcement agency? If you continue, then yes, they may very well tell on you. They have to in order to cover their rear ends, to protect them from any liabilities. Now I doubt very seriously at this point that there are any law enforcement agencies involved, as they don't give out warnings. They show up at your door with a warrant and haul your equipment off. So, in short, if you're using torrents to download pirated material, just stop. Take a step back and ask yourself is it really worth all the trouble that getting busted for it can bring? Getting busted, spending countless amounts of money and time going to court, having your family embarrassed, ruining your life and the lives of those who love you, possibly going to jail. Is all that worth some crappy computer software or movies or music?

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Griffin

Posted
Posted

I would just leave it alone.... I think it is all in what you download more so. I download Anime from Japan (Narato, Bleach what not) and I have never recieved a warning. I stopped Pirating music and what not a long time ago. But if you keep on downloading programs/music/movies what not then you may have a problem on your hands.

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Lexcyn

Posted
Posted

I'm glad I live in a country which takes privacy laws seriously. This is bunk, if they ever did that to me here I would just laugh at them.

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Elagizy

Posted
Posted

I think I'm out of this case, I have a router connected with 3 switches each 1 have 8 users with virtual IPs ... and I'm 1 of these users and changing my virtual IP every week and using Zone Alarm altought I'm behind a router ... I think nothing scare me , am I right ? :unsure:

BTW, Shareaza is good ;) , I use P2P progs when I can't find/buy sotware ...

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seafirex

Posted
Posted

I saw that some people told you to just tell them someone else was using your connection and you should be able to get away with it.

Well that is not true, by law you are responsable for what ever happends to your connection. And who? use it.

And it make sense, reason is that why should somebody else be responsable to what you pay or own.

That will be there point. And yes your ISP is responsable to monitor what you do, as per your are on there property. what i mean is everything you do goes true there servers. so they are responsable for anything that goes true it.

Even what you do. So this is the reason why they have to report everything.

But also not just them. does goverment agency are monitoring everything you do too. They have special software that tracks everything on the net, peoples working for them searching torrents sites , mirc channels.etc.etc.etc.

Best thing will be to use something like protowall or similar to ban there ip's, and when you will try to download, if it is one of them trying to send it to you to get you on the spot, it would be rejected by protowall and you wont be able to download, so that means you dont do anything illigal.

Something else, they can not tell you not to have a bitorrent client installed even a server, the only thing they can say is not to download anything illigal.

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Gowcra

Posted
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Using torrents is in itself not illegal. However, even those who are avid proponents of torrent viability will agree that the majority of torrent traffic is in pirated material. ISP's know this, and most (I know Charter does) monitor for torrent traffic. Charter does it by looking for traffic on the default ports that most torrent downloaders use. I would say that the call your parents received was just to scare you, to make you aware that they are monitoring torrent traffic. Can they tell what you downloaded? Yes. Will they inform some law enforcement agency? If you continue, then yes, they may very well tell on you. They have to in order to cover their rear ends, to protect them from any liabilities. Now I doubt very seriously at this point that there are any law enforcement agencies involved, as they don't give out warnings. They show up at your door with a warrant and haul your equipment off. So, in short, if you're using torrents to download pirated material, just stop. Take a step back and ask yourself is it really worth all the trouble that getting busted for it can bring? Getting busted, spending countless amounts of money and time going to court, having your family embarrassed, ruining your life and the lives of those who love you, possibly going to jail. Is all that worth some crappy computer software or movies or music?

585965080[/snapback]

and im sure you know..... cus youve done it all before and been locked up for me. RAZOR RULES!!! :laugh:

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Krudomanic

Posted
Posted
Its a scare tactic if the ISP can't tell you what you downloaded. Its possible that someone on your ISP is using it heavily and you were just one of many that were contacted.

If you're ISP doesn't contact you again, then you are ok, but again its not illegal to use BitTorrent, because of some of the stuff being shared through it, like the Neowin supported AutoPatcher. I know the developers rely heavily on BT to get it distributed.

In Holland such information (is still) regarded private, but with the amount of available bandwidth to customers and the current piracy problems in the world even I think it won't be long before software transactions are monitored and filtered by 'heavy users'.

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Yep Neobond you are correct... It's a scare tactic by the ISP... such information is also protected here in the UK under the DPA Data Protection Act where they cannot access private information without a court order...

Mind you I bet the poor guy was sh***ing himself when they called...? I would have done so...

The only monitoring an ISP can do is monitor the bandwidth through either Solarwind Broadband monitor or MRTG tools... They are not aloud to peak into what you are downloading because it's an infringement of your personal data beinf transferred through your network...

Sham on them for even calling you... ;)

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blachole

Posted
Posted
Its better than nothing. Is it failsafe ? no way.

585965448[/snapback]

Eh Ill play around with it.

900! :D

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Brandon Live Veteran

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  • Veteran
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<shrug>

I'd tell them I use a bit torrent program frequently to exchange *LEGAL* bootlegs of live music from some of my favorite artists.

But then... that would be true.

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joshpo

Posted
Posted

ISP scare tactic. If Charter was served papers then they would have told you the details as they have to under law. If it were me I would have the account owner call Charter back and explain that he did some googling and learned about this and are concerned it was someone impersonating Charter trying to get your account information and steal your identity. After all they were fuzzy on the details and so you are concerned. Demand that they connect you with someone who can tell you what you downloaded and if it was Charter or someone else responsible for the warning. No matter what they say be polite and say that you are trying to find out what happened and that Charter can be sure it will never happen again. I wouldn't pick a fight with them over legal vs. illegal BT uses just try to get the info (and let us know what happens)

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jerzdawg

Posted
Posted

I am surprised no one has mentioned this.. but I guess it mainly up to the ISP.. cablevision is one of the biggest broadband providers here in NJ.. along with comcast... I had optimum online for a good 2 years and all i ever did was download... gigs of stuff a day(off of mIRC though.. no p2p).. never had any issues... no emails or phone calls... my friend a few houses down .. same thing.. but he also set up a ftp for people to use... after about a month he got his upload capped at 10kbps and a letter from cablevision stating how they are against copyright infringement and whatnot... so to me.. i think ISP's watch the uploading alot more than the downloading... but.. its just my opinion... id say stay clear of the p2p's

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joshpo

Posted
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I am surprised no one has mentioned this.. but I guess it mainly up to the ISP.. cablevision is one of the biggest broadband providers here in NJ.. along with comcast... I had optimum online for a good 2 years and all i ever did was download... gigs of stuff a day(off of mIRC though.. no p2p).. never had any issues... no emails or phone calls... my friend a few houses down .. same thing.. but he also set up a ftp for people to use...  after about a month he got his upload capped at 10kbps and a letter from cablevision stating how they are against copyright infringement and whatnot... so to me.. i think ISP's watch the uploading alot more than the downloading... but.. its just my opinion... id say stay clear of the p2p's

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Running an FTP or any kind of server for that matter is against most ISP TOS agreements. Some enforce this better than others but upload bandwidth is precious and I don't blame them for shutting down that kind of operation.

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MateoGWJ

Posted
Posted
BTW  I had been using bittorrent occasionally but I think a lot less than most pirates on sites like this and it was all software, no music, movies, or games.

1.  Do you think someone in accordance with the DMCA is on to me and sent my ISP a letter telling them to warn me about downloading stuff?

2.  Do you think my ISP (alone) is using scare tactics to get people like me to stop using file sharing completely even though they haven't been asked by any outside authority?  Obviously it would be pretty easy for them to monitor what I'm doing online.

3.  My ISP told my dad to remove bittorrent from any of our computers it was installed on...What if we were using it for LEGAL purposes?  Would they still track what I was doing and think it was illegal just becaue it is bittorent?  I have downloaded free/shareware on bittorrent before.

4.  I don't want any trouble so I'm not going to download anything more for the time being BUT what are the chances I'm gonna get charged with something for what I've already done?  I downloaded a few apps like I said no music or movies.

5.  What the hell is everyone else doing and why was I warned?????

Thanks for reading through that and I hope you guys/gals will be able to settle me down a bit.

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1. DMCA is not an entity, as noted, but a set of laws that cover piracy, privacy, and enforcement. It does allow right's holders to subpoena ISP's for individual IP addresses, but that requires some background knowledge that you are, in fact, pirating something (they need probable cause).

2. Yes, they are using scare tactics, and they probably wouldn't care if someone hadn't asked them. I use Verizon, and they give the RIAA/MPAA the finger on a daily basis, but obviously, your ISP is scared of the oncoming lawsuit.

3. The ISP has overstepped their bounds, legally, although you probably couldn't enforce that. You have the right to use whatever software you want on your computer, but I'm certain that you clicked through a EULA before connecting that stipulated terms that agreed not to use any P2P software.

4. Slim. The thing about BT is, they can't tell what you downloaded, only that you downloaded something. Unless you connected to a seeder that was afiliated with the RIAA (they must exist), or something like exeem, they wouldn't know what you downloaded at all.

The thing is, downloading apps makes you liable to the company, not some group like the RIAA, so there are other ways of tracking you.

For example, if the product you downloaded requires activation, guess what, they know where you are now, even if you fed them bogus info. They still have an IP address.

But it costs a significant amount of money to bring every application pirate to court, so the chances are slim that you will be charged. If you are really worried about it, delete the application and BUY IT. Then you might have some sort of fair use defense (yeah, I d/l'ed it, but I liked it, so I bought it).

5. That's hard to answer. It's disengenuous to say "I didn't download all that much", because an ISP isn't going to waste their time with someone that uses the app to download 400MB once a month. You wouldn't even show up on their radar. If you are downloading 1.5GB daily, or weekly, then you might show up on their usage tracking system. So if you gorge yourself on pirated games, well, you got on the ISP's radar. They don't know what you are downloading, but they know that the traffic is substantial, so they will warn.

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bcampbell

Posted
Posted

I have the extact same senerio, same company, same problem. They did tell your father what the file you downloaded was. Maybe he didn't remember it but they told him and the date it was reported. When they called me about a week ago I had downloaded winxp64 ed. corp so they say. I am not disagreeing with them but proclaiming I am totally ignorant and that I have a wireless connection. He told me the same as he told you. Secure my router and remove the bittorrent software. Course, I haven't done either of them yet, but I haven't downloaded anymore "Software" since. Hell I don't even know why I get some of the crap I get. Hell more than half of the stuff I don't use, and I end up deleting it anyways. I never seen a problem with it if you are using something for trial purposes. If you download trial software on the web most of it has spyware, adware and all kinds of crap. If you get the full version of something you are not limited in anyway, and you don't have to be concerned for crap messing up your pc. If you decide you like it you can then purchase a legit copy and not worry about it otherwise uninstall it and delete the software. I think that bt serves a good purpose if used somewhat correctly. I am not claiming it is right to use it for this purpose but I who wants cryptware or spyware. If you can't use but so many features of the application or you get crap that messing up your machine and send sensitive information to the company what good is that to you? Hell its kind of like test driving a car. If they put advertisments all over the window you can't see where you are going, or if they disable the breaks how are you suppose to stop. That's not test driving if you ask me.

For the most of you people that say your ISP can't do this and can't do that. Read the EULA. They are providing a service to you under conditions. If you think that they are going to be the blame of your problems with theft, hacking or anything else you have another thing coming, and they will forfit your information if it is absolutely neccessary no matter what company you use.

Conclusion,

Don't worry about it this time, just be a little more cautious and don't download software from the same bt site you were getting the stuff from before. Obviously someone is looking into the site and the torrents they are offering. Or you can stop all together and feel much much safer. Thanks for reading my 2 cents.

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Grand Master

Joseph Zollo

Posted
Posted
You should use newsgroups instead.

585964986[/snapback]

:yes: Much faster and no worrying about sharing, only downside is that some services require a monthly fee.

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