Support NeoGAF

[MIMIC]

In my inbox (after I had my Internet connection reinstated :lol)

A copyright holder has contacted [xxx] regarding the
unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material. According to
a company acting on their behalf, on 2009-02-14 03:41:43 an IP address issued to
you was used to offer protected material for download:

Organization: NBC Universal
Infringement: The Story Of Us.1999.DVDRip.x264-VGL

You have had 0 previous offenses.
I am writing to let you know that further violations of the AUP
(Acceptable Usage Policy) may result in loss of network privileges.
Further, sharing copyrighted materials may be illegal and subject you
to large fines and other penalties under the law.

If you need additional information about this incident please contact the
Student Affairs Support Center at (xxx) xxx-xxxx. The original notice is
shown at the bottom of this letter.

and....

You are being contacted on behalf of NBC Universal and its
>affiliates ("NBC Universal") because your Internet account was
>identified as having been used recently to illegally copy and/or
>distribute the copyrighted NBC Universal motion picture(s) and/or
>television show(s) listed at the bottom of this letter. This notice
>provides you with the information you need in order to take
>immediate action that can prevent serious legal and other
>consequences. These actions include:
>
>1. Stop downloading or uploading any motion pictures or TV shows
>owned or distributed by NBC Universal and/or its affiliates without
>authorization; and
>
>2. Permanently delete from your computer(s) all unauthorized copies
>you may have already made of such films and/or TV shows.
>
>The illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted works are
>serious offenses that carry the risk of substantial monetary damages
>and, in some cases, criminal prosecution.
>
>Copyright infringement also undoubtedly violates your school's
>policies governing acceptable use of campus network resources and
>could lead to serious disciplinary action.
>
>A motion picture industry website, www.respectcopyrights.org, offers
>step-by-step instructions to ensure that your Internet account is
>not being used to violate the copyright laws. The site also can
>point you to an array of legal choices for enjoying movies and TV
>shows online. You can also learn there how movie theft damages our
>economy and costs thousands of Americans their jobs, thereby
>reducing employment opportunities for new graduates.
>
>If, after visiting www.respectcopyrights.org you still have
>questions, or if you believe you have received this notice in error,
>you may contact NBC Universal by email at [xxx] or
>by calling (xxx) xxx-xxxx. Please cite the Reference ID noted at
>the top of this letter in the subject line of your email or in any
>voicemail you may leave. You should take immediate action to
>prevent your Internet account from being used for illegal
>activities. Today, there are many ways to enjoy movies and TV
>programs legally.
>
>This letter is not a complete statement of NBC Universal's rights in
>connection with this matter, and nothing contained herein
>constitutes an express or implied waiver of any rights, remedies or
>defense, all of which are expressly reserved.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Mark Ishikawa
>CEO, BayTSP inc.

>tel. (xxx) xxx-xxxx
>fax (xxx) xxx-xxxx

>Title: Story of Us, The
>Infringement Source: BitTorrent
>Initial Infringement Timestamp: 14 Feb 2009 08:41:43 GMT
>Recent Infringement Timestamp: 14 Feb 2009 08:41:43 GMT
>Infringing Filename: The Story Of Us.1999.DVDRip.x264-VGL
>Infringing File size: 779448709
>Infringers IP Address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xx
>Infringers DNS Name:
>Port ID: xxxx

Not saying I did it :lol

Movie theft damages the economy? wtf?

 

[Suburban Cowboy]

how do u not see how theft could hurt the economy?

Also, way to be caught on a chick flick. Think that makes you a butt pirate pirate

 

[Grug]

Seriously, click reply to the NBC Universal email and simply write "fuck off."

 

[FF_VIII]

Dude, Story of us is a terrible movie.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Man, America has prison internet.

Do people regularly get these letters? I've never seen, nor heard of anyone ever getting one of these.

 

[SIP YEK NOD]

Sounds like its time for somebody to invest in peerguardian, and encrypt their torrent traffic.

 

[Koshiba]

Man, America has prison internet.

Do people regularly get these letters? I've never seen, nor heard of anyone ever getting one of these.

My friend got a couple for downloading a Jdrama that had the same name as an american TV show.

 

[Dirtyshubb]

Sounds like its time for somebody to invest in peerguardian, and encrypt their torrent traffic.

Or at the very least get themselves a Rapidshare account.

 

[pakkit]

Seriously, click reply to the NBC Universal email and simply write "fuck off."

Why?

 

[_Angelus_]

Sounds like its time for somebody to invest in peerguardian, and encrypt their torrent traffic.

<whistles>

I've been harassed by a few companies for copyright infringement when I've uploaded YouTube videos. The videos were merely a collection of the babe in my avatar,a fucking picture slideshow with an old Van Halen tune. Just that can have them on your ass pretty fast. I had two videos removed within a week's time.

 

[Grug]

Why?

Rock the establishment and such.... make ourselves feel big.

 

[TheExodu5]

Sounds like its time for somebody to invest in peerguardian, and encrypt their torrent traffic.

Yeah I used this for The Wire Season 1 after I heard about HBO contacting a lot of people. No clue if Peer Guardian is even working or not, since it's not even in the system tray or anything...I just see it in the list of processes. Wanted to check out The Wire to see if it was worth purchasing the full series (going on sale Thursday for $100 in Canada!!!).

 

[Busty]

WHA? They actually fingered you for a specific movie? That's weird.

What country are you in? The USA?

I've never heard of someone being identified and caught for a specific download before. Didn't you use Peer Guardian or whatever it's called?

 

[dalyr95]

Your downloading on a campus network, do you realize how many people are downloading what they shouldn't be on that network. All NBC has to do is send one cease and desist to the uni and they do NBC's job and unlike you, your uni will have money and can be sued.

If your going to download something do it on your own ISP, then your too small fish

 

[Suburban Cowboy]

Yeah I used this for The Wire Season 1 after I heard about HBO contacting a lot of people. No clue if Peer Guardian is even working or not, since it's not even in the system tray or anything...I just see it in the list of processes.

...

 

[pakkit]

So, uh....guys...been downloading anything recently?

 

[Ashhong]

this is why you go on private trackers. were you downloading from mininova or piratebay by any chance?

 

[Rorschach]

... The Story of Us? Really?

 

[TheExodu5]

WHA? They actually fingered you for a specific movie? That's weird.

What country are you in? The USA?

I've never heard of someone being identified and caught for a specific download before. Didn't you use Peer Guardian or whatever it's called?

It's simple. Since P2P is well, peer to peer, when you subscribe to a tracker you have access to all your peers IPs. NBC (or whatever corporation) simply does a lookup on your IP, finds out what ISP it belongs to, and sends a cease-and-desist request that your ISP forwards to you.

...

What? Seriously, I don't care.

As I'm in Canada, there's no where for me to legally watch The Wire without either buying the DVDs. Since I heard there was an Amazon 65% off sale on Thursday, I figured I'd check the series out to see if I wanted to bother or not. I don't rightfully care what the legal obligations are, as long as it's within my moral code. Hell, every single show I've bought on DVD has been as a result of me sampling the show on the net (except Seinfeld =\).

 

[Brian Fellows]

Man, America has prison internet.

Do people regularly get these letters? I've never seen, nor heard of anyone ever getting one of these.

My ISP has gotten a couple about me. One for an episode of Deadwood and one for Batman Begins.

 

[D4Danger]

They must've been connected to the torrent to get your IP.

So they must have been uploading.

Entrapment.

If that doesn't work, play the race card.

 

[NotWii]

So, uh....guys...been downloading anything recently?

Just like those people who turned in their Jewish friends and neighbors to the Nazis

 

[Fjolle]

Man, America has prison internet.

Do people regularly get these letters? I've never seen, nor heard of anyone ever getting one of these.

One of my friends is a sysadmin at his dorm, and he gets a mail about this approx once a month. All he has to do is to write that he is sorry, but with the information they give there's no way that he can identify who did it.

 

[Slightly Live]

Yeah I used this for The Wire Season 1 after I heard about HBO contacting a lot of people. No clue if Peer Guardian is even working or not, since it's not even in the system tray or anything...I just see it in the list of processes. Wanted to check out The Wire to see if it was worth purchasing the full series (going on sale Thursday for $100 in Canada!!!).

Whats the difference between the guy in the Gaming section asking if his SF4 piracy is OK and you coming out and stating you too have pirated material?

You just admitted to pirating a show, a whole season none the less. You may have no moral cares but there are GAF rules for posting this stuff here.

 

[MIMIC]

... The Story of Us? Really?

I know :lol

And I just wanted to see a scene that randomly popped into my head (remembered that I saw a few minutes of it a few months ago)

 

[pakkit]

Just like those people who turned in their Jewish friends and neighbors to the Nazis

Really?

I mean, I agree that it's stupid. But that was the analogy you went for?

 

[Zenogias]

Man, America has prison internet.

Do people regularly get these letters? I've never seen, nor heard of anyone ever getting one of these.

It's not just America, I'm from sweden and a lot of my friends have gotten letters like the one in the OP.

 

[XxBigP123xX]

I got one 2 years ago. They didn't do anything...yet. Also stopped being a pirate.

Oh yeah, and the torrent was from Mininova for me.

 

[Fun Factor]

Ignore it, millions of these are spammed everyday.
You can keep getting them for months & it will do nothing, just scare tactics.

You could just keep it on the low for a month & you won't be bothered by the letters for awhile.

 

[CTLance]

Bowling tech threads and people asking about piracy implications on the gaming sides, countered by how to evade anti-piracy sweeps, piracy confessions and Nazi bullshit in the OT. Hrm. Is today a special day or something?

 

[madara]

Whats the difference between the guy in the Gaming section asking if his SF4 piracy is OK and you coming out and stating you too have pirated material?

You just admitted to pirating a show, a whole season none the less. You may have no moral cares but there are GAF rules for posting this stuff here.

The most amazing show in tv history as well. The Wire is must buy, period.

 

[TheExodu5]

Whats the difference between the guy in the Gaming section asking if his SF4 piracy is OK and you coming out and stating you too have pirated material?

You just admitted to pirating a show, a whole season none the less. You may have no moral cares but there are GAF rules for posting this stuff here.

Piracy of non-gaming content is not bannable on GAF.

The most amazing show in tv history as well. The Wire is must buy, period.

Will be buying it Thursday.

 

[Slightly Live]

Piracy of non-gaming content is not bannable on GAF.

Really? I'm surprised this place hasn't been clogged with torrent wank threads and links to all the latest movies and music. Hmm, even the FAQ doesn't make mention of piracy, of the gaming or otherwise sort.

Carry on. Enjoy your DVD's.

 

[-viper-]

My friend pirated Dead Space PC in his university dorm room (in the UK). The download went up to 50% and he got a message by EA, who contacted his university.

In the end, nothing happened to him, other than an engineer who checked out his PC for other 'pirated material', but he found none because he didn't have anything else.

 

[hadareud]

Piracy of non-gaming content is not bannable on GAF.

can't get more hypocritical than that.

 

[TheExodu5]

Really? I'm surprised this place hasn't been clogged with torrent wank threads and links to all the latest movies and music. Hmm, even the FAQ doesn't make mention of piracy, of the gaming or otherwise sort.

Carry on. Enjoy your DVD's.

Not sure where the rules went to...they seem to be missing from the FAQ section.

Anyways, linking to pirated material would clearly be out of the question.

As for the moral issue at hand, well to me, it all depends on your purpose for pirating the show. In Canada, we only have limited HBO access, and event though I have the HBO channel, I have no way of seeing The Wire. When I heard that Amazon CA was having a sale on Thursday for the complete series at $100, I decided to check the show out. I really don't have the money to make all kinds of blind purchases, so I sample. I've bought Lost, BSG, Dexter, The 4400, and now I'll be buying The Wire thanks to having checked out the show on the internet.

It's also a big pain in the ass that Canadians can't access all the legal streaming sources that Americans can. We're left with 2 options: either get a location masker (e.g. HotSpot shield), or download the shows illegally.

can't get more hypocritical than that.

Yeah, I guess so. But this is a gaming community after all. Besides the moral issues, it helps keep a lot of the piracy justification discussions somewhat restricted compared to sites like GS/GameFaqs where the discussion runs rampant.

Yeah ok, call my post ironic/hypocritical. Meh.

 

[pakkit]

Piracy of non-gaming content is not bannable on GAF.

Requesting or posting links to pirated material is bannable. I remember some guy made a "link me to the Dark Knight movie" thread. Hilarity ensued.

 

[Slightly Live]

can't get more hypocritical than that.

I don't understand this either. Scans are banned, as is Gaming piracy, why is everything else exempt?

What's stopping someone talking about pirated non gaming software, etc? My heads hurts.

It's also a big pain in the ass that Canadians can't access all the legal streaming sources that Americans can. We're left with 2 options: either get a location masker (e.g. HotSpot shield), or download the shows illegally.

It's a lot worse for folks outside of North America. =)

Requesting or posting links to pirated material is bannable. I remember some guy made a "link me to the Dark Knight movie" thread. Hilarity ensued.

Would it have been like that had he said that he had already downloaded it and wrote about how awesome the film was after watching it on his computer?

 

[TheExodu5]

I don't understand this either. Scans are banned, as is Gaming piracy, why is everything else exempt?

What's stopping someone talking about pirated non gaming software, etc? My heads hurts.

Well I think software and media fall under 2 separate camps. Any software piracy is usually morally wrong, no matter what the stance (exempts to this are a few grey areas, like when downloading the ROM of a cartridge you own if you can't dump it yourself). Media often falls under a bit of a fair-use issue.

It's a lot worse for folks outside of North America. =)

I can understand that.

Valve really pointed out that problem not long ago when it came to game piracy. They said it ran a lot more rampant when a game wasn't released in a certain region. Many publishers just shoot themselves in the foot.

We have a Marijuana thread, so we might as well have an Official Torrent thread!

Hadn't thought of that. :lol

Anyways, I'm sure all of you have looked at pirated porn on the internet. You're all filthy criminals! :lol

 

[ice cream]

We have a Marijuana thread, so we might as well have an Official Torrent thread!

 

[hadareud]

I don't care one way or another. People can do whatever they want as long as they're happy with themselves far as I'm concerned. But it is extremely hypocritical. I see people only so much as mentioning piracy on the gaming being called all sorts of names and probably banned in the end, while there's high fives for film and music piracy. Something is wrong about that.

Yeah ok, call my post ironic/hypocritical. Meh.

Of course I didn't mean your post. Stating a fact is hardly hypocritical.

 

[MWS Natural]

I don't understand this either. Scans are banned, as is Gaming piracy, why is everything else exempt?

What's stopping someone talking about pirated non gaming software, etc? My heads hurts.



It's a lot worse for folks outside of North America. =)



Would it have been like that had he said that he had already downloaded it and wrote about how awesome the film was after watching it on his computer?

Does this hypocrisy upset you?

 

[Slightly Live]

Well I think software and media fall under 2 separate camps. Any software piracy is usually morally wrong, no matter what the stance (exempts to this are a few grey areas, like when downloading the ROM of a cartridge you own if you can't dump it yourself). Media often falls under a bit of a fair-use issue.

To be fair, I think that such distinctions are self imposed. For example, with some games, I have to import, pirate or not play. I choose to either import or not play. Same can be said for tv shows out on DVD in other countries but not here. I could import them or pirate them.

If the rules go against pirating in one instance, why not the other if the options available to me are the same?

Using your own example, I'm not trying to single you out here - just using it as an example, fair use may cover an episode or a clip, not an entire season of a show. I don't think fair use counts otherwise the OP wouldn't be receiving threatening letters.

 

[pakkit]

But it is extremely hypocritical.

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