i think im being sued for downloading porn

[kalessin]

i just got told that my sister recieved a phone call from a federal officer saying that they traced some kind of p2p tracker to my IP and they're fining me 4,000 or 10,000 dollars for sharing porn files with other people.

im a frequent seeder for the files here and on cheggit.

im a little rattled by this and i dont know what to do. plz help.

 

[Rollyco]

A phone call from a federal officer? That's highly irregular. Sounds like you're being scammed.

 

[IdolFun]

They would send a certified letter from a lawyer.

 

[kalessin]

i got the letter

 

[kalessin]

it looks like its part of this

http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2011/07/p2p_swarm_defen.htm

ugh im in big trouble T_T

 

[Ceewan]

ugh im in big trouble T_T

I seriously doubt it. It is not illegal to connect to a tracker, (or even to download movies and music, in some countries). More likely a "pay up or else scam" and almost certainly you were not contacted by federal authorities over the phone. If they want you, they will knock on your door. Normally I would say ignore this but to be on the safe side you might want to contact a lawyer, just for your own peace of mind. Personally I would highly suggest using a proxy to connect to trackers in the future. Try contacting the EFF at https://www.eff.org/ other than that I would strongly suggest going about business pretty much as usual.

Most of these "scams" come from fake or dummy torrents setup to catch IP addresses from downloaders. This is not something they would want to come out in court as it would mean they have no case, (intent to download is not against the law, unless it is clearly described as childporn, in which case someone would have come for you already). Try to be a little discerning who you download from, anyone posting for the first time or who hasn't a history of reliable torrents is a risk.

It is not widely known but the porn industry spends more on anti-P2P efforts and lawsuits than any other media industry. They are in it soley for the money and you are in no danger as far as I can tell. I have never heard of a publicized settlement of any worth for downloading porn. Don't give them a dime and tell them if they call again, (how in hell did they get your phone number anyway? I think your sister was putting you on for the giggles), that if they continue to harass you in anyway you will sue them. You would likely win to.

 

[lowleg26]

Ceewan is quite correct. Its inconceivable that you would have been contacted by an actual authority regarding a civil matter, especially one regarding adult material.

I remember reading about a scam where people were receiving letters stating they were being sued for downloading gay porn and would have to go to court if they didn't pay x amount of dollars. The idea was that people would be too embarrassed to even discuss it, and pay a nominal fee just to bury the issue.

 

[Syobon]

This scare tactic has been proven lucrative in many countries, the best is ignore.

 

[pandaemic]

Most likely a scam. My friends family got one of these letters but it was the real deal. They only had to pay like $300 luckily and they were torrenting Lion King, which is more likely to be watched since its Disney and all.

Sneaky Disney :thief:

 

[Ceewan]

My friends family got one of these letters but it was the real deal. They only had to pay like $300 luckily and they were torrenting Lion King, which is more likely to be watched since its Disney and all.

Still a scam, it would have cost them more than 300 to take it to court. Funny they asked for such a low amount but I won't gainsay you here. Thousands and thousands of letters of this sort have gone out.......not that many ever went to court that I heard of. Some did though. The idea is to scare people into paying without taking them to court. It is impractical if not impossible to take everybody to court. According to torrentfreak:

uTorrent parent company BitTorrent Inc. just announced that the BitTorrent Mainline client and uTorrent have hit the milestone of 150 million monthly users. Together both clients increased their user base by more than 50 percent compared to last year, and the end of this surge is not yet in sight.

 

[Glassjaw]

Scams everywhere! Do your research and know your rights, bro.

 

[WeirdstuffYO]

I've gotten a letter before, but it came certified from my ISP. Copyright holders don't usually catch one or two people, they catch a couple hundred people at a time.

At which time they will notify the ISPs of said parties. ISP will sent a warning letter informing you of the situation. After that, if the copyright holder wishes to hold people for damages you will get served, not by phone or mail but in person, (just as being served to appear in court for anything else).

 

[mister_playboy]

Seems to be a lot of heat on Cheggit at the moment. You may want to hang out somewhere else for a while.

Check out PornoLab and have some fun with online translation in the meantime.