This is why I don't use P2P

[dk]

Several thousand O2 Internet subscribers will be receiving these very soon

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/h...nal_letter.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18968223

Think twice about using P2P for downloading illegal s**t!

[gally]

First up, who in God's name downloads porn these days?

Really? Why would you want to store porn on your comp when there are a million free sites out there.

Kinda funny and embarrassing for the peeps involved though.

[JackJack]

What's p2p?

[dk]

I thought the same, but thousands of people downloaded this Ben Dover film lol

Id be interested to see how far they take it if you claim it wasn't you or one of the people who live in your house. Unless the film is on the hard drive (which it won't be once you receive this letter...) then I'm not sure how they prove it was you, the ip address is tied to the router.

If you reply admitting to it, then it doesn't need to be found on your computer, as you admitted it yourself, not sure what I'd do if I received one tbh.

They wanted to charge everyone a flat £700 at first but were denied, then they wanted their bandwidth to be reduced to nothing, that was also denied.

[dk]

What's p2p?

Bit torrents, where you download and upload at the same time, file sharing as opposed to download sites or newsgroups

[gally]

Hmmm I suppose if it was a full film I could possible understand. Still a little crazy.

Be interesting to see the monetry value because 9k X £20 for a Ben Dover Dvd is a lot of money list out on.

[Jay_G]

I'm sure another company tried this with virgin media, got addresses from them, etc and then sent threateningly letters out, but the court practically laughed at them, and the company went into administration shortly after, all cases where dismissed

[john182rs]

crapcleaner would be getting some abuse from these users i can guess... Load it on a shotgun driver wipe and then find it after that mofo's.

I would love to know if some lad or gal has had to explain them self to their parents 'no mum it wasnt me I dont download porn....'

[Sym0n]

All forms of downloading carry the same amount of risk, P2P is just an easy target right now as it's so easy for people to use and abuse.

[Gouldy]

Someone needs to show these guys redtube, xnxx etc.

[Addicted]

There's plenty of safe methods for P2P, but yeah the people using thepiratebay etc will get raped.

[Jay_G]

Encrypt and anonymise your data, would be much harder to be found.

[john182rs]

or download off ya neighbours modem and pay her enough to play dumb for when she gets stuff like this, they send a techy round and are then able to tell that people are on her network, set up your comp through a 128bit encrypt network with a ip reset etc etc and well, safe.

[dk]

All forms of downloading carry the same amount of risk, P2P is just an easy target right now as it's so easy for people to use and abuse.

No they don't.

[Keydogg]

No they don't.

Correct. SSL secured newsgroups don't carry such risk.

[Silent_Scone]

Ah f**k.



Private trackers are the way forward \;o/

[rumble291]

A friend of mine had a letter like that sent to him. He read up about it and left it didn't pay them a fine or anything and never heard from them. Problem is most people have a wireless router or a router with NAT (Network Address Translation) meaning that anyone could connect to your network and download using your internet connection and therefore your IP address. Pretty sure currently they can't prove that you downloaded it onto your machine (unless they get a police warrant i suppose?).

Was a thing in the news about people receiving these letters without ever using P2P networks. Open wireless = freeloaders downloading.

Anyways P2P is nasty for people with slow internet connections like me rapes all the bandwidth!

[EmirK0]

Most of these letters rely on people getting scared and therefore replying to them. If anyone gets a letter like this I wouldn't worry about it too much they've got f**k all to go on, but still if you can use a VPN then even better. Getting you on the fact they've got your IP address, no chance. Even secured wireless networks are not so secure, so anyone who has a router with WPS enabled might want to turn that useless feature off(if you can!)...

[dk]

Or this might happen to you......

A music file-sharer in the US has been ordered to pay a fine of $675,000 (£426,000) to the major record labels after a court rejected his appeal for a retrial.

Joel Tenenbaum, 25, was taken to court on charges of copyright infringement in 2009 for downloading and distributing 31 songs two years earlier.

He was just 16 years old at the time, but a judge in Massachusetts has now ruled that the 2009 jury's penalty should stand.

Tenenbaum was informed of the legal action against him in 2007 when a letter arrived at his address demanding $5,250 (£3,319) for the seven songs he downloaded. His counter offer of $500 (£316) - which was all he could afford at the time - was rejected.

When the case went to court for the first time that year, Tenenbaum refused to settle and a new trial date was set for 2009. The US record labels emerged victorious, with the jury handing out the maximum fine legally permitted.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has welcomed the latest development, saying that it is "pleased" with the judge's decision, CNET reports.

Tenenbaum admitted in court to downloading and sharing more than 100 songs, and has turned down donations from supporters offering to help out with the fine.

[dk]

Another reason not to use torrents as they are being targeted, in the news today

UKNova, the 'ethical' torrent tracking website that has been going for almost a decade, has announced that it will shut down after being targeted by the Federation Against Copyright Theft.
FACT, which recently secured the prosecution of the founder of UK streaming links site SurfTheChannel, has successfully pressured the owners of UKNova to disable the site's torrent trackers, essentially forcing it to close down.

Founded in 2003, the UKNova BitTorrent tracking site is often used by British ex-pats to access TV shows that they would not normally be able to watch, either due to geographical restrictions or lack of broadcast coverage.

Unlike some torrent sites, the operators of the service have published a set of ethical guidelines that they claim prevent any activity on the service that could eat into the revenue streams of copyright holders.

UKNova operates a "not allowed list" which includes all TV shows that are being exploited commercially, such as on DVD, pay-TV or pay-per-view. This means that users cannot track the content via UKNova.

However, FACT was not convinced by UKNova's ethical credentials and so has issued a "cease and desist" notice, which listed a number of claimants against the site.

A site admin told Torrent Freak: "There was one very big UK satellite provider, some of whose content (a tiny percentage from their basic package) was available on UKN, there was also a football production company.

"The remaining members represent post-transmission marketing of DVDs etc. The major UK TV companies are not FACT members and were not mentioned."

UKNova did not confirm the identities of the companies, but the "very big UK satellite provider" is thought to be Sky, a FACT member, while the football company is most likely the Premier League.

The site claims that it removed all the alleged offending links to content and informed FACT that it was ready to co-operate.

However, the anti-piracy body responded by saying that all links to content on UKNova are infringing, unless it has "obtained explicit permission from the copyright holder for that content".

Following the four-year prison sentence handed to SurfTheChannel owner Anton Vickerman this month, UKNova has taken the decision to close down in order to avoid costly legal action.

"The people who run UKNova have families, careers and professional reputations that could be menaced by lengthy legal proceedings, whether successful or not," a statement from the firm said.

"Whilst we believe that FACT are wrong both legally and morally on account of the strong 'no commercial content' stance that we have always taken, we are not in a position to be able to risk lengthy and costly court battles to prove this.

"It is a sad day when a site whose mission has always been to bring much-missed UK TV to ex-pats and Anglophiles at the four corners of the world is forced to stop this activity. Nobody will be plugging a huge revenue hole because we are gone, but tens of thousands of avid viewers will suffer."

FACT has not yet issued a statement on the case.