BMG pursuing legal actin for copyright infringment? Help!!

[austin.]

Soooo. I own all of creeds physical CDs. I recently got an iPhone 6. I took off to Florida, had no songs. Downloaded a few hundred songs. All were albums I owned. 90% of my music is AB Tremonti and Creed.

BMG forwarded an email to my ISP, who then forwarded it to the bill owner, my mom.
They sent one yesterday, one today. One for WAWO, and one for WAWO acoustic. I downloaded way more Creed songs than that. Am I gonna get a $20 dollar bill every day for each song until they're done?
What's going on? Is this real? Seriously?

What do I do. Help.

[AllC392Was]

I've never heard of something like that. I would contact BMG and figure out what happened

[austin.]

I almost don't even think it's real. My mind is blown. Honestly, I've never physically seen ANYONE pay for Internet music.
Like this is crazy.

Who do I contact without incriminating myself?

[Fish Tacos]

Looks like it's real:
https://torrentfreak.com/bmg-demands-20 ... ds-120914/

According to the article, it looks like the $20 charge, if you choose to pay it, is a settlement payment, not an admission of guilt, and releases you from future liability, at least for that specific file. It also mentions a 'six-strike' policy and it sounds like you may be racking up a few strikes if you're getting multiple notices. This policy, also dubbed CAS is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Alert_System

The system of alerts is as follows:

• The first and second alerts will notify ISP subscribers that their Internet account has allegedly been used for copyright infringement via the use of bittorrent and provide an explanation of how to avoid future offenses, as well as direct users to lawful media content site.[14]
• If the user’s behavior persists, a third and fourth alert will be sent. These alerts will ask “the subscriber to acknowledge receipt” of the messages by clicking a notice.
• After a fifth alert, ISPs will be allowed to take "mitigation measures" to prevent future infringement.
• If the ISP did not institute a mitigation measure following the fifth alert, it must enact one after the sixth alert.

Mitigation measures may include: "temporary reductions of Internet speeds, redirection to a landing page until the subscriber contacts the ISP to discuss the matter or reviews and responds to some educational information about copyright, or other measures (as specified in published policies) that the ISP may deem necessary to help resolve the matter".[15] Mitigation measures vary by company. Verizon was the first to reveal their mitigation policy. Their policy specified that violators with more than 3 alerts would be directed to an online copyright law information. Upon a 5th or 6th alert, the user would experience a temporary speed reduction down to 256kbit/s (approximately the speed of dial-up internet access).[16] According to a leaked internal document, AT&T decided that after a 6th alert, a user's “access to many of the most frequently visited websites [would be] restricted” until they completed an “online educational tutorial on copyright.”[17] However, AT&T later explained that it would not cut the user off the internet even though such measure appeared in the copyright warning letter. It gave a reason that the six strikes warnings are only allegations; therefore, if the alleged user is still suspected of illegal downloading after completion of the "online educational tutorial on copyright" and the six strikes warnings, unless the copyright owner takes legal action; nothing will happen.[18] Time Warner Cable, stated that it would not discontinue customer’s service, but instead redirect users to educational pages on copyright law upon multiple violations.[19]

Gotta love the bolded portion. Cutting off the user(s) means that the ISP doesn't get their monthly check anymore, so they don't want to have that in their policy with no knowledge of how many of their customers this will impact. Gotta love the corporate nom nom nom.

[austin.]

Yep. That'd be the site it came from.
Dang.

[Fish Tacos]

Added more info for you above

[austin.]

The original link fish posted said "the above is from Charter Communications who does not use the six strike policy"
Charter is my ISP.
That article was 2012. Do they do the policy now?
So now what. Don't use torrents and just let it go?

Also. I didn't get single files. Got the whole wack ya know? They know this. If it's 6 strikes as in 6 files, then I'm already done. They know this. I know this. They know what I've downloaded. I know what I've downloaded. Way more than 6. So let's stop the charades and just get on with the real show. I've obviously committed a major crime past 6 strikes.

[Fish Tacos]

Out of curiosity, were you seeding the files on the logged dates?

[austin.]

I'm not sure. I'm in Florida. Moms in TN. I came here about a week ago. I just downloaded, ripped to new folder, and deleted utorrent.
I'm sure I was. Very rarely is it ever "my fault" in my head, but I can't really try to deny this one...

Don't rip Creeds music, they will get you!!!

Also don't use torrentfreak. I think if piratebay had been up I would've been fine....

[Fish Tacos]

Torrent files log the trackers so your computer knows who to download it from via your p2p program (in your case uTorrent), so I believe the website you actually get the torrent file from makes little difference other than it might be a slightly different list of IPs. Basically, I think this would have happened to you either way, they were monitoring your network traffic.

Good luck as always, Austin!

[austin.]

Torrent files log the trackers so your computer knows who to download it from via your p2p program (in your case uTorrent), so I believe the website you actually get the torrent file from makes little difference other than it might be a slightly different list of IPs. Basically, I think this would have happened to you either way, they were monitoring your network traffic.

Good luck as always, Austin!

"They were monitoring your network traffic"
Who was? The government?

Or say BMG was monitoring whatever album I downloaded and they got me that way?
I really thought fighting piracy was fighting a losing battle. I really didn't think stuff like that was ever pursued. Kinda like jaywalking Etc. Obviously not.

Will see what comes of it. Gonna ignore in the meantime. Contact Charter then BMG if I keep getting notifications.

Thanks for the help!

[Fish Tacos]

I had to think about that for a second, because your ISP didn't approach you like they sometimes do with others, BMG did via your ISP. I'm guessing BMG is following their own torrents and trying to backtrack data from the trackers in an effort to increase revenue.

Just remember, if it's settled, they can't pursue you over it again. If you don't settle, while unlikely, this could be you: http://torrentfreak.com/222000-music-pi ... es-120911/

[gobaloon]

I had to think about that for a second, because your ISP didn't approach you like they sometimes do with others, BMG did via your ISP. I'm guessing BMG is following their own torrents and trying to backtrack data from the trackers in an effort to increase revenue.

Just remember, if it's settled, they can't pursue you over it again. If you don't settle, while unlikely, this could be you: http://torrentfreak.com/222000-music-pi ... es-120911/

Hey mate- can't see how BMG can trace an IP address to a person. Would need the ISP to confirm and share bill owners address. Seems BMG strong arming or revenue sharing with the ISP.

Interesting way for them to make money out of torrents. New revenue stream...

[Fish Tacos]

Yeah that's where I was going with it. I mean you can enter a person's phone number into certain engines and it will tell you who their mobile carrier is. I'm guessing BMG knows how to backtrack the IP from the tracker to the ISP along with a few other legal steps. At that point the ISP just e-mails the customer with the address on file.

I doubt the communications company is getting a piece but I also wouldn't put it past them. Guess he just needs to roll the dice on whether or not he thinks BMG will come after him if he doesn't settle.

[gobaloon]

Or BMG could be in cahoots with NSA!! And sharing revenue...

Nothing surprises me today.

[austin.]

Man.
I can't pay a thousand dollars in settlement.
I've paid my dues as a Creed fan. Paid for tickets to multiple shows, bought countless overpriced merch at shows, own all the albums, had my prs signed by Mark.
Gonna be super shitty if this turns out bad.

[Fish Tacos]

> I can't pay a thousand dollars in settlement.

You got 50 notices?

[austin.]

> I can't pay a thousand dollars in settlement.

You got 50 notices?

Mom received an email for one song yesterday, one song today, I downloaded all of Creeds music.
So I'm guessing around 50 songs. I dunno.

[abw1987]

Wow, I've never heard of this. Very interesting tactic to charge $20/song, rather than pursuing expensive legal charges against every individual copyright infringer.

I used to torrent music & movies. Back in college, I hadn't yet had my moral epiphany against piracy, so I downloaded some stuff at my off-campus house. A week later, I got a call from my ISP. Basically it was a warning; they asked me to delete the movie, and told me that they'd disconnect my service if I pirated anything else. The next day, I got another call about another movie I had downloaded shortly after the first one. But since I had downloaded it before the first time the ISP called me, they let me off the hook. Had I continued pirating things after the ISP called me, I'm sure they would have disconnected me. The point is, the "six strike" thing might only apply to things you downloaded after your first notification. But who knows.

I think the obvious lesson here is to stop pirating content. It's wrong. I used to rationalize it just like everyone else. ("I only pirate stuff I wouldn't have paid for anyway, so I'm not hurting anyone." "I'm a poor college kid; I couldn't afford to buy music anyway." "I'll make it up to the band by going to a concert." "I've bought their other albums, so I've earned this one." "The record label gets all the money anyway." "I'm not stealing anything physical, so this costs them nothing." And so on.) But the fact is, you are copying content from the copyright holder without paying for it, and that's illegal. You can complain all you want about the injustices of the music industry, but piracy is 100% wrong.

[Seeker_1306]

Wow. Only time I've ever seen anything like this was in my college dorm. My buddy downloaded some songs illegally and the next day our internet had been cut off. We called the campus internet provider and they informed us that they saw where he had illegally downloaded music. They charged a $75 fine to have it turned back on.