# Received complaint from [email protected]



## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

My dad received two complaint emails from Charter telling him that someone using their internet is downloading copyrighted software.. It even said the name of the file...

Can they do anything? And are there any free services that let you download torrents anonymously?

Thanks.


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## Sylar1 (Mar 3, 2011)

Were they movies? I didn't think they cared that much about people downloading games


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## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

It was a Wii Game. PM me for the title if you want to know. I don't even want to say it here.


Will they do anything about it? And what can I do to prevent this in the future?


EDIT: Does anyone use Peerguardian2, does it work with uTorrent?


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## rdurbin (Mar 3, 2011)

Try using a private torrent site.  I have never received one since using them, but have more than once using public ones.  I don't think its allowed to give out links to private torrent sites, so you just gotta do a search for them.  You can also use a program that blocks certain ip # from seeing your ip# when you download a torrent


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## Kioku_Dreams (Mar 3, 2011)

Haloman800 said:
			
		

> uTorrent?



Look... Stray from torrenting... It's a double edged blade..


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## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

rdurbin said:
			
		

> Try using a private torrent site.  I have never received one since using them, but have more than once using public ones.  I don't think its allowed to give out links to private torrent sites, so you just gotta do a search for them.  You can also use a program that blocks certain ip # from seeing your ip# when you download a torrent




What would you recommend? I mean, a program that blocks certain IP's. 

And does this mean you've received a complaint before? Did they do anything after you received it?


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## Kioku_Dreams (Mar 3, 2011)

Haloman800 said:
			
		

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The law can be brought into this if they find out. You can possibly face fines/imprisonment, or just being barred from internet access.


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## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

Mchief298 said:
			
		

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If they find out what? How do I avoid this?


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## notmeanymore (Mar 3, 2011)

Stuff like this is why I use JDownloader and RapidShare/MegaUpload/etc links.

Also, if someone is on your wifi network, you can use your router's DHCP client list to find their MAC address, then put it on your black list. I can help you with that if you need any.


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## twiztidsinz (Mar 3, 2011)

Haloman800 said:
			
		

> It was a Wii Game. PM me for the title if you want to know. I don't even want to say it here.
> 
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> Will they do anything about it? And what can I do to prevent this in the future?
> ...


You're not going to face jail time unless you've leaked a major game.
The letter you got was from your ISP, they cannot do anything to you beyond cutting your internet off (unlikely as you're paying them every month).

Most likely if anything happens after this you'll get a letter from the company or someone representing the company or it's rights holders saying "This is what you've downloaded, this is how much we want. Pay or we'll bring you to court", and then most likely not hear from them again.
Essentially what they do is they contact your ISP, tell them to give over the info (sometimes the ISPs refuse and they'll get a judge to order them to turn over a long list of names) then send you a letter asking for an out-of-court settlement trying to get money from you with out any extra costs on their end.


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## Searinox (Mar 3, 2011)

Valid excuses:

-I am hosting a proxy
-my computer was infected and out of my control
-I am using a wireless router with no encryption

Best thing to do? Don't respond to them. You get asked? You didn't get the notice. You have no understanding of what web protocols, torrents, P2P and IPs are. Btw most of these things come through PHYSICAL mail, NOT to your email address. Check the recipient and sender lists and google the provenance to make sure they are a legitimate DMCA complaint forwarder and not some email scam.


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## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

Please, someone, would you paste for me what to say back to them, and I'd just fill in the blanks with "FILE NAME" "COMPLAINING COPYRIGHT HOLDER" "MY NAME", to send back to them?

Thank you so much

I checked, it's Charter's legit email for when stuff like this occurs.


I found this on another website, should I send them this, or nothing at all, or something different? Here it is:


Dear Charter.com:

Thank you for forwarding me the notice you received from (COMPLAINER) regarding "WHATEVER YOU LIBERATED". I would like to assure you that, contrary to the assertions in the notice, 1) I am not hosting or making available the claimed infringing materials, and 2) you are already protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's ("DMCA") safe harbor from any liability arising from this complaint. The notice is incorrect, probably based upon misunderstandings about law and about some of the software I run.

First, in terms of legal liability, this notice does not create any risk for you as a service provider. As you know, the DMCA creates four "safe harbors" for service providers to protect them from copyright liability for the acts of their users, when the ISPs fulfill certain requirements. (17 U.S.C. § 512) The DMCA's requirements vary depending on the ISP's role. You may be most familiar with the "notice and takedown" provisions of DMCA 512©, but those apply only to content hosted on your servers, or to linking and
caching activity. The "takedown notice" provisions do not apply when an ISP merely acts as a conduit. Instead, the "conduit" safe harbor of DMCA 512(a) has different and less burdensome requirements, as the D.C. Circuit Court of
Appeals held in RIAA v. Verizon (see
»www.eff.org/legal/cases/RIAA_v_V···1219.pdf) and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed in RIAA v. Charter (see
»www.eff.org/IP/P2P/Charter/033802P.pdf).

Here, any content that came from or through my computers merely passed through your network, so DMCA 512(a) applies. Under DMCA 512(a), you are immune from money damages for copyright infringement claims if you maintain "a policy that provides for termination in appropriate circumstances of subscribers and account holders of the service provider's system or network who are repeat infringers." If you have and implement such a policy, you are free from fear of copyright damages, period.

As for what makes a reasonable policy, as the law says, it's one that only terminates subscribers who are repeat infringers. A notice claiming infringement is not the same as a determination of infringement. The notification you received is not proof of any copyright infringement, and it
certainly is not proof of the "repeat infringement" that is required under the law before you need to terminate my account. I have not infringed any copyrights and do not intend to do so. Therefore, you continue to be protected under the DMCA 512(a) safe harbor, without taking any further action.

You might be curious, though, about what did trigger the notice. The software that likely triggered the faulty notice is a program I run called Tor. Tor is network software that helps users to enhance their privacy, security, and safety online. It does not host or make available any content. Rather, it is part of a network of nodes on the Internet that simply pass packets among themselves before sending them to their destinations, just as any Internet host does. The difference is that Tor tunnels the connections such that no hop can learn both the source and destination of the packets, giving users protection from nefarious snooping on network traffic. Tor
protects users against hazards such as harassment, spam, and identity theft. In fact, initial development of Tor, including deployment of a public-use Tor network, was a project of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, with
funding from ONR and DARPA. (For more on Tor, see
»www.torproject.org/.) As an organization committed to protecting the privacy of its customers, I hope you'll agree that this is a valuable technology.

Thank you for working with me on this matter. As a loyal subscriber, I appreciate your notifying me of this issue and hope that the complete protections of DMCA 512 put any concerns you may have at rest. If not, please contact me with any further questions.

Very truly yours,
Your customer, YOUR NAME HERE




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I've never used Tor, I've heard of it before but I'm not even sure what it is, and it's mentioned in the email.

Should I send this, or nothing at all, or..?


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## Rydian (Mar 3, 2011)

You should stop if they've already sent _two_ notices.  I mean unless risking a lawsuit for more money then you're worth is worth a few free Wii games or whatever, but if you're that kinda' person...


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## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

It's about the same game, and they sent them both within a day of each other.

If I run PeerBlock on start-up, is it safe to use uTorrent? Or is there some other precautions I should take?


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## twiztidsinz (Mar 3, 2011)

I wouldn't send ANYTHING back to them unless is *explicitly* states you have to.
The more contact you have with them or the company behind the letter, the more visible and noticeable you become.

Don't bother with TOR, it's a great idea but not perfect and you typically get extremely slow speeds. I tried using TOR for browsing the web and my speed slowed to a crawl.
And listen to Rydian, stop downloading stuff... for a while at least. Give it a few months (like 6+) and they'll forget about you completely.

If you insist on continuing to download, get Usenet or stick to direct-download sites -- both of which you'll end up spending money on (Usenet isn't free and DDL sites suck for downloading files over 100MB without a premium account).




			
				Haloman800 said:
			
		

> It's about the same game, and they sent them both within a day of each other.
> 
> If I run PeerBlock on start-up, is it safe to use uTorrent? Or is there some other precautions I should take?


Nothing is 100% safe and there is no 'proof' PeerBlock works or is effective, but you're always more protected than without it since anything is better than nothing.
I'd recommend setting it up to start this way: http://www.peerblock.com/userguide/how_to_...raccountcontrol
As it will not prompt you to start every time your computer starts.


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## Hero_Of_Fate (Mar 3, 2011)

The first time it was done, it was more than likely that they were just warning you to knock it off. Since they sent another, you could be on some thing ice. Is it really worth 2 free Wii games?


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## Joe88 (Mar 3, 2011)

switch ISP's, that is all you can do if you wanna be a dirty pirate.


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## DarkShinigami (Mar 3, 2011)

Sylar1 said:
			
		

> Were they movies? I didn't think they cared that much about people downloading games


thats a lie i downloaded a sims 2 torrent(dont know why) and the service provider i used game me a waring.


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## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

PeerBlock is actually blocking GBAtemp from loading, so I've just disabled it.

I won't download for at least six months. We also have 2 internet connections so I'll switch to the other one as well.

How do I stop PeerBlock from blocking GBAtemp?


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## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

Hero_Of_Fate said:
			
		

> The first time it was done, it was more than likely that they were just warning you to knock it off. Since they sent another, you could be on some thing ice. Is it really worth 2 free Wii games?




It was the same game I received emails about. I'm not sure what's up with that.


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## htoxad (Mar 3, 2011)

*OP*

1. This is NOT a subpoena or anything court related. This notice does not say you are being sued. It's just a "Knock it off!" letter. No big deal unless Charter specifically says they will cut off service after 3 strikes or whatever. You do not need to reply.

2. The nature of BitTorrent makes it very difficult to hide your identity. Using Tor will just make downloading painfully slow. You could pay for a VPN to hide your IP address, but at that point you're better off paying for Usenet which has full encryption (even your ISP won't know what you're downloading) and no uploading requirements.

3. PeerBlock is almost certainly useless. If somebody wants to sue people (and very few game publishers sue people relative to movie and porn studios) they can and will use an IP address not in the database. It probably can't hurt to use it, but it's not going to keep out a motivated company. Private trackers are a decent way to add security but are also below 100% safe.


tl;dr
You're not in trouble unless Charter threatens to disconnect you.
BitTorrent is not designed for anonymity. 
Paying for Usenet or RapidMegaFileHotSonic is your best way to dodge any unwanted attention.


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## Terminator02 (Mar 3, 2011)

Haloman800 said:
			
		

> PeerBlock is actually blocking GBAtemp from loading, so I've just disabled it.
> 
> I won't download for at least six months. We also have 2 internet connections so I'll switch to the other one as well.
> 
> How do I stop PeerBlock from blocking GBAtemp?


i remember when i tried it that happen, also happens with dropbox and a few other sites, just open up the peerblock window and when you try to connect to gbatemp a new IP will pop up that it says it blocked, just right click it and press Allow ***.***.*.***:***** permanently

Edit: i think gbatemp's name is something like SVOC

if you want to just use the internet unrestricted you could also press allow HTTP in the upper right


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## Sylar1 (Mar 3, 2011)

pokefreak2008 said:
			
		

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It's not a lie, i said "I didn't think" they cared that much


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## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

htoxad said:
			
		

> *OP*
> 
> 1. This is NOT a subpoena or anything court related. This notice does not say you are being sued. It's just a "Knock it off!" letter. No big deal unless Charter specifically says they will cut off service after 3 strikes or whatever. You do not need to reply.
> 
> ...



What exactly is a private tracker, is it a program for downloading torrents, or is it just a website which is invite-only for finding them? Is there anything else someone could do besides using PeerBlock, and an invite only website?


Edit @ Terminator02: For some reason, the blocking just stopped. If it happens again I'll use your method, thanks.


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## Terminator02 (Mar 3, 2011)

Haloman800 said:
			
		

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invite-only website

you should just use JDownloader with FTP links, the safest free option, but can be really slow for big files

Edit: to your edit, it happened to me when i tried posting, just allowed it and it's all cool


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## Walkin (Mar 3, 2011)

The step they'll take is canceling your service.  You could use a Proxy service like btguard or torrentsecurity.


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## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

This post, would be a test, for someone to see if PeerBlock blocks posting.


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## htoxad (Mar 3, 2011)

Haloman800 said:
			
		

> What exactly is a private tracker, is it a program for downloading torrents, or is it just a website which is invite-only for finding them? Is there anything else someone could do besides using PeerBlock, and an invite only website?


Private tracker is an invite only site where members can share data with each other. 
That and Peer Block are pretty much all you can do for free.

The way BT works is kind of like receiving a package through the mall.
People need your home address to send you something.
You can get a PO Box to hide your address but you have to pay for that service.

Honestly if Charter isn't threatening you this is no big deal and you should be fine downloading games.


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## Fudge (Mar 3, 2011)

I mainly use private trackers + direct links and Jdownloader. Pirating since 2005 and never had a letter in the mail or anything like that.


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## DarkShinigami (Mar 3, 2011)

Sylar1 said:
			
		

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i formally apologies for that i misinterpreted.  so sorry there


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## Haloman800 (Mar 3, 2011)

Alright - to recap, the only thing someone can do for free to protect themselves are:

Private trackers (Invite-only websites)

PeerBlock (Blocks IPs)

Direct Downloads (MegaUpload, MediaFire)


..For free. Are there any other precautions to take?


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## Terminator02 (Mar 3, 2011)

if you're using private trackers you don't need peerblock, that's really just for public torrents, and really isn't full-proof anyway


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## Blood Fetish (Mar 3, 2011)

Or you could just rent/buy the game.


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## Fudge (Mar 3, 2011)

Blood Fetish said:
			
		

> Or you could just rent/buy the game.


So you mean he should do what 1% of GBAtemp does?


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## Blood Fetish (Mar 3, 2011)

If you people like Nintendo so much why would you do your best to sabotage the company?


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## Mantis41 (Mar 3, 2011)

Blood Fetish said:
			
		

> If you people like Nintendo so much why would you do your best to sabotage the company?


It's a weird mental state but I'll try my best to explain.

Most things go up except wages it would seem. Every month there appears to be less and less cash to do anything with. We still love gaming and my mentality kind of says I've paid for the console, a couple of accessories and an extra controller or two. I have brought 10 or so games and really can't afford anymore. I know I can get the games for free relatively easily so, I argue with my self conscious for a short while eventually convincing myself that these greedy fat arse companies probably have enough of my hard earned money and will probably boast about mega profits some time next month. Meanwhile while I'm scraping the bottom of the tin trying to eke out a living. Guilty conscience subdued, I start waving the Jolly Roger merrily in self righteousness.

It's probably how a lot of criminals start out. I little bit of self justification and away you go. If you add, "I'm not physically stealing," "everyone is doing it anyway," and “the only people missing my money are Game Traders and Cash Converters,” then piracy not only becomes justified but hell, it becomes a God given right. Wave the flag people. Right or wrong, I feel fine.


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## Blood Fetish (Mar 3, 2011)

Video games are cheaper than any other point in history.


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## mechagouki (Mar 3, 2011)

Blood Fetish said:
			
		

> Video games are cheaper than any other point in history.



Careful, you're starting to sound like an industry mole! When you joined GBATemp the site was flying the pirate flag high and proud.


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## Blood Fetish (Mar 3, 2011)

I know what this site was about when I joined.


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## Mantis41 (Mar 3, 2011)

Blood Fetish said:
			
		

> Video games are cheaper than any other point in history.


You will have to provide some citations or proof for that statement, I'm not really feeling it. I will say though, that that the US seem to on average pay about half the amount for games as we do in the UK.


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## Blood Fetish (Mar 3, 2011)

Higher-end SNES games such as Chrono Trigger went for up to $80. Hell, the standard price for most NES games was around $40 to $60, and that was over 20 years ago!


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## mechagouki (Mar 4, 2011)

Blood Fetish said:
			
		

> Higher-end SNES games such as Chrono Trigger went for up to $80. Hell, the standard price for most NES games was around $40 to $60, and that was over 20 years ago!



On a purely financial basis that is true, (NES Zelda and SNES Street Fighter II Turbo were insanely expensive at launch) but you have to look a little deeper. 8 and 16 bit cartridges were very expensive to produce due to the price of memory chips at the time. Software companies' profits skyrocketed with the move to optical media - Nintendo were saved from real hurt in the N64 generation only by the success of Pokemon. These days it's either optical disc or flash memory - both of which are laughably cheap to produce. In Nintendo's case they keep game dev. costs down by updating older platforms N64-DS, Gamecube-Wii. 

I'm not justifying piracy, I'm just saying the games comapnies ain't doing too bad thank-you-very-much. (except Sony of course - LOL).


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