I'm being sued for downloading!!!

Originally posted by ThreeDeuce
Basically you ask them for things they couldn't possibly know, like the name of the person who is downloading it. As soon as they reply saying they can't get that information, then that is building your case.

Excellent advice, particularly the above quoted portion!!

Do you have a wireless router? If so you can bring up the possibility of being a victim of war driving. I have had friends that in the past would war drive to download massive amounts of music. I have never had a need for that after all you can get a song on I-tunes for a buck so for me thats a waste of my time.

It's also possible to get a virus/trojan to give someone else access to you're equipment and have the files they want downloaded directly to your computer then open up a port and pull those items onto their computer making it look like you downloaded it on the ISP's side. In fact your computer did, it just wasn't you at the keyboard doing it. At least this use to be very do-able by any amateur unless something has changed in the past decade or so. (I haven't done this sort of thing in years so there may be safe-gaurds up now but I doubt it)

You get what you deserve. Shame you had to learn it the hard way. Unless of course you really weren't downloading the game, but only you know the truth on that. Simply saying you didn't is not good enough.

Hi

I recieved one of these letters 2 the race asking for £515 there are photo copied docs stamped by a court ????? (hmm) i called them after looking up there number on the net as there was no number only fax on the doc, when i called them they asked for a ref: number which i gave them they siad there was a tech problem with there system they asked for my name earlier and i gave it (prob a big mistake but i got sucked in by the whole thing) if i choice to ignore the letter could they proove that i have got is as i tried to call them alothough they could not log onto my case? seems veys sus i was close to paying just don't want this to drag out without knowing and outcome , would be a great help to know if anyone has beaten this without the threat of court. and is it true from a prevoius post that they ask the court for the info then drop the case and sue us individually?

Would love a response the missus is not happy with me at the mo lol.

Originally posted by freemindmine
Go and buy the game from the shop and then say you only downloaded it as a backup as the game you got from the shop don t work and you were not going to spend more money on another one!
Only an idea.
What isp are you with?

Why is people in ATS allowed to give advice on how to get away with doing illegal stuff?

he has not admitted guilt, he is only seeking help about fighting this. Sorry for the one line. I'll try to make it 2

reply to post by Blue10110


No you do not have to contact the ISP their is professional software that would do a exact position on your ip address.

Those software are restircted though only businesses can buy such a software.

A kid at my school got introuble for downloading games at school and our schools it group got a knock at the door with a group of lawyers with alot of files of charges against the student. The laywer asked for a certain comptuer which they already knew ahead of time which one.

I am not saying all companies do this. but any big corp has these software to bypass ISP getting a court order all they need to do is send a letter saying you infringed on their copyrights and they would try to make a deal with you if you don't agree then they will take you to court.

I know that they can do a direct trace on the ip address.

The stuff you find on google are not 100% accurate. It would just give a general area.

some may be 100% correct others may very.

just do a google search on ip tracer and you will get many. Try some out.

I'm not aware of any law on earth stating that a business may buy certain software but an individual may not. It would be kind of hard to enforce, don't you think, considering an individual could simply say, "Well, I've just started a business now."

Look on the bright side. You've been given the chance to avoid an actual lawsuit (unless your reply to them has ruined that chance.) All you have to do is delete some files and pay a few hundred pounds. That sounds sucktastic, but it beats paying thousands in fines, court costs, and other fees.

Most of the advice given in this thread is terrible advice. A lot of it wouldn't work to begin with, and I've seen some advice that seems to have been copy and pasted from urban legend websites.

However, there have been two excellent pieces of advice suggested in this thread.

1. Stop talking about it on the Internet, PERIOD. This means asking for advice, telling your story, or any other mention of the issue. It's not that we don't want to hear it! It's that the people suing you DO want to hear it! And in future cases, don't ever *start* talking about it on the Internet.

2. In the immortal words of Jim Carrey in the movie Liar, Liar: "STOP BREAKING THE LAW!" Okay, so Jim Carrey through in a vulgar insult at the end, but we don't do that here. :-)

The fact is there is no outside access to the identity info of a person through the ip someone is using.
No software can get that.The isp has to provide it or, if they hack your isp password, they can simply login to your account and get your info.
But they cant pursue any further legal proceedings because they obtained the information illegally.

Originally posted by computerwiz32
reply to post by Blue10110

 

No you do not have to contact the ISP their is professional software that would do a exact position on your ip address.

Those software are restircted though only businesses can buy such a software.

A kid at my school got introuble for downloading games at school and our schools it group got a knock at the door with a group of lawyers with alot of files of charges against the student. The laywer asked for a certain comptuer which they already knew ahead of time which one.

I am not saying all companies do this. but any big corp has these software to bypass ISP getting a court order all they need to do is send a letter saying you infringed on their copyrights and they would try to make a deal with you if you don't agree then they will take you to court.

I know that they can do a direct trace on the ip address.

The stuff you find on google are not 100% accurate. It would just give a general area.

some may be 100% correct others may very.

just do a google search on ip tracer and you will get many. Try some out.

Was talking about those locators that are available to everyone. And of course the ISP can get your address. But I was saying that no-one else but your ISP can get your correct address from your IP-address.

Edit: The ISP doesn't really have to buy any separate software for that. They already have it in their system. It's not like they connect all their clients to the system and randomly give them IP's and internet.

[edit on 2-8-2008 by Blue10110]

This is most likely a scam. if you have a wireless connection this gives you a fool proof "wasn't me" cloud of doubt on the whole subject. ISPs also can easily be copied and faked, anyone with knowledge of an ISP trace can attest to this.

You should buy a copy of the game, (assuming you did download the game yourself) PAY CASH! If you own the game you do have the right to download a copy of the game for backup reasons.

Answer the letter to the point of origin with the above excuses and they will drop the suit if they are smart, otherwise you may get a lawyer and counter sue them for damages because of emotional trauma caused by this harassment. I don't know about your country but in the US there are legal representatives that will help you if you meet certain financial requirements. Your psychologist can be called in as a witness to verify your mental health and they will most likely drop the suit if they think that they will loose more money in the end than they would get by suing you.

[edit on 8/2/2008 by whatukno]

Originally posted by full997
This morning i recieve a letter from a law firm representing Atari informing me that i have been caught downloading a game called RACE07.
They want me to sign a document saying that i will delete all copies of the game and not download any further Atari software without express permission.
They also want me to pay £515!!!!

I am on benifits and i barely have enough to live on let alone enough to pay out £515 to a billion pound a year making software company.

So what the hell am i supposed to do, me a man with aggoraphobia caused be severe depression, who has a councilor come to where i live every two weeks and i have to see a pyschiatrist aswell.

[edit on 30-7-2008 by full997]

Hmm.. You can start by not illegally downloading any more stuff. That'd be a good idea, wouldn't it? I like how you spill all of your 'problems' to make yourself look like a victim. The bottom line, however, is that you stole something and now you need to pay the consequences. Understand that illegally downloading music, video, software, etc. is no different than walking into a local retailer and shoplifting.

You can cry all you want that Atari or whatever company is a multi-million dollar company and your illegal downloading of their product has a minimal effect, if any, on their profits, but that's not the point. The point is that you stole something, and thankfully, now you're being punished.

Another one of my favorite excuses is when you thieves say, "They didn't lose money because this movie, song, software, etc. isn't something that I would have otherwise spent money on. I just downloaded because I didn't have to pay for it. Otherwise, I would never have bought it." What a load of bull#.

I can't stand thieves. Honestly, if you can't afford something then you don't need it, especially when it's something that's not a necessity like a video game.

reply to post by computerwiz32


again, no there isn't that type of software. it doesn't exist, and never will exist. The reason why I say this is because ISP's most of the time use dynamic IP addresses. With the dynamic IP addys, they usually go with a 2-1 or a 1.5-1 ratio, meaning that for every 1 ip address they have there are they have 1.5 - 2 customers. These dynamic ip scopes can be in the 10's of 1000's range basically making up a large burb, or even a small city. Because of there being more IP then customers as people's ip expire, it goes to the bottom of the pool, and as new people turn there computer on, they grab them.

Here are the things that the trace can do. It can get your IP, your computer name, your nic addy, the domain name you assigned the computer. It can't give you your exact address, only a neighborhood at best. This being said alot of people like to call there computer there name or the name of the person that bought it. Because of this, they can look in the phone book, or the city courthouse to find the name. They won't do this though, because 9X out of 10, the ISP will give them the info, and its alot quicker for them to get it that way then to have someone do foot work. One more thing. Alot of large business's such as schools name there computers the school name, example: Puck County, I'm screwed lane, pa, #4. Additionally alot have a t-1 which gives you the info for the name of the business, vs the ISP you are getting it from.

I don't mean to be rude, but I worked for an ISP for 7 years, 3 as a lvl 3 support engineer, which interfaced directly with the abuse department. I was the one tracking these people down, when the abuse department needed someone. Additionally, abuse would ofter utilize us to do special projects for then as staffing was limited. I'm very familiar with ISP abuse policies, that how I know how they tracked him down, and most likely it occurred SEVERAL DAYS after the incident occurred. The chances of the company requesting a track down, and getting someone from abuse to do it immediately is slime-to-none. They have procedures to follow including recieving certified letter asking to track it. Verify the person that is requesting it. doing the research, getting supervisor approval to send it, getting a manager to approve it. Rechecking, then if its still the same, sending it certified to the person requesting it.

Just my 2 cents.

Thank you so very much everybody who has posted on this thread.
I emailed the law firm and have not heard a thing from them since.

I am sorry i have not posted again till now but the a day or so after i started this thread i was beaten up in my own home by my errant and extremely drunken brother and so i have been recovering.

I will wait to see if i hear anything from the law firm regarding my OP, and go from there.

Again thank you very much for all you posts and advice on this.
To those who say do not illegally download games i assure you that the only downloading i am doing is the download of drivers for my digicam which dont work anyway lol.
Thank you very much to all.

Oh and i would like to ask that if points are awarded for other people answering a thread that you create then can all points i may have gained from this thread be removed please.

I made the thread to ask for advice and not to gain points so if any mods are reading this please take em away.


[edit on 2-8-2008 by full997]

Originally posted by mattifikation

Look on the bright side. You've been given the chance to avoid an actual lawsuit (unless your reply to them has ruined that chance.) All you have to do is delete some files and pay a few hundred pounds. That sounds sucktastic, but it beats paying thousands in fines, court costs, and other fees.

Most of the advice given in this thread is terrible advice. A lot of it wouldn't work to begin with, and I've seen some advice that seems to have been copy and pasted from urban legend websites.

Looks like Atari already found your thread

Its against human rights to arrest, fine or attempt to stop anyone from downloading anything. However it is against the law to rip things and place them on the net for download.

No one owns cyberspace.

The answer to your question is: STOP STEALING THINGS FROM OTHERS.

You stole the software, now pay the price. Stop whining about how poor you are. So what? That does not give you the right to steal the intellectual work of others.

Atari has a demo download for race07. Does the law firm letter have a raised-letter letterhead? Most real lawfirms have real stationary. Have you looked up the lawfirm on the web? Personally haven't seen any games worth 515 pd.

Maybe you should tell them to shove it up their Asteroids.

reply to post by full997


"Many times i cannot leave my house or if i can then i have to drink a lot of alcohol very soon after leaving home.
I have little money and even cheap games are to expensive for me to afford not that i can easily leave the house ot buy them anyway."

So then your admitting that you did indeed download the game they are claiming... Good luck pleading your case... Have you ever heard of "willful Intent"?

You'd better sign the document and pay up. heh