I was contacted about downloading copyrighted material...

[Anonymous]

Seriously fuck em. How many fuckin bands had to bail in the middle of some shitty tour b/c some exec needed to make his Lexus payment this year? Steal it if it's out there. Pay me if it's mine.

 

[cloudnine]

Copyright infringement, okay. Still piracy and unlawful use of intellectual property.

Doesn't matter how much the record companies do or don't make; they produce a product that you can either choose to buy or not. When you choose not to and then take the product anyway, I don't know how you can constitute it as anything but theft.

That being said, obviously don't incriminate yourself, lawyer up, and hopefully that stupid ISP bullshit will change. Giving away customers' information is a total violation of rights - but what else is new.

 

[Digital Jams]

About ISPs and your rights...............

All ISPs due to 9/11 now have taps installed on every broadband router and once the court order goes through anyone's line can be tapped if a request is made through the legal system. PLease dont refute this because I have installed it and have worked with men with "certain" IDs. Not saying right or wrong or taking sides, just telling you what you may have on your line.

IPs................your router takes a static IP from the pool from the ISP and the equipment that serves you. If someone "war drives" your house that IP is given by YOUR router if you have that option enabled. Dont use that agrument or you will look like you are hiding something. The only way you could go that route is to say someone hacked your router's password so change it to the default if you changed it.

Hard drives...............you have to destroy it if you want to be sure.

Sorry about this stuff, keep your head and DO NOT SPEAK TO THEM. Let your laywer do that.

Just out of curiosity, can an ISP use that tapping equipment on the line WITHOUT a court order? The way the original post reads, the ISP was packet sniffing, and THEN they notified Universal. That sounds illegal to me. IE, this wasn't a government request for info, and they mentioned nothing about a court order to do what they did.

That sounds like bullshit, ISPs don't just sniff traffic for the hell of it as the capured data needs to be looked at. They are trying to get you to out yourself. They COULD have found your IP through the torrent and the ISP has been working with them due to some court order, never know.

One thing that Comcast is doing is monitoring "power users", guys that are downloading 100s of gigs of files and you will receive a call from them. They do not montion what, just how much.

 

[MisterBulbous]

You didn't happen to download "Death Magnetic" did you?

 

[vultures]

You didn't happen to download "Death Magnetic" did you?

Ok, you got me I wouldn't listen to that album even if they GAVE it to me. I'm just going to lose this computer if the worst happens. I mean c'mon, I could go to the super market right now and find this movie in the bargain bin for $5.99.. and they wanna sue the shit out of me? The movie in question was made in 1999

 

[danielodland]

This situation is probably a pain in the ass and all that, but it's not like you didn't know it could happen...I'm not all black and white about this, but when you download files without paying for them, there is a chance somebody's gonna pursue. It happens.

Pretty arrogant blocking anyone not on your side too..you should take a look at how much money a mid sized band loses because of illegal downloads every year. It's a lot.

I do realize that a lot of people make a habit of buying and paying for the stuff they actually wanna keep (like I do), but still, you can't blame the companies for wanting you to pay for the products they're selling.

Now you can go ahead and block me=)

 

[Speed_Racer71]

damn

i was just reading an article on this at yahoo news. i guess they were serious.

 

[UltraGary]

It's going to be approx 10 years before the legalities of this debate get ironed out, and the music industry as a whole will suffer until it does.

I'm in my 40's and ran music stores my entire life (CD/DVD stores. not instrument). Last year, my last store closed down, and for the first time, there were no other viable companies to partner with because they were all dead. So.....I personally watched and lived the death of 'the record store'.

It's easy to nitpik legal loopholes on this debate, because there are many........but until this era of everyone taking/trying/sampling/borrowing (and whatever else we want to call it) music & movies gets legally under control.....the industry as whole will continue it's downward spiral.

As a musician, I totally get both sides of the argument ("the technology is there so use it"...."labels need to build quality bands and not push weak releases with 1 decent song"...etc...) So I see a good 7-10 years before anyone gets any control over this mess.

 

[Hacksaw]

Just buy copies of the material.. then you're covered.

 

[Slaytallica]

I could go to the super market right now and find this movie in the bargain bin for $5.99.. and they wanna sue the shit out of me? The movie in question was made in 1999

The best of the Blue Oyster Bar?

 

[danielodland]

Thanks to UltraGary for actual insight.

 

[skoora]

About 4-5 years ago my ISP (Millenium) disabled my connection because a certain software was discovered in my share folder for kazaa? (I forget the exact one). I guess the software company searched for it and then notifies your ISP and they shut you down. I had to go through a whole buch of huey to get it going again. I was shocked at the time that my ISP would do that but I guess they wer so worried about liability as this is very grey legally that they went with the cut off the leg to stop the pain of the hang nail approach.

I pretty much stopped using p2p after that. Well....sharing anyway

 

[FourT6and2]

What's the verdict on downloading TV shows from torrent sites? If I watch TV and tape it, it's legal. If I have Tivo or a DVR it's legal. However, if I download it, it's copyright infringement. But, most of the networks allow you to watch streaming verions of that stuff anyway, on their official sites.

I don't download music, so I don't care about that shit.

 

[danielodland]

Dunno but Im pretty sure the thing is you can record it for your own pleasure, but its bad to share it/sell it. Not sure though. Maybe it's not even legal to record it...dunno=)

 

[robb]

I got piled on for my position on this topic in the past, but in these economic times I feel I need to express myself...

Please don't steal movies off the internet. I've worked in the film industry for a long time and we have seen wages and benefits continue to shrink.
The writers strike put me out of work for months and caused many businesses in my field to go bankrupt. One of the issues in that strike and the possible actors' strike is the internet and how to get paid for downloads. When people steal them they are taking money out of my pocket and food out of my kids' mouths.

Go ahead... Talk shit... But I would never fuck with anyones lively hood, career, or their ability to provide for their family. I just wonder why we feel it's okay to fuck other artist and musicians lives.

Just a rant. And my career going to India, Korea, or China. Guess I could work at GC

 

[Snake Plissken]

Same people will be bitching that they can't make any money from their music. Go figure.

 

[danielodland]

Same people will be bitching that they can't make any money from their music. Go figure.

Don't think I got that...

 

[racer_j]

Here's a good read on what's happening now.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20 ... users.html

RIAA is changing how they do things.

Of course this seems like it may involve the MPAA instead.


J.

 

[danielodland]

Same people will be bitching that they can't make any money from their music. Go figure.

Don't think I got that...

Oh sorry...I thought I read "SOME people..." =)

 

[GRK]

Welcome to responsibility for your actions.

Pretty funny considering I never mentioned if these files were actually downloaded, or by whichever person in my household. You're comments are both ignorant and not welcome

Oh please. Let's not get into semantics. We both know you downloaded the files.

I'm not saying the ISP had any right to pass on your information to anyone (they shouldn't) but let's get real here; you stole stuff that you didn't pay for and now it's coming back to bite you.

Not to join in in your heated discussion but I bet my whole gear that you have pirated shit too all around your house or use it in your house/at your work place. I'm not saying piriting is a good thing but I'm betting every single person does it to some extent.