Accused of torrenting copyrighted material

[Steven192 272]

According to http://www.wb-law.de/news/tag/Filesharing/ this company does a lot of this, (they are sueing Til Schwieger at present) so I don't think you can brush this off as a scam.

 

Take the letter to a lawyer as soon as you can.

[legal_alien 192]

 

Nope. You've just admitted to violating the law. You're fucked. "MANY of which" doesn't mean "ALL". If you own current versions in analog form you have a case that the download wasn't a violation of any criminal or civil law since it was just "space-shifting" but you have now outright admitted to downloading items for which you have not paid any sort of licensing fee. Kill the account, restart your modem and start a new account.

 

woof.

 

 

Since arriving in Germany - 3 months ago - I have just been replacing all the video's I chucked along with the VCR before moving plus getting some old tunes as my stylus got knackered and I need to buy another one. Is this allowed or do I have to buy a new licence for digital/remastered copy? Never heard of 'shape-shifting'.

[horseshoe7 270]

Please don't take this comment as definitive. I'm really just giving an account of what I heard, and can't confirm. BUT...

 

For the MPAA to sue a person, due to reasons of data privacy, they need a court order to get the ISP to release their logs, as to who was downloading what. ISP's don't often agree and simply delete their logs. Anyway, if they don't have that, they can't prosecute. But because it would clog up the courts, it's seriously difficult to get a court order, because the german courts have stated they're not going to spend resources on such a thing. So individual people downloading content, although technically illegal, won't be prosecuted for what they're doing.

 

Best to talk to a lawyer, but I'm fairly sure it's just a "scam" or a cash grab, using German scare tactics. I wouldn't lose sleep over it. At least until you visit someone in the know. I'm almost certain it's a scam.

 

I once clicked a link on a website, and then a collection agency thought they had the right to collect money from me. Sent me a scary letter, which turned out to be BS.

[BadDoggie 1,575]

 

Since arriving in Germany - 3 months ago - I have just been replacing all the video's I chucked along with the VCR before moving plus getting some old tunes as my stylus got knackered and I need to buy another one. Is this allowed or do I have to buy a new licence for digital/remastered copy? Never heard of 'shape-shifting'.

 

1) An apostrophe does not mean, "LOOK OUT! HERE COMES AN 'S'!!!". Plural words do not have apostrophes. Please study this.

 

As for your question... if you've binned the videos and vinyl, how will you prove you already bought them? If you've sold them or even given them away, you have no rights; those disappeare with your execution of your Right of First Sale.

 

 

Please don't take this comment as definitive. I'm really just giving an account of what I heard, and can't confirm. BUT...

 

Translation: "I know not but I have to chime in anyway."

 

For the MPAA to sue a person, due to reasons of data privacy, they need a court order to get the ISP to release their logs

 

We're in Germany, not the US. While the high court ruled a few years ago that ISPs have to delete IP records on demand, a new law in 2007 said that ISPs must retain all records for six months.

 

I'm fairly sure it's just a "scam" or a cash grab, using German scare tactics.

So you're firmly in the Darknight Intarnets Posting camp, where your unresearched opinion is at least as valid and valuable as those posts from people actually involved in the legal aspects of this situation and who get paid a lot of money to keep up with it.

 

woof.

[RainyDays 2,453]

The issue at hand is a copyright violation, and law firms can send cease-and-desist warnings (with payments). It can still be a money grabbing scheme, but in principle those Abmahnungen/Unterlassungserklärungen (cease-and-desist warnings) are legal. It's different from some dodgy website that misleadingly makes users subscribe to services subject to a charge and then goes after them through a collection agency.

 

While with subscription scams not reacting at all is a possible tactic, in the OP's case seeking legal assistance is IMO absolutely necessary, as others have said.

[fraufruit 41,963]

While hiring a lawyer is probably the best advice, it bugs me that, after forking over the fee and finding out that it is a scam, the scammers still win in a sense.

 

Argh!

[historyguru 13]

Has anyone else googled this company? I found that they claim to be in 4 cities, Berlin, Bombay, Bangkok and Beijing (why are they only in cities with B-names?) I also did some snooping around some german forums and they seem to be having similar issues with this, but all of their letters are the same and supposedly they all downloaded Far Cry. Is this the film they said you downloaded? I didn't read so much into the German forums, but they also seem be extremely suspicious and this has been happening for a couple of months now. I also saw where someone was arguing about the Til Schweiger claim because his name was spelled incorrectly in the lawsuit. I'm not one to claim it is a scam or not, but I would look into it more before paying a lawyer to figure out the same...

[legal_alien 192]

 

1) An apostrophe does not mean, "LOOK OUT! HERE COMES AN 'S'!!!". Plural words do not have apostrophes. Please study this.

 

As for your question... if you've binned the videos and vinyl, how will you prove you already bought them? If you've sold them or even given them away, you have no rights; those disappeare with your execution of your Right of First Sale.

 

Oops. Don't know why I did that. I wrote tunes proper and (just about) know the basics of English. Thanks anyway - insignificant things like that should always be picked up on. Funny catoon BTW.

The video thing is right - they all went to the tip and I have no proof of ever owning them, except some which came over by accident. But I'm not getting shot of my vinyl, not a chance. Just need to get a stylus so I can play it again and missed hearing some things.

[maccachic 6]

I have a question

 

Its is illegal to download films what about streaming them online is this also illegal/ liable for prosecution? :ph34r:

[sarabyrd 18,767]

 

While hiring a lawyer is probably the best advice, it bugs me that, after forking over the fee and finding out that it is a scam, the scammers still win in a sense.

 

Argh!

 

But it's a Win for the other forum users who will include the scam-buster in their prayers/prosts/other religious rites.

[Punchbear 1,023]

"BaumgartenBrandt scam" doesn't throw anything up in Google. It might now though.

But "BaumgartenBrandt Betrug" produces quite a few.

[Owain Glyndwr 888]

 

I have a question

 

Its is illegal to download films what about streaming them online is this also illegal/ liable for prosecution?

 

 

apparently just as illegal since when you view a streamed video it actually downloads the video into your cache so is effectively the same as downloading.

[BadDoggie 1,575]

 

apparently just as illegal since when you view a streamed video it actually downloads the video into your cache so is effectively the same as downloading.

 

Good luck finding those YouTube and YouPorn vids in your cache. Streaming specifically does NOT store a copy (although downlaoding damned near anything else does). The Flash wrapper most commonly used was specifically designed to prevent you from being abloe to access the actual content file and/or store it automatically or manually. There are ways around it but without actively trying to save a copy using a tool like NetXFer, there's no local copy of a film or video.

 

Its is illegal to download films what about streaming them online is this also illegal/ liable for prosecution?

 

Only if both the stream is unauthorised AND you know or have good reason to believe it's unauthorised (*cough*justintv*cough*).

 

woof.

[horseshoe7 270]

 

Translation: "I know not but I have to chime in anyway."

 

So you're firmly in the Darknight Intarnets Posting camp, where your unresearched opinion is at least as valid and valuable as those posts from people actually involved in the legal aspects of this situation and who get paid a lot of money to keep up with it.

 

 

I generally like you. But god you can be a cunt sometimes.

 

You must've had some weird childhood.

[Owain Glyndwr 888]

BD, legally it doesn't matter if you have a copy stored or not. If (and I'm not sure they can) prove you streamed it, technically it is the same as downloading and therefore just as illegal. I'm not judging whether they actually can prove this or not as I haven't the foggiest.

[Oblomov 865]

Downloading a film via P2P network usually is a copyright violation. The owners of the copyright do have the option to obtain the data of the relevant internet user from his ISP via a court order (§ 101 IX UrhG). The law requires a considerable cpyright violation for doing this ("in gewerblichem Ausmaß") but the courts have hugely different opinions on what constitutes "in gerwerblichem Ausmaß". However, § 97a II UrhG limits the legal fee that can be sought from the violator in simple cases for the first cease and desist order to 100,- EUR. Provided that really only one film was downloaded the ability of the lawyer to charge something like 2,500 Euros seems dubious.

 

BTW, claiming that some unknown person logged into your wlan net may not help as you can still be liable as the owner of the internet connection (Störerhaftung)

 

You really should seek legal advice on this issue. Do not ignore it as the lawyers can take this case to court if you do not reply to the cease and desist request.

[sarabyrd 18,767]

Try to keep it civil, all of you.

[Punchbear 1,023]

 

Good luck finding those YouTube and YouPorn vids in your cache.

 

 

In Firefox, when visiting a YouTube movie page, if you go to Tools>Page Info>Media Info, a list of all the pages media elements should also contain the SWF for the movie, allowing you to Save As underneath. Haven't tried it on other video sites, but it works on some archive footage sites I visit, which is handy for comping movie edits, dismantling Flash files etc.

[Timmeh 828]

Same with Safari, you can open the activity window and see the file which is clearly increasing in size and you can save that too

[legal_alien 192]

 

Its is illegal to download films what about streaming them online is this also illegal/ liable for prosecution?

 

That was discussed in-depth on this thread

 

Or maybe it was this thread.