warning letter from Virgin media - isp

[milantheone]

hello guys, have anybody from you gotten a warning letter from virgin media??? unfortunately i have... :'( :'( :'(

letter is about using a P2P {peer to peer}... i was using it, but who not???

i have one question as i was using a rapidshare too, so i dont exactly now if they are pissed off because of rapidshare as well or only because of P2P... since i recieved a letter i immediately stopped to download anything... now i am totaly desperate... i cant live without access to music, movies and etc... will virgin media compare downloading from rapidsahre as same treat like using p2p ???

does anybody know anything abou it...

cheers guys

 

[pseudolobster]

Did the letter specifically state that you're violating copyrights and specifically give details about what you've downloaded, when, and why it's illegal? Or, are they just complaining that you've downloaded too much stuff overall?

If they have a specific copyright claim against you, stop what you're doing or get an expensive lawyer and claim you were downloading it for some fair use purpose like, say, you already own a VHS of the movie but are downloading it so you can watch it on your computer (fair use, format shifting), or, you meant to watch it when it was on TV yesterday but missed it (fair use, time shifting), or, you were downloading it so you can write a review or critique of it (fair use, criticism), or, you were going to make a spoof or satire of it (fair use, parody)... Good luck.

If they're complaining that you've exceeded your bandwidth limit you should look at your terms of usage agreement and see what it says about how much you're allowed to download in a month... If you've exceeded this there's nothing you can do since you agreed to it and signed it. Stop downloading till next month.

If they're complaining specifically that you're using a peer-to-peer protocol, regardless of what you're downloading, they're just saying you can't use that service on the internet, you take THEM to court for interfering with your communications... Get a good lawyer, show them all the completely legal things you can download from P2P services, make the comparison to the postal system, lots of criminals use the mail to commit their crimes.. mailing drugs back and forth, money laundering, scams, mailbombs, etc, yet just using the mail does not make you a criminal. I heard there's a bunch of class action suits going on regarding this, maybe not specifically with virgin, but a lot of ISPs have faced heat recently for unfairly censoring people's internet access.. You can also always just go and change the port and encrypt your data so they won't know what it is you're transferring, that works too.

 

[milantheone]

well i dont know if i excatly understand what u are saying...

i am not english origin, i come from slovakia...
everything i know is that virgin - isp have some trial with BPI {british porn industry} and they want to stop using file sharing in the world...
i think it is non sense, but this is not what i want to solve...

i dont know what i can expect from this letter... i have really big affraid...
everything i know abou it is only from internet... please if somebody can check it on internet.. just put into your google this key word

warning letter from virgin

you will find lot of stuff about it, but i am comfused from it... i dont know what they can exactly do to me...

now i am going to explain it what exactly happen...
i started my downloading 1.9.2008 and i recieved letter from virgin two months later...
letter was about downloading one f.c.i.g song.. there was also date and it was exactly same day like i started...
but during this 2 months i downloaded really much much more stuff.... so i am really scarred what will be now...

please check this link, just add a www on the beginnig because i dont have enough posts yet to ability attach a links :'(

guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/03/letters.filesharers

it looks not so scarry, and even my english friend check everything for me and explain me what happend and that there is nothing to worry about. that it  was first warning so i just must make sure that i will not continue... of course that i stopped immediately, but like i wrote above i am scarred what will be now with stuff which i downloaded betwen period since they found me till i recieved letter....
so can anybody have a look at that and tell me more???
or is there anybody who have or had same problem???

p.s. sorry for my english guys.. i hope that you can understand what i am saying
cheers

 

[nvmextc]

It just looks like the company is tried to crack down on P2P users and stop them. Should change ISP.

 

[rocketparrotlet]

I've got a radical idea here.

You could actually pay for the movies that you watch and the music that you listen to. I know it may be crazy-sounding, but sometimes there's actually a reason for the laws that are in place.

-Mark

 

[MERC]

DO WHAT YOU WANT CAUSE A PIRATE IS FREE YOU ARE A PIRATE!!

My advice is keep downloading what you want it whould cost so much money to try to prosicute all the individuals it will never happen they only target big sites.

 

[rocketparrotlet]

DO WHAT YOU WANT CAUSE A PIRATE IS FREE YOU ARE A PIRATE!!

My advice is keep downloading what you want it whould cost so much money to try to prosicute all the individuals it will never happen they only target big sites.

Just because you can get away with it doesn't make it right.

-Mark

 

[milantheone]

It just looks like the company is tried to crack down on P2P users and stop them. Should change ISP.

yes, this is exactly what they want to do... this is their target.. i think it is impossible.. they will never stop it, because p2p is just expanding...
but on the other hand i was totaly scared by this letter i will never ever download anything.. i dont want to be the one who will be punished for this...

i dont know if ISP provides trafic of all their customers to BPI and then BPI check it, or it is only random.... because it seems to me that i am not lucky one..  :'( :'(

my cousin who live here in UK as well is using Rapidshare and he havent recieved anythig...  he think that rapidshare is legall... but just everybody think about ti.. if you can get some copyrighted materiall for free then it is of course illegal..
but like i sad maybe he have not recieved letter because it is random, maybe because virgin doesnt compare downloading from rapidshare like using P2p... i really dont know...
but i would like to know it, because my life without access to music, and movies is going to be very tearfull  :'( :'( :'(

thanx

 

[nikokapo]

nothing ever happens with these guys, it's always the same story. NOBODY goes to jail because of using p2p software, they're just all warnings and threats..

heck, in argentina magazines INVENT articles alleging 'some guy' was fined $2000.00 for downloading stuff....false articles

 

[thebucketmouse]

dude, stop downloading and chill. im at college and they bust almost everyone who downloads here with a $2000 fine, and if you fight it with a lawyer i saw a girl get her fine changed to $500,000 cause she fought it. use websites like pandora.com where they can play music for free, or last.fm

 

[WizardKing]

milantheone,

Firstly, may I inform you that your English is very proficient.
It's fantastic compared to my ummm... Slovakian? (I don't even know if that is a language!) :


I've just read the Guardian page you referred to.

It would appear, I am absolutely certain, to be a mere scare-tactic.
Although the fat-cats (fascict-categories, i.e. multi-nationals such as Glaxo,V Media et.al.) may not like losing their greedy stranglehold of the world economy, it's tough s**t to them!

As Niko pointed out, above, big-brother is known to spread propaganda (lies, untruths etc.)  
This is the same worldwide. You were just unlucky to have received the letter and probably one of an unknown percentage of customers of VM in your country.

 

[milantheone]

wizardking, yeah it is slovak language...  
i dont think my english is well, but thank you for boost..
i would like to speak like you guys.. actualy i love englih language much more than my own i think..


well, with my Isp, i really dont know what will be, but it is now month what i recieved a letter...
whatever is going to be will be.. i cant change what i did...

just one important think i want to remind.. virgin provides all trafic to BPI and they check it.. then bpi mark some users and send their IP addres's to virgin...
just virgin know who exactly i am... so i think there is nothing to worry about while virgin everything what have done was a warning....
i think if there could be some problem, that there is any warning, but some letter from court...

 

[rocketparrotlet]

I've just read the Guardian page you referred to.

It would appear, I am absolutely certain, to be a mere scare-tactic.
Although the fat-cats (fascict-categories, i.e. multi-nationals such as Glaxo,V Media et.al.) may not like losing their greedy stranglehold of the world economy, it's tough s**t to them!

As Niko pointed out, above, big-brother is known to spread propaganda (lies, untruths etc.)  
This is the same worldwide. You were just unlucky to have received the letter and probably one of an unknown percentage of customers of VM in your country.

Whether or not this is a scare tactic is besides the point. It's not the big companies that you hurt by doing this, it's the artists! Tool really suffered from illegal downloading, as well as many other bands.

Your idea of a fascist government is completely off. Fascism is absolute governmental power. Big Brother is the concept that the government has control of everything, and knows where you are and what you are doing at all times (no freedom). Have you even read 1984, or did you just hear the term on the internet? You are way off base about this! When large companies hold power over a product due to monetary influence, this is capitalism. Much different from fascism/dictatorships/tyrannies/etc.

-Mark

 

[happytomato]

You guys should switch to my ISP. It's called Andrews & Arnold. It's a small business, but it's superb.

 

[milantheone]

i think that it is big companies that i hurt by donig this... i dont hurt artist, but their publisher.. they have copyright... and they are really big companies..

 

[pseudolobster]

nothing ever happens with these guys, it's always the same story. NOBODY goes to jail because of using p2p software, they're just all warnings and threats..

heck, in argentina magazines INVENT articles alleging 'some guy' was fined $2000.00 for downloading stuff....false articles

At least 30,000 people have been sued in America by the RIAA. They used to publish a tally of exactly how many thousands of lawsuits they start each month. They've long stopped publishing the actual numbers, but it's at least more than 30,000. These are documented cases. They're fact.
http://www.eff.org/wp/riaa-v-people-years-later

Some people have been forced to pay as much as $222,000 for sharing 24 songs. That's $9250 per song!
http://opinion.latimes.com/bitplayer/2007/10/the-cost-of-fre.html

And yes, absolutely none of the millions upon millions of dollars they've won in court, not a single penny, has gone to the actual artists. In fact, after years of the RIAA suing music fans in the names of the artists, the artists themselves are getting fed up and plan on suing the RIAA.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02272008/business/infringement__99428.htm