ATT jumped on the pirate fightin' bandwagon

[LegalSmash]

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/200903...nternet_piracy

The only change I've seen is bad.

[trakaill]

all I have to say!

[Lux]

I'm not ashamed of downloading stuff from the internet but I do kind of laugh when people complain about those who try and stop it. Really......its not fair on the music/film/gaming/etc industries that their stuff is being given out for free (not that I care). Also, the ways in which people try and defend their actions is just stupid. I'm not going to quote anything inparticular but, what kind of system allows laws (or whatever) to download stuff from the internet which shouldn't be free. I'm guessing copyright is a loose thing but, maybe it shouldn't be?

[BOOWY]

AT&T are behind the times, many ISPs are doing this now. The worst that will happen if you get these warnings is that they'll close your account unless you're some big time file sharer, then you might have legal problems on your hands. I'm on Rogers and I've gotten one for Saw V, which is kind of funny actually because the file they 'busted' me for was a fake.

I haven't heard of an ISP watching the stuff that you download and sending out the warnings themselves, companies like BayTSP are payed by movie and game studios to monitor who downloads what and they send notification e-mails to the ISP with the IP and then they in turn send you the warning.

[Slavic]

AT&T are behind the times, many ISPs are doing this now. The worst that will happen if you get these warnings is that they'll close your account unless you're some big time file sharer, then you might have legal problems on your hands. I'm on Rogers and I've gotten one for Saw V, which is kind of funny actually because the file they 'busted' me for was a fake.

I haven't heard of an ISP watching the stuff that you download and sending out the warnings themselves, companies like BayTSP are payed by movie and game studios to monitor who downloads what and they send notification e-mails to the ISP with the IP and then they in turn send you the warning.

From what I understand. By law the ISPs only have to send you warnings of possible copyright infringement if they are contacted by anti-piracy groups. They don't have to exert any more power on you to be in good legal standings. It is rare that an ISP actualy takes action against its customers downloading copyright material and that is usually the case when customers are basically running a constant server in their house.

I've received a warning letter by Comcast once for such activities and I looked up the laws that they put in the mail. They are basically only required to warn you.

[BOOWY]

From what I understand. By law the ISPs only have to send you warnings of possible copyright infringement if they are contacted by anti-piracy groups. They don't have to exert any more power on you to be in good legal standings. It is rare that an ISP actualy takes action against its customers downloading copyright material and that is usually the case when customers are basically running a constant server in their house.

I've received a warning letter by Comcast once for such activities and I looked up the laws that they put in the mail. They are basically only required to warn you.

It depends from ISP to ISP and you really won't find each ISP's policy anywhere on this matter because no anti-piracy group wants to see an ISP say that they'll refuse to close peoples accounts unless it's absolutely necessary, as opposed to something they want to hear like closing accounts swiftly after three strikes or something like that. The fact is some ISPs are more lax than others but you really can't tell who are the lax ones other than maybe by word of mouth online from users.

It's true that they can only warn you. If I know my business well(and by applying common sense), most ISPs won't close accounts until they get threatened with legal action by the victims of copyright infringement simply because to close an account is to lose profit. The other big "oh crap" that can happen to you is that if the victims of copyright infringement decide to sue you. I don't know if ISPs are obligated to forward your information to them if they decide to take you to court but I don't see why they wouldn't, they could probably sue the ISP for aiding and abetting the act of theft.

[PotshotPolka]

It depends from ISP to ISP and you really won't find each ISP's policy anywhere on this matter because no anti-piracy group wants to see an ISP say that they'll refuse to close peoples accounts unless it's absolutely necessary, as opposed to something they want to hear like closing accounts swiftly after three strikes or something like that. The fact is some ISPs are more lax than others but you really can't tell who are the lax ones other than maybe by word of mouth online from users.

It's true that they can only warn you. If I know my business well(and by applying common sense), most ISPs won't close accounts until they get threatened with legal action by the victims of copyright infringement simply because to close an account is to lose profit. The other big "oh crap" that can happen to you is that if the victims of copyright infringement decide to sue you. I don't know if ISPs are obligated to forward your information to them if they decide to take you to court but I don't see why they wouldn't, they could probably sue the ISP for aiding and abetting the act of theft.

They're still better off targeting tracker sites if they want anything actually resolved, which is what they've been doing.