BSA + Movies= ???

[tyler811]

I received a letter in the mail from my cable company. In a nutshell it said the "BSA" Business Software Alliance had told them I was sharing a movie. They asked me to delete the file and any other that might have copyright infringement. (Which I did do) It also went on to say that if they heard of me sharing copyright infringement files again that they would shutdown my account. The part that really scared me was the letter said "By law we have to give your address and name and other info to them".

I went their website and it sounds like they are a company formed by software companies and such to battle piracy, that much I got.

My question is who is the BSA and do they turn this over to thier lawyers or the movie indusrties lawyers ? What does the BSA do with my address?

I had this movie about 3 months ago and have not used a P2P since and will not since receiving this letter.

P.S. Yes I know its wrong and stupid for those who will tell me. Believe it or not I actually stopped 3 months because after reading an article on it, I thought what kind example am I settng for son when I tell him lieing and stealing is wrong and that is exactly what I was doing.

 

[StageLeft]

Yeah they would be able to turn that over to lawyers & MPAA and all that. They probably will too, but the chances of you hearing about this again are slight. THOUSANDS of people have been getting letters over the years, and only a small percentage ever hear from a lawyer. Then, at least with the music (RIAA), most are settled for a few thousand. But, like I said, one guy with one movie would have to be terribly unlucky to get hit. The MPAA has filed suits against a few hundred people already, but most of those will be big ticket sharers. I'd just forget about this, as you're probably good to go.

BTW anybody reading this should realize that if you're sharing with P2P you're setting yourself up for a possible letter/suit. All such letters/suits have been to people uploading/sharing. So far none for downloading, that I've heard about. The suits have been to only a small percentage of sharers, but the risk is still there. Remember that with a P2P app like bit torren you're automatically distributing content the second you load a BT file, since you can't DL without ULing as well.

 

[tyler811]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Yeah they would be able to turn that over to lawyers & MPAA and all that. They probably will too, but the chances of you hearing about this again are slight. THOUSANDS of people have been getting letters over the years, and only a small percentage ever hear from a lawyer. Then, at least with the music (RIAA), most are settled for a few thousand. But, like I said, one guy with one movie would have to be terribly unlucky to get hit. The MPAA has filed suits against a few hundred people already, but most of those will be big ticket sharers. I'd just forget about this, as you're probably good to go.

I think the most I had at once were 6 movies and 10-12 tom and jerry carttons.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: tyler811

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Yeah they would be able to turn that over to lawyers & MPAA and all that. They probably will too, but the chances of you hearing about this again are slight. THOUSANDS of people have been getting letters over the years, and only a small percentage ever hear from a lawyer. Then, at least with the music (RIAA), most are settled for a few thousand. But, like I said, one guy with one movie would have to be terribly unlucky to get hit. The MPAA has filed suits against a few hundred people already, but most of those will be big ticket sharers. I'd just forget about this, as you're probably good to go.

I think the most I had at once were 6 movies and 10-12 tom and jerry carttons.

But as far as they know you only had one, right? The bad thing is you can't know, and won't know for a while for sure, because they can delay things by months. But, the MPAA recently with its lawsuits looks like things are going quite slow for them. There will not be a deluge of lawsuits against file sharers, because they are very expensive to file. It's more of a terror tactic than a real, effective attack on sharing.

 

[JavaMomma]

Ya I think I got one of those...

However, I live in Canada... and our ISPs do not give up our personal info.

We are writing to inform you that TELUS has received a complaint that alleges that your TELUS Internet Service account has been involved in copyright infringement. This complaint was traced back to your account based on the IP address used at the time of this activity.

Please note that TELUS has not provided any of your personal account information to the complainant. It is TELUS' policy to disclose such information to a complainant only if ordered to do so by a court of law, which has not happened to date.

 

[Modeps]

The only way they can turn your info over to other people is with a subpoena. If they just give it up, you could probably sue them.

 

[sniperruff]

meh there are so many people who BT regularly i wouldn't really worry about it. afterall we all watch topgear through a certain method every week in the states =)

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Modeps
The only way they can turn your info over to other people is with a subpoena. If they just give it up, you could probably sue them.

Untrue. With an IP address ISPs have been, without a subpoena, giving up personal info. There is some law that is mentioned in the letters from the lawyers that compells the ISPs in this manner.

 

[jammur21]

That would be the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). RIAA/MPAA Subpoenas do not need to be signed by a judge, and the ISP has to turn over your info.

 

[tyler811]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: tyler811

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Yeah they would be able to turn that over to lawyers & MPAA and all that. They probably will too, but the chances of you hearing about this again are slight. THOUSANDS of people have been getting letters over the years, and only a small percentage ever hear from a lawyer. Then, at least with the music (RIAA), most are settled for a few thousand. But, like I said, one guy with one movie would have to be terribly unlucky to get hit. The MPAA has filed suits against a few hundred people already, but most of those will be big ticket sharers. I'd just forget about this, as you're probably good to go.

I think the most I had at once were 6 movies and 10-12 tom and jerry carttons.

But as far as they know you only had one, right? The bad thing is you can't know, and won't know for a while for sure, because they can delay things by months. But, the MPAA recently with its lawsuits looks like things are going quite slow for them. There will not be a deluge of lawsuits against file sharers, because they are very expensive to file. It's more of a terror tactic than a real, effective attack on sharing.

Thye only mentioned the one movie by title and it even had the file format listed, so yes only was was listed. Its not like I had 100 movies.

Also does this give the RIAA the right search someones computer even if the offending file was not a music file?

 

[axelfox]

Eh, didn't the Verizon court hold that ISPs don't have to give up user info?

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: tyler811

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: tyler811

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Yeah they would be able to turn that over to lawyers & MPAA and all that. They probably will too, but the chances of you hearing about this again are slight. THOUSANDS of people have been getting letters over the years, and only a small percentage ever hear from a lawyer. Then, at least with the music (RIAA), most are settled for a few thousand. But, like I said, one guy with one movie would have to be terribly unlucky to get hit. The MPAA has filed suits against a few hundred people already, but most of those will be big ticket sharers. I'd just forget about this, as you're probably good to go.

I think the most I had at once were 6 movies and 10-12 tom and jerry carttons.

But as far as they know you only had one, right? The bad thing is you can't know, and won't know for a while for sure, because they can delay things by months. But, the MPAA recently with its lawsuits looks like things are going quite slow for them. There will not be a deluge of lawsuits against file sharers, because they are very expensive to file. It's more of a terror tactic than a real, effective attack on sharing.

Thye only mentioned the one movie by title and it even had the file format listed, so yes only was was listed. Its not like I had 100 movies.

Also does this give the RIAA the right search someones computer even if the offending file was not a music file?

RIAA is for music an MPAA for movies. In any case nobody has searched your computer beyond what you had publically shared in your P2P app. To search your computer would require a warrant and police coming to get it. That absolutely will not happen for a movie