Illegal?

[killzonea59]

So i got this notice in the mail, and charter had found out i had downloaded a video from a website on utorrent or whatever and was warning me of copyrights and everything like that, and if it happens again, they'll cancel my account.

What i don't understand is, how is this copyright?
I understand this they can be cautious that i'm making dvd's out of them and sending out and making money.

But I'm not
i get bored on weekends when I'm home by myself
i don't even download cracked movies, i download bootleg videos, watch them, and then delete them so they don't' take up space on my computer.
Why is this so illegal if all i'm doing is filling in time so i can get the day passed?

[demoniac93]

Try and guess how many people have the same excuse as you.

[FliesLikeABrick]

When you download something on a torrent you're uploading to other people at the same time, so this is copyright infringement.  It is illegal under current US copyright law, so yes, you are 100% in the wrong.  If I was you I'd be careful/stop otherwise you risk losing your account and facing legal action.

You don't need to be making DVDs out of what you download for it to be illegal.

As far as copyright is concerned, there's no difference between the potential sources of what you download.  If the movie was from a bootleg, DVD, blu-ray, or a chickens' ass - the movie studio still owns the copyright and it's illegal regardless.

[jrgp]

Make sure you have encryption set to "forced" or "required" in your torrent client.

I know people, er, *cough*, who have been torrenting 24/7 since 2006 and have never heard a peep from their ISP, possibly thanks to forced encryption.

That and maybe join and use private torrent networks instead of public ones so that ISP's can't really see what's going on. If you're interested in an invite to pretome and/or demonoid, PM me.

[-Major-]

:o, didn't know ISPs cared about this stuff Oo.
well, personally I would just change ISP. but I guess either jrgps suggestion or run trough a VPN (goes for around 5 dollars a month).

[jrgp]

or run trough a VPN (goes for around 5 dollars a month).

That murders your download speed. Using a seedbox would be a better idea.

[Veritas]

But I'm not
i get bored on weekends when I'm home by myself
i don't even download cracked movies, i download bootleg videos, watch them, and then delete them so they don't' take up space on my computer.
Why is this so illegal if all i'm doing is filling in time so i can get the day passed?

The famous ``it's not illegal if I'm bored" defense, as seen in Marbury v The Board of Education

[killzonea59]

Well I know.
Excuses are like assholes, everyone's got one. (pardon my french)

But i didn't know it was all THAT bad, i'm usually a good kid, i just get bored a lot i guess and found some torrents and learned about them.

But i don't understand why downloading torrents like that are so illegal.
i can see it as maybe, frowned upon, because you're already taking a risk of getting a virus that would basically screw up your computer.
So you don't pay for the bootlegged videos, but you have a high chance of getting a trojan or whatever virus on your computer.

[-Major-]

well... dedicated servers/seedboxes are quite expensive...
or maybe I got something wrong?

[demoniac93]

Right, so they can just go ahead and trust anyone because they are good kids...
What the hell kind of proof do you have of that to convince them?

[killzonea59]

Haha, what proof?
The fact they've only caught that ONE video because of the reason i had downloaded it and forgotten to delete it after i watched it.
Every other movie, they have not seen because it was deleted permanently because i was done with watching it.

[L[0ne]R]

The reason is simple: people that worked on making a movie (or pretty much anything else) put money in to it. And they expect to get profit from it by selling copies of their movie to people, rental stores, TV companies, etc.

By torrenting movies you're basically stealing them since the producers don't get a single cent for the movie you torrented. That's why it's illegal. And the fact that you could get a virus off there is really not the reason why you should be allowed to just torrent movies for free.

[-Major-]

copy right is extremely out dated, it works if you live in the 0-1990, internet has changed the whole world.
expecting an old rule to be unaffected is just retarded.

Otherwise... how would they know if you have the movie or not? do they illegally view your computers content?
They "caught" you by checking your traffic, which I think they need to suspect you for a crime (rather serious one, the way you may not enter a house before a judge has given you permission) to be allowed to do.

[killzonea59]

copy right is extremely out dated, it works if you live in the 0-1990, internet has changed the whole world.
expecting an old rule to be unaffected is just retarded.

Otherwise... how would they know if you have the movie or not? do they illegally view your computers content?
They "caught" you by checking your traffic, which I think they need to suspect you for a crime (rather serious one, the way you may not enter a house before a judge has given you permission) to be allowed to do.

you have a point, but they're not gonna go tell authorities on me, they just said that they were giving me a warning not to do something like that again, because its a crime and they don't want to be a part of it, so they'd cancel the account. But i guess you have a point on that, its invading personal privacy without a warrent or anything else for that matter.

[Veritas]

its invading personal privacy without a warrent or anything else for that matter.

No it's not. When you upload a movie, it shows your IP to everyone. You have zero expectations of privacy in the matter.

[freestyler]

Use encryption and download PeerBlock. PeerBlock might not do much to disallow viewing traffic by your ISP though.

[killzonea59]

its invading personal privacy without a warrent or anything else for that matter.

No it's not. When you upload a movie, it shows your IP to everyone. You have zero expectations of privacy in the matter.

Use encryption and download PeerBlock. PeerBlock might not do much to disallow viewing traffic by your ISP though.

I had a friend tell me something about blocking IP address, but i don't know, i feel "cautious" towards something like that, don't know if i can trust that kind of software.

[Smegma]

Haha, what proof?
The fact they've only caught that ONE video because of the reason i had downloaded it and forgotten to delete it after i watched it.
Every other movie, they have not seen because it was deleted permanently because i was done with watching it.

This is NOT how it works. Deleting it right after watching it doesn't make it harder to "see". Unless of course you seed as long as its on your hdd.

[DarkCrusade]

Unless the films you downloaded had weird names that didn't include the more or less exact title there are ways to get you even after you deleted the files.

[-Major-]

you'd have to overwrite the sectors to make it gone permanently.