I just got a second letter today from a lawyer stating that copyrighted material was shared using my connection (a guest had downloaded something with P2P). Attached was a bill for 1200 Euros for one of Amy Winehouse's albums. The first was from some blockbuster film months ago, and the lawyers for that one cost me 600.
I refuse to pay this time, but I want to know if anyone has an idea of how to effectively prevent torrenting from happening, using something like dd-wrt running on a router.
Ideas anyone?
Filesharing
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BerlinCribs
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Filesharing
do or do not, there is no try.-Yoda
Try open DNS, you should be able to block all downloading. Equally it should be possible to work out which guests have done this and bill them accordingly, depending on your T&Cs.
You choose what sites or types of sites they can and cannot access. Its not a perfect system but its pretty good.
How on earth did an Amy Winehouse album cost so much? Was it a live performance? Or was it a fine for uploading?[/quote]
You choose what sites or types of sites they can and cannot access. Its not a perfect system but its pretty good.
How on earth did an Amy Winehouse album cost so much? Was it a live performance? Or was it a fine for uploading?[/quote]
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BerlinCribs
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They were torrenting. Limewire, utorrent, or similar. These programs upload to other users as you download. The music industry downloads their own albums, and writes down IPs. They forward this to the ISP, who returns information on who had that IP at that time.
My holiday apartment, My internet connection, my bill. Would I get this money back from my long gone guest? I doubt it. I can try to bill this guy from Mexico, but will he send me 1200 Euros?
Can I afford not to offer internet? Definitely not. All I can do so far is tell em not to, make em sign a contract. But this does not prevent me from being in the wringer every time this happens. I really welcome any ideas, has this not happened to anyone else?
My holiday apartment, My internet connection, my bill. Would I get this money back from my long gone guest? I doubt it. I can try to bill this guy from Mexico, but will he send me 1200 Euros?
Can I afford not to offer internet? Definitely not. All I can do so far is tell em not to, make em sign a contract. But this does not prevent me from being in the wringer every time this happens. I really welcome any ideas, has this not happened to anyone else?
do or do not, there is no try.-Yoda
First thing to do would be to check out what the clear legal position is in your location - can a lawyer simply bill you 1200 Euros for this alleged infraction?
We had a similar thing happening here in the UK recently. Some enterprising law firm decided to exploit what they saw as an opportunity to frighten people into handing over large amounts of money. They made millions in a short period of time.
Turned out they were not acting within the law and the principle ended up being censored by the legal body and the courts, then made bankrupt (held on to his multimillion pound house and cars but that's another story). Of note too was that in UK law there was no precedent which made the owner of the connection liable for other's use, plus, it had not been tested whether the ISP data is valid (piratebay for instance attaches fake ip addresses to torrent download details)
So, what's the law and does this lawyer have the right to claim payment/are they actually representing the rightful intellectual property owners? Do they have sufficient evidence? Are you actually liable in any event? Google the law firm and see what others are doing in your position.
We had a similar thing happening here in the UK recently. Some enterprising law firm decided to exploit what they saw as an opportunity to frighten people into handing over large amounts of money. They made millions in a short period of time.
Turned out they were not acting within the law and the principle ended up being censored by the legal body and the courts, then made bankrupt (held on to his multimillion pound house and cars but that's another story). Of note too was that in UK law there was no precedent which made the owner of the connection liable for other's use, plus, it had not been tested whether the ISP data is valid (piratebay for instance attaches fake ip addresses to torrent download details)
So, what's the law and does this lawyer have the right to claim payment/are they actually representing the rightful intellectual property owners? Do they have sufficient evidence? Are you actually liable in any event? Google the law firm and see what others are doing in your position.
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kendalcottages
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Just a thought but if you had some kind of bandwidth limit on the account, would that get rid of a lot of the problems?
Most people I find just want to pick a few emails... maybe check something on the Web... a modest amount of bandwidth should be ample for most people's needs.
Most people I find just want to pick a few emails... maybe check something on the Web... a modest amount of bandwidth should be ample for most people's needs.
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
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BerlinCribs
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it's not dodgy, it's Germany.
They are just tough here on things like this. They actually have to get police involved in order to find out who was running that IP at that time. It is big búsiness tho. The problem is, if you do nothing, they can drag you into court on a cease and decist order, which is twice as nasty.
not sure what OpenDNS is, but a friend recommended WIFIdog. Here people create logins, or get no access. Sounds reasoable, maybe then they would think twice about what they do on the net.
And no, I did not have leagal insurance, but it is not worth much here anyway..
They are just tough here on things like this. They actually have to get police involved in order to find out who was running that IP at that time. It is big búsiness tho. The problem is, if you do nothing, they can drag you into court on a cease and decist order, which is twice as nasty.
not sure what OpenDNS is, but a friend recommended WIFIdog. Here people create logins, or get no access. Sounds reasoable, maybe then they would think twice about what they do on the net.
And no, I did not have leagal insurance, but it is not worth much here anyway..
do or do not, there is no try.-Yoda
No doubt.BerlinCribs wrote:it's not dodgy, it's Germany.
They are just tough here on things like this.
I'm neither a German speaker nor live in Germany but a quick Google search was sufficient to show that there are indeed legal firms trying the exact same threat and demanding a payment to avoid prosecution - one name that pops up regularly is Waldorf Frommer.
You must of course handle this demand as you see fit but personally I'd do a bit of research to see how others have handled this and the outcome, before handing over such a huge amount of money for something I hadn't done.
Good luck.
I'm sorry to (slightly) disagree with the OpenDNS suggestion. Whilst that can be used to block access to torrent search sites, most current software doesn't need DNS to find files. So, you'd be adding a layer of inconvenience for any filesharers rather than total prevention. Can't hurt though.BerlinCribs wrote: not sure what OpenDNS is, but a friend recommended WIFIdog.
The best solution would be to run a software firewall using an old PC (running Linux) and route everything through that. You could stop anyything you wanted that way. WifiDog is a firewall like product which will also need a linux machine to run on sitting between your router and the other PCs. Doubt you'd want to take either of those routes though would you?
Kendalcottages' suggestion of restricting bandwidth is probably the easiest thing you could do and would be quite effective.
