Germany is sending copyright letters to thousands of people who uploaded on Megaupload

Oh boy.

Apparently, the FBI gave all the IPs to copyright holders to sue people. And the copyright holders are hiring lawyers and ``specialists`` firms to track down the IPs of people and what they uploaded.

Bild.De article

In the letter to the second is kept exactly the illegal upload a song, movie or game. Then pressure is made: "These data were analyzed by an anti-piracy software documented reliable evidence and forwarded to the district court," write the lawyers.

Thus then in a big way with the addresses of "piracy" is determined, because the courts must always yield to these demands. Or decrypt the IP addresses of specialist firms.

Then the mail is sent, which frightens so many: "The rights of our clients are en masse by illegally offering (public disclosure) of files in file sharing networks ("file sharing") violated. "

It will be presented comparing offers to settle the dispute. And many pay because they fear a process with a conviction. Others do not see that they have done something illegal - and want to sit out the anger. A mistake!

BILD.de are such reminders Documents: 1200 € to pay an Internet user who has pulled the song "Brave New World" by Culcha Candela on the net. For "Evacuate the Dancefloor" and "Pyromania" from the top 100 singles chart € 450 is due. When the lawyers call a porn € 650 settlement payment. Then write the warning, the matter was "settled civilly." Would be added but the attorney fees. Can add up over 450 € a comparison to around € 1300.

Won't be long before we see these kind of letters in other countries.

That's not true, althought the "bild" Newspaper did state it wrong themselves. Downloding is not pursued by german courts as of today. What is pursued is the uploading (also, take a closer look at the letter the newspaper published, they don't want them to pay for the download but for the upload, phrased as "making it available").

reply to post by DonOdie


Ah. Thanks for that.

reply to post by Vitchilo


You got me there for a sec.. pheeew

RIAA has done that- It's sad really, especially with people getting viruses that totally take over their computer and put a root kit on it, and maybe a lot of those folks didn't even DO it- or their IP address simply changed, or someone was stealing their bandwidth- UG.

I just can't figure out why the FBI would turn that information over like that though.
What's in it for them? WHo are they working for? Really?

You got to appreciate the sheer numbers of people and home cpus that have downloaded music/movies/games in the past 10 years worldwide. It is literally 99 out of 100 households, at least in America. They would have to build a fence around continents to be able to incarcerate everyone who illegally downloaded anything. They are using scare tactics to intimidate the rest of us.

And it is the uploaders they are more concerned with. Like with illegal drugs, it does no good to go after the buyers, they prefer going after the dealers.

Yes, it is about UPloading.

the thing is, most users are not aware ,when they use file-sharing programs (limewire for instance), they are sharing while downloading. Sharing is considered UPloading ( in german zur Verfügung stellen).

What i wonder: What about Youtube ? It s probaly the biggest site with non-copyrighted material. Too many connections to the Powers to be, to be taken down?

Well if anyone in the FBI thinks they are doing all this for their country, they just need to be sure to double check the stats they are fed by RIAA and the MPAA. Last I heard they were claiming to congress that it was 52 billion a year they were losing and it was costing millions of jobs, when they don't do anywhere near that sort of total or even have room for that many more workers. It was all hyped up bunk. I'd just check it, before I was a tool for what's really destroying this country- unflexible people with an eye only for greed and power.

I just believe in might for right, that's all.

reply to post by hadriana


Totally correct.. They inflate those fake to begin with figures, and then call it a loss which they can probably deduct on their income taxes each year...

Is this why movshare has lost its search engine page?

All I have left is stagevu! Who else has some good movie sites?