I have received a copyright infringement alert, what should I answer?

nn4x@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ@lemmy.dbzer0.com – 291 points –
i.imgur.com

(Of course I'm going to stop, but my server has been blocked by Hetzner, would like to recover it XD)

80

What a tricksy thieving hobbit you are! /s

You’ll be fine. Stop seeding the thing they don’t like and increase your security—VPN, seedbox, private trackers, etc. If anybody asks, you had an asshole neighbor kid who guessed your WiFi password.

Edit: just realized that you were using a server with Hetzner—Germany is one of the worst places for torrenting. Get a server in a friendlier country for that.

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If you still want to seed that exact torrent, at least wipe the trackers. They are 100% connected to the trackers in that torrent to pull IP addresses so they can do this shit.

Next time, use an IP filter list to pre-block these people.

Very Reich of them chasing random citizens

Very xenophobic of you to say that. Every country does this

Not really. The EU is not Germany. Hop on a plane, come here within the EU, nobody cares here.

Just do what they asked you to do. Remove the torrents, it's not like they are threatening legal action. They are actually asking pretty nicely.

In the future, use a VPN.

First time I got one, it was for pirating Pirates of Silicon Valley and the irony was fucking incredible

They can't tell if you still have the files or not.

I am not saying remove the files, just the torrent (as in stop seeding).

Given that it's Hetzner, there's not much you can do besides telling them "oops sorry didn't know this was illegal" and proceed using a VPN on your seedbox, go private tracker or just use a different hoster. Hetzner isn't a big fan of torrenting since they have the (german) feds in their neck.

Say nothing. Stop sharing or seeding. But, above all, say nothing. You’re getting phished. Just comply and stop seeding the shit. Keep quiet. If you reply you’ll just have problems that cost money.

Don't reply at all unless you talk to a lawyer. Seriously, no good can come from it. Quietly disable/delete whatever they list, and never mention it again.

Use a VPN

Proton VPN + Secure core mode = slow but damn anonymous torrenting

I hit 80MB/s through my VPN now, which is astounding to me.

If I’m not doing secure core, I pull down probably 92 to 95% of my full Internet speed, which is nothing to scoff at because I have fiber. Proton VPN is incredible. Unfortunately, there’s just no way to make secure core particularly quick. It reroutes through two servers, one of which is in a country that doesn’t have a data extradition treaty or whatever it’s called with the US, such a Switzerland.

Never use a service that requires you to share the files you downloaded to pirate, not without a VPN. As you've might have noticed, their complaint is for distribution, not downloading. That's where they get you.

VPN is your best friend, also don't host a piracy server over a hoster within EU...

Ignore it. Anything you say will be used to build their case. I would just set up another server.

There is no case. this is just TOS violation with a hosting company.

Not yet, but their could be in the future. Best to ignore it and move on. Even if it is extremely unlikely to be prosecuted for this stuff, it has happened, so why risk it.

Proton VPN stopped the stupid copy right infringement letters from my ISP. Make sure you look up servers that don't report or respond to requests from companies that request such information from ISP's.

I use Luxembourg. No issues for years.

Stop seeding the torrents they mention. Use a VPN, verify it is bound to your torrent client.

You quietly comply. Then take tougher security measures to protect yourself before continuing. Do not respond under any circumstances. If you're served with actual legal papers, retain an attorney.

Dont.

Yeah just giggle at the fact that they can't really do anything and press on with the piracy.

They could shutdown your VPS and have done so in the past according to others.

This is a hosting company, they don't want the attention and instead want to stay as reputable as possible.

They (or someone, we really don't know) even got Plex to ban using them for Plex servers.

The first thing I would do is anything that doesn't involve asking for legal advice on reddit/Lemmy.

If you a concerned about this: Ask a lawyer for advice.

Yes because everyone has lawyers hanging around to ask things like this

Does a lawyer need to ask for a payment just for advice ?

Also what's the alternative you suggest?

Trusting random people online for legal advice ?

2 more...
2 more...

Ah yes, The company named "Company".

That's just how legalese is written. It's like variables in programming they tell you what the thing is and then they tell you what they're going to call it for the rest of the document.

I guess it originally saved them hand writing "B&H Film, Video and Television Media Production LLC" every time. Of course these days you could just do a fine and a replace, so I'm not sure why they don't, but it's just become standard lawyer at this point.

It's just saying that the blurred company name will be called "Company" in the document, not that it's the name.

It was an email or a registered letter?

If it was an email, you never received it. Probably it got rejected by the spam filter as it looked like phishing.

But imho it wasn't a good idea to use a commercial server provider with KYC policies for seeding torrents. It was better to use one of those seedboxes for this

I'd move hosts. Frantech will ignore dmca requests if you get a Luxembourg slot. Or move to feralhosting. They're based in the Netherlands.

If you just want a Seedbox, head over to giga-rapid.

If you wanted a compute box which happens to pirate, you're going to have to alternate between providers periodically, change accounts, cards etc. I would personally like to have an automated setup to spin up machines across VPSes and accounts (some Ansible, Shell and cron should do it) but haven't got there yet

I've had a few of these. They can really get the heart racing but I was always too chicken shit to even do anything. Nothing ever came of it.

Bro, try to enjoy your next family affair. They're going to turn you into a psa on why pirating is unhealthy.

You should probably stop using windows too bc Microsoft will freely work with lawyers in fleshing out your case of piracy. So be sure to turn off windows updates and disable all telemetry updates as well.

If I were you, I'd spin up whatever os you wish to use in a virtual environment that is disposable and use it from now on with a vpn.

Also, if you have any smart features in your home, be sure to toss them out in the garbage bc they are listening... and probably watching. So put some tape over your webcam on your computer.

Remember to reset your router too bro... they might be in that shit... Intel inside, yanno the saying right?

No more TV for atleast a month and especially if you only use streaming services like spotify, Disney +, Netflix and so on.

Best wishes to you my friend... ya might consider going off grid too just to be safe.

Good Luck! ❤️

I think Hetzner wants you to tell them you've removed it. They did as requested and took down the VPS and disabled it. It's now in your hands.

I myself wouldn't ignore such a letter. It's now just asking you politely. If you continue they need to make the choice if it's worth pursuing you. I don't have any good insight if and under what circumstances they do. I would comply, remove said content and probably not reply to them. It's unlikely to make it better for you if you talk to people targeting you. And I wouldn't keep the logs around as they requested. Accidents happen, files get deleted, nobody is perfect.

But you obviously need to talk to Hetzner.

Hetzner Online seems to be their company name. The one the letter is sent to.

hetzner is a large hosting company in germany.

Yeah. Hetzner is the hosting company. They are the owner of the IP range and thus get the letters. They forward it to their customers, in this case OP. And the letter seems to be from one of those shady companies that scan the torrent swarms for Intellectual Property of their customers and then write letters to the abuse contacts of the IP addresses of the offenders. I don't know where OP lives, but Hetzner is big in Germany, so it's probably german law we're talking about. And we're not very liberal with copyright infringement, should that escalate to that point.

This sounds like a question for an IP lawyer, not an internet forum.

That'd be like deploying a satellite to find your own ass...