Stop downloading shit!
That's basically what Charter Communications told me in a letter I received today. Why? Because HBO has been watching. Then they went and tattled on me to Charter.
The download at issue is the second episode of the latest season of The Sopranos. All 359 megabytes of it. The people representing HBO recommended that Charter terminate my service. Charter basically said not to do it again or else they "will have no choice but to terminate" my account. Click the thumbnails to the left to view each page of the notice Charter mailed me.
I'm basically posting this as a warning to those who do download "any information which infringes the patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets or proprietary rights of any other person or entity. This includes, but is not limited to, digitization of music, movies, photographs or any other copyrighted materials or software."
Be careful. They are watching. Learn the ways of Usenet before it's too late.
Edited: 4/8/2006
For anyone interested, I have addressed several issues brought up in the Digg comments and comments on this blog in a new post.
Wow! I have never heard of this. Thanks for posting this and maybe some people should think twice about “HBO” torrents.
Tyson
April 6, 2006 at 8:54 pm
Usenet is being watched too… be careful out there
J
April 6, 2006 at 9:40 pm
as long as they don’t ban me from seeing this chick
http://www.fotodaze.com/view.php?view=3675
bobie
April 6, 2006 at 9:42 pm
Lol@ Learn the ways of Usenet before it’s too late. So, don’t download shit … unless its from usenet. Thats just great.
I realize Usenet has managed to fly under the radar for years. However, someday that too will go away.
How about paying $10 a month or less? How about not stealing? Is that so crazy?
TinnyTim
April 6, 2006 at 9:42 pm
use peer gaurdian you dumbass
bob
April 6, 2006 at 9:42 pm
I have gotten one just like this. I got one for downloading a movie called 16 Blocks and they had the EXACT file pieces and how much I downloaded. Since I did not download it for more than 5 minutes (eeing as how I didn’t want it) I was very suprised. Ah well…
john
April 6, 2006 at 9:46 pm
I’ve recieved something simular ~ but it was from Warner Bros rather than HBO
Andy
April 6, 2006 at 9:48 pm
you left your address on there.
just letting you know..
April 6, 2006 at 9:52 pm
Good for HBO! I hope this makes you think twice before downloading more “shit.”
Jaz
April 6, 2006 at 9:52 pm
Indeed. PeerGuardian will save you from this.
Noxel
April 6, 2006 at 9:53 pm
This is nothing new. I work for an internet abuse department for a local cable company. We get emails all the time from HBO, 20th Fox, Microsoft, etc… These copyright holders do not see you downloading these files, it’s when they are being shared. When we receive a DMCA complaint, we will track it to which customer. However, we will not shut off the customer nor will we ever terminate their service with us. We will call our customer explaining that we received a complaint against them and that’s it. The material is not on our equipment and we cannot be held responsible per the DMCA. After we notify the customer, we will email back the copyright holder explaining that we notified the customer. No customer information is given to the copyright holder unless we are served a sopeona from a court of law. I do other stuff besides internet abuse, but it has been 4 years and I have yet to see one of our customers get a sopeona.
Jason Hansen
April 6, 2006 at 9:59 pm
To add to my statement above… Look at the scanned letter… it states that your IP at the referenced time & date are “offering” downloads… So, like I said, it’s when your sharing the files is when they will catch you.
Jason Hansen
April 6, 2006 at 10:02 pm
As was said, PeerGuardian, you freaking retard; it’s not that difficult to *attempt* to protect yourself. And for chrissake, don’t complain about doing something ILLEGAL. If you’re gonna do it, do it smart.
I hate newbs whining about piracy, forgetting the fact you’re not technically supposed to do it.
Also, what’s with posting your own blog to digg? “Hey, I shamlessly advertise my own ridiculous existance on the intarweb! Please blogroll me and dl my podcast!”
andy
April 6, 2006 at 10:09 pm
Ditto what Jason wrote. I’ve been on that side as well. Same story, a phone call to let them know, then nothing. Like it should be.
*rushes off to DL shit in honor of the corporate sheep known as Jaz*
eff dot org
April 6, 2006 at 10:09 pm
Turn on encryption on your Bittorrent client… Make sure the tracker supports it, but most do.
Piotr
April 6, 2006 at 10:09 pm
The real question is: were you using Peerguardian at the time? I want to know if it actually helps.
Kenny
April 6, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Unfortunately, PeerGuardian isn’t 100%. I was using it.
Tallin
April 6, 2006 at 10:16 pm
My ISP, Optimum Online, has sent me letters in the past about IRC and BitTorrent downloads. I haven’t seen one in years, though.
stacman
April 6, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Yeah I work for Charter if HBO said that to Charter that mean HBO broke the privacy law. Thats the only reason the goverment cant stop torrent download yet.
Todd
April 6, 2006 at 10:37 pm
I got snagged by COX communications for downloading Battlestar Galactica. Cox Owns Sci-Fi channel, Sci-fi channel produces BSG, I pay COX for Digital Cable, a DVR and their internet service. Cox offers newsgroups as part of thier service. I watched the episodes in question, recorded them on my DVR then downloaded them from their newsgroups using their Highspeed internet. I have still yet to get any reasonable answer as to why my service was almost suspended.
Jim Digriz
April 6, 2006 at 10:41 pm
[...] HBO sent my ISP, Charter Communications, a letter stating that they believe I’ve been downloading “copyrighted television programs through a ‘peer-to-peer’ service, including such titles as The Sopranos.” Scanned copy of the two-page letter included. read more | digg story [...]
LifeParticles.com » Blog Archive » HBO is tattling to your ISP if you download torrents of The Sopranos
April 6, 2006 at 10:55 pm
[...] I was over at Digg reading an article titled: “HBO is tattling to your ISP if you download torrents of The Sopranos“. I don’t understand how the “author” can consider this tattling. He was sharing copyrighted material, it’s illegal in case you didn’t know. He also states that he was caught “downloading”, which isn’t true either. Copyright holders catch people that are sharing the files. The letter from the copyright holders will state something like: The mentioned IP referenced at the date and time were “offering” downloads… His ISP, Charter Communications, sent him a harsh letter about their terms of service. Each ISP will handle DMCA complaints a little different, but I know we will call the customer to let them know about the complaint. Once we have notified the customer, we will email the copyright holder back explaining that we have notified the customer. No customer information is given out unless we are subpoenaed by a court of law. I do understand why the DMCA exist and that companies want to protect their material. However, I don’t agree how harsh companies can be… Participate! Leave your comment. [...]
The Glitch » Understanding DMCA
April 6, 2006 at 10:56 pm
What does it take for them to supoena you? I feel like they kind of just randomly decide who they are going to play hardball with to prove a point. I guess if the same ip address was a repeat offender they might do something. But who is to say that ip belongs to the same person.
floyd
April 6, 2006 at 11:01 pm
LOL… This is only a problem if you live in the US…
Vlade
April 6, 2006 at 11:17 pm
I got busted by Cox for the exact same thing… and yes, I was using peer guardian.
William
April 6, 2006 at 11:21 pm
This won’t stop me from downloading via Azureus
Forey Carwell
April 6, 2006 at 11:25 pm
LOL Vlade, your a fag… LOL
TerroristBush
April 6, 2006 at 11:51 pm
I got busted too, I go to Penn State and I was downloading the first episode of the season on their network and they emailed me saying I had broken copyright laws.
Jimmy
April 6, 2006 at 11:55 pm
u guys should move to Canada, we got all the right to d/l craps… not upload thoough which is wierd
amed
April 7, 2006 at 12:06 am
Start using encryption.
And yeah, the US does have a lot of stupid laws. I don’t understand why people who value freedom choose to live there.
SLiTHS
April 7, 2006 at 12:13 am
PS. It’s “subpoena”
The Grammar Nazi
April 7, 2006 at 12:48 am
I call BS, the letter smells very very fishy.
Look at the second page, it has the full URL that clients send to their tracker (the exact one, letter for letter; this is a url that goes only to the tracker, and never to peers) – how in the world would HBO have this unless they are the ones running the tracker (tracker.grems.org)!!!!
(Or perhaps they have a traffic sniffer installed at Charter? Quite illegal if they do.)
It gets worse, this client is declaring that it download nothing, and has none of the file, and yet somehow managed to upload 73MB!
How did you manage to do that?
Torrent guy
April 7, 2006 at 12:53 am
I CALL B.S.
Look @ this guy’s letter. First off they address him as “Subscriber”
Secondly and more importantly the business name is stated “Charter Communications” and not “Charter Communications, Inc.” while minor this is a MAJOR deal when talking legal speak.
Also no personalized closing of the letter. Very, very unprofessional if you want to be taken seriously.
STOP TRYING TO MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF BY MAKING THINGS UP.
No Such Agency
April 7, 2006 at 12:54 am
I used PeerGuardian, too, and I got caught. Don’t rely on PeerGuardian to protect you completely.
defunkt
April 7, 2006 at 1:12 am
Why did this get digged? this stuff has been happening for ages…. Your case is nothing new.
HBO LOVER
April 7, 2006 at 1:29 am
How about paying $10 a month or less? How about not stealing? Is that so crazy?
It’s not stealing. There’s nothing to “take.” It’s information. When I get it, you don’t loose it.
Furethermore, if I wasn’t going to pay for it anyway, then there’s not even any profit loss. In fact, there’s a loss in profit in preventing me from downloading because then I don’t tell my friends that show XYZ is awesome and get them excited about watching it.
Idiots.
Outlandish
April 7, 2006 at 1:33 am
ok, i dont get it, i set my computer to capture BSG and lets say it fails to do so. I go to a torrent site and download it. now if i had recorded it it would have been leagal, but since i downloaded it, now its illeagal??? this makes no since, eather way i get the program free of charge am i realy expected to wait 9 months to rent it on DVD meenwhile missing out on perhaps a keypoint in the series??? i think this whole copywrite thing is getting WAY outa hand.
Marc Tabor
April 7, 2006 at 1:34 am
Si bajas algo nuestro te vamos a ir a buscar…
A este flaco en USA HBO le mandó una carta intimatoria a su proveedor de internet porque "detectaron" que se bajó por [URL=http://www.bit …
PsicoIT Support
April 7, 2006 at 1:40 am
Another thing, if you look at the “offending” content, all they got is the .torrent file. Not an upload. Not even copyrighted content. Just a .torrent. You can’t do anything with that! Is it illegal to get .torrent files? Shouldn’t be…
Most of the people here don’t seem to actually understand how BitTorrent works, or how backwards the way that most content providers look at it is.
Outlandish
April 7, 2006 at 1:45 am
I downloaded the first episode of Big Love and was sent a warning from my internet provider because HBO had contacted them concerning it.
Mike
April 7, 2006 at 2:14 am
You have a choice in your ISP provider and Charter knows it. If they want to boot you, then fine. Just take your business elsewhere.
Most ISPs aren’t going to go out of their way to protect HBO’s bottom line and companies like Comcast have way more money and power than HBO so it’s not like they’re some little company that’s worried they’ll get sued into bankruptcy.
Matt G.
April 7, 2006 at 2:16 am
His parents probably yelled at him because they do not want to change cable providers …
:D
GadgetsGuy
April 7, 2006 at 2:54 am
peer guardian may work for other things, but if you really want to be secure, then use an encrypted VPN Tunnel( ding-ding clue for google search) Here is one by the name of http://www.findnot.com/ it is I think $39.99 for three months or something like that.
Cye
April 7, 2006 at 3:48 am
also helps to stop using free trackers.
John
April 7, 2006 at 4:14 am
Continue downloading and stop scaring people you PUSSY!
Balle Klorin
April 7, 2006 at 4:28 am
I might be mistaken, but I thought that the power of the bittorrent protocol was that as you download pieces, you are simultaneously making those pieces available for uploading. In fact, the more you upload, the faster you can download.
If, as you say, in Canada downloading is not yet illegal, how can you use bittorrent safely?
I downloaded BSG just to see what the fuss was about. I saw the miniseries on TV and was un-impressed. Perhaps I was distracted by a crying baby…that is the weakness of broadcast television; you cannot pause it without a pvr.
Anyway, I fell in love with the show and purchased the miniseries plus season one. I will purchase every season, because I believe in the show and wish to support it.
UJohn8
April 7, 2006 at 4:46 am
I’m still confused as to how HBO found out…I can understand your service provider ratting you out to HBO but not the other way around.
Just out of curriosity, do you pay for HBO or another station that shows The Sopranos (like Movie Network)? Because if you do, I see no problem in downloading the show. And if HBO is going to whine about it, I say cancel ‘em.
Still sucks that you got a letter like that.
As for the users whining about BS or Digg stories that go to a blog post…SHUT UP ALREADY! IF YOU DONT LIKE IT LEAVE!
ehmjay
April 7, 2006 at 4:58 am
When I use bittorrent to download a public domain episode of Little Rascals, I can see all the IP addresses that I am connected to.
All HBO needs to do is to partake in the festivity, download the file, and see who their peers are. Then they send letters to the owners of the IP addresses.
Its pretty simple.
UJohn8
April 7, 2006 at 5:07 am
Well theres one tracker that will never be used lol!
no of your business
April 7, 2006 at 5:13 am
except for the Peer Guardian guy, this group is the biggest bunch of vaginas I’ve ever read ..
El Munko
April 7, 2006 at 5:35 am
There are better means of hiding your location, but I will not share them with you. It is my personal belief that the MPAA / RIAA / HBO / Other evils, create posts like this to get further education from people who download. This way they will know all of the possible technologies available. However, I will give you a clue “onion routing”. :-)
Bob Barker
April 7, 2006 at 5:38 am
tool.
pok0r
April 7, 2006 at 6:01 am
Where is the law that says I can’t download a televsion show?
The point is that it is not illegal to download, but it can be a violation of copyright laws to distribute copyrighted work without permission of the copyright holder. When you use bittorrent, you are simultaneously downloading and sharing.
BTW, to the guy who said SciFi channel is owned by Cox Communications: News flash, it’s owned by NBC Universal, which 80% held by GE. Cox has nothing to do with GE. I don’t know where you got the idea that SciFi was owned by Cox. I believe Cox owns a handful of local TV stations, but that’s about it.
bob
April 7, 2006 at 6:01 am
Damm I am happy to Live in Canada in that time… Mouhahaha…
I have a DSL provider here wich is completly independant… And the law here state nothing about ” sharing ” files.
yield
April 7, 2006 at 6:01 am
Onion Routing is a technique for pseudonymous (or anonymous) communication over a computer network, developed by David Goldschlag, Michael Reed, and Paul Syverson. It is based on David Chaum’s Mix networks, though it includes a number of advances and modifications. Among these modifications is the concept of “routing onions”, which encode routing information in a set of encrypted layers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_routing
SHAM
April 7, 2006 at 6:03 am
how many people in this thread are getting paid to post on here? Show of hands? Ujohn8, Jaz? I wonder how many people HBO employs to tool around on the net and post on sites like these, share empty/bad torrent files etc..
And yeah, I’d say it’s pretty unlikely providers will start killing accounts over this, as it’d be commercial suicide considering how that is a major application for a lot of broadband customers.
Instead of wasting their money fighting the pirates these networks should be figuring out a way to deliver torrents more effectively than them and earning a micropayment by doing it. I know I wouldn’t mind paying a buck or so for a sopranos episode if I could get a fast reliable download as soon as it came out from HBO. I don’t actually prefer stealing, it’s just more convenient to be able to download and watch on demand on my computer especially since I don’t have a TV, cable or Tivo and live in a foreign country. The market is already moving, somebody needs to get in front of it with a product that recognizes the realities of the situation.
s.the boss
April 7, 2006 at 6:05 am
Why are people saying that this is fake? The reason they know the filesize,filename, and called the guy a subscriber is because his INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER sent him the message, NOT HBO dumbasses. HBO simply requested that the ISP find whoever is uploading it. If you read some of the comments, you would have answered your own stupidity.
Matt
April 7, 2006 at 6:06 am
So why not just get HBO like every one else or buy the box set?
Roomba
April 7, 2006 at 6:07 am
move to Canada lol :) Land of the free, atleast when it comes to torrents lol
mike
April 7, 2006 at 6:08 am
I used to work for Charter Communications in the department that had to field these letters. We would receive (mostly via email) poorly formatted letters (looking exactly like the second page of your posting) that we had to investigate. Upon verifying the account signed on to the IP, both an email and a snail mail letter would be sent to the customer. The snail mail letter was a form letter template (made in word) that would be opened up, the address added to the top, printed, then saved in the customer’s file. An addressed envelope would be printed, then we would send it out. Nothing more would be done from there. This was several years ago, though, and it may have changed. It was not uncommon to get several of these a day to send out.
The only main difference I see, is at that time the email from HBO or whomever, had the exact time, day, ip, p2p network and filename that was being downloaded.
Joey Jack
April 7, 2006 at 6:30 am
The first rule of usenet is you don’t talk about usenet.
The second rule of usenet is YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT USENET!!!!
RedBeard
April 7, 2006 at 6:47 am
I’ve gotten popped three times by CableOne. Each offense carries a penalty, the first is 4 days no net, second is a week, and third is a lifetime ban from their net. I downloaded a copy of My Name Is Earl for my sister and lo and behold, third time. I had to get signed up in my girlfriend’s name. But, clean slate for offenses I guess. The thing that gets me, is I watch every episode of my name is Earl, and I watch the commercials a lot of time because I don’t wait for it to record on the DVR. But since I watched the commercials, did I not pay for the show? Same if I pay for HBO and DL Rome or something. Paid content. But, what sucks is they don’t allow you to really dispute, unless you want to do without the net for months on end while they go through paperwork.
GDog
April 7, 2006 at 7:04 am
Simple… Use an opensource torrent client, remove the upload portion of the code. It’s either that or don’t use torrents. There are plenty of private http/ftp servers available. You just have to actually look.
lin
April 7, 2006 at 7:22 am
I got a letter like this at my job b/c one of my co-workers was getting Six Feet Under. I wrote back a long letter saying that I had done a thorough investigation and that it was not someone at my company, but rather some neighbor who had hopped on my unsecured WiFi. I said I was implementing tougher security measures and it would never happen again. Worst case scenario is that I switch DSL providers.. which is no skin off my ass… What do I care who I pay for DSL at work? F— ‘em all… Speaking of which, does anyone have a DVD rip of V for Vendetta. Man, that was a great movie!
Herbie the Elf
April 7, 2006 at 7:35 am
Is peer gaurdian same as safepeer? If not which one is the better?
ashwinkp
April 7, 2006 at 7:38 am
You noob…
Learn how to mask your online activity, especialy DL torrents, files, etc…
Fairly simple process…
Screw HBO, RIAA, and the like…The harder they squeze, the more people will slip through their fingers…
Woot
April 7, 2006 at 7:50 am
I used peer guardian, and HBO still contacted my ISP. I did not even download the entire thing.
biff
April 7, 2006 at 7:51 am
yep! this could be propaganda!…
come back and send us a picture when they take you to court… !!
…such nonesense…
Solitaire
April 7, 2006 at 8:19 am
I’m sick of the lamers in this post asking “How did HBO get the information?” or my personal fav “They must be running the tracker themselves!” You fucking n00bs! Why don’t you just STFU! It not hard to look at the list of IPs connected to you when you’re grabbing a torrent.
STFU
April 7, 2006 at 8:22 am
I like downloading missed episodes, this sucks.
A
April 7, 2006 at 8:32 am
So, let me get this straight. If I record Battlestar Galactica on my Cox Communications DVR, and after watching it, it, the DVR says, “Do you want to save this to your VCR?” then isn’t this a direct violation of the DMCA? What’s the difference between d/l via BT and recording to a VHS tape? Some rocket scientist out there please explain this one to me ’cause I don’t get it. This seems to be a GLARING loophole and shows that they’re a bunch of hypocritical, greedy pigopolists who want to control every aspect of content and won’t be ever be satisfied. Come on!
icarius
April 7, 2006 at 8:33 am
thanks god i have never been caught or it would have finished me
karthiksn
April 7, 2006 at 8:42 am
Can someone explain something to me regarding uploading/sharing? As you only upload a “piece”, or even several “pieces” of a file to perhaps hundreds or even thousands of people – how is it illegal?
Let me explain, – my understanding of copyright law is that you can legally copy/share/distrubute a certain percantage of a document/book/audio file/movie that is copyrighted (such as when a teacher gives photocopies a few pages of a book or a movie reviewer shows a few short clips of a movie) – I don’t know the exact percentage, but lets say 10%!
How is this any different to peer-to-peer – I would be supprised if when you share a torrent you would give more than 10% to any one person? If this is the case (and correct me if I’m wrong) – how is it illegal AT ALL??
Matt
April 7, 2006 at 9:29 am
I downloaded the first episode of this season’s Sopranos. I also have all of them on my cable company provided DVR. I pay for HBO in my monthly package, so does downloading it still constiture piracy even though I paid for it already AND have it on DVR?
tom from ny
April 7, 2006 at 9:33 am
Both me and my friend got one for Sopranos specifically.
dan
April 7, 2006 at 10:09 am
First of all, bittorrent is in legal limbo, as matt pointed out that fair use allows you to use small exerpts from copyrighted materials legaly (Sony v. Universal City Studios aka Betamax ruling). Under fair-use, sharing just a small portion of a file wouln’t be illegal if you didn’t share more that just that peice to just one person. But that’s not often the case, so you get into how much can you share without violating copyright. It’s not something that has been ruled on so at your own risk.
And just for the record, peerguardian won’t do crap for you when it comes to bittorrent. All the copyright holders need to do is connected to the tracker, they get your IP, how much you have completed, and a time stamp. Enough to nail your ass if they only knew your name and address (thank god for privacy laws).(Because by the nature of bittorent you are always sharing a file no matter what.) If they want to filter out these bastards, they need to install peer guardian on the trackers. But then again, all they have to do is go out and get an AOL account and check the trackers through dialup. Not like it’s alot of bandwidth.
Best way to stay protected is to use a tracker that requires encryption and a login. That way when the copyright holders signup for an account, the TOS or the EULA they agree to (if done properly), will nail there asses when they try to sue you (again…if they can find out who you are…). That’s all my rant.
B the network freak.
April 7, 2006 at 10:09 am
I’ve been caught by COX once in central Florida for downloading a screener of Saw 2. I watched it 2 times, deleted it, and the bought the movie on Valentines day @ 12:15 am. Cox did shut off my internet though, until I called and gave the same “Wireless was open” excuse. Made it tough to call though with VoIP and all…. It’s funny, the RIAA and MPAA, or the MAFIAA (great April Fools joke) put so much publicity on this and it just keeps getting worse. I wonder if they are just trying to advertise P2P services so they can make thier own iTunes like store and make more profit from those who don’t have the $$ to pay those exorbant CD fees?
Kami Kaze
April 7, 2006 at 10:20 am
Guys this is a shop, i can tell from pixels and from seeing quite a few shops in my time.
Anonymous
April 7, 2006 at 10:57 am
HBO does set up fake trackers and post the torrents on popular torrent sites. they are some trixy hobbits. in the future anyone who might want to download copyrighted material should find trusted sources and the problem goes away. i got nabbed for curb your enthusiasm last year because I couldn’t wait to find a trusted release.
add
April 7, 2006 at 11:09 am
Once again cable internet suck’s.
Unless your spamming or hacking.
what your downloding is not there busness.
As for Usenet being watched. Usenet servers dont report what your looking at. its just a stream of ascii as far as there conserned.
zbeast
April 7, 2006 at 11:13 am
This blog is owned by HBO
DUH
April 7, 2006 at 11:18 am
PeerGuardian will only stop people from connecting to you. There is nothing to stop the likes of HBO looking at the tracker (which doesnt block who connects) and seeing exactly what you are downloading and how much.
As for encryption it is the same thing, between you and the tracker might be encrypted but any details about your down/uploading can still be found on the tracker. Encryption is only used to get past ISP filtering, in the case of torrents it has nothing to do with privacy.
me
April 7, 2006 at 11:23 am
This is real. I got one from Comcast.
Junk in da Trunk
April 7, 2006 at 11:47 am
Why on earth would you think I was paid to post what I posted? All I did was explain how people know what your IP is when you are using a bittorrent client.
By the way, please stop using the word “Steal”. Theft is defined in the dictionary as:
1 a : the act of stealing; specifically : the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it b : an unlawful taking (as by embezzlement or burglary) of property
Note, it does not say “Copying”. Making a digital copy of a work i.e. taking a picture of a painting in a museum, downloading a TV show, copying a DVD, etc….this is not stealing. You are not depriving the orginal owner of his material.
You who use the term Pirate and Stealing have fallen victim to the propogandists who want to control every aspect of their world.
By the way, ever notice how the DVD posters all say “Own it now on DVD?” Well, if I own it, then what is preventing me from copying it????
I guess they are just hypocrits who will say anything to get people to fork over cash.
UJohn8
April 7, 2006 at 11:59 am
Hey dumb ass that’s the wrong file.
Any Torrent that has a LOL in it means, Laugh out Loud! So the file you downloaded wasn’t even a real file.
HBO busted you on fake file.
This whole story is fake!
In7of9
April 7, 2006 at 12:32 pm
@In7of9 – You don’t download shows very much do you?!
“Any Torrent that has a LOL in it means, Laugh out Loud! So the file you downloaded wasn’t even a real file.”
Sorry…but you are absolutely wrong and are just being a flaming troll but calling someone else a dumb ass. You are right that the abbreviation LOL does in fact mean “laughs out loud” in certain contexts but that does not mean that torrents with LOL in the name are fake. Over 80% of my downloaded torrents for 24, Lost, Invasion and the Sopranos all bear the LOL marker.
To be honest I’m not positive what the significance of it in the filename is. I’ve always guessed/assumed it was the tag of the person/group that encoded & ULed it.
Xero
April 7, 2006 at 1:03 pm
dude, you’re a dumb ass, since when was downloading (for free) copyrighted material NOT illegal?
dumbass
April 7, 2006 at 1:04 pm
FYI for bittorrent tracker anyonymity…
Use TOR , it’s a piece of software that runs on your machine and proxies into TOR’s network. You point your sofware to localhost:port and viola!
There was a post up on digg.com a while ago about this. TOR asks that you only proxy your tracker (you can do this in azareus for sure) and not your actual P2P traffic as it can’t handle that load.
This doesn’t help if one of the seeders is ‘the man’, they’ll have your IP from the P2P connection
tom from ny
April 7, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Whether or not what you are doing is illegal, it may be a violation of your subscriber agreement. If so, they have the right to terminate your service. Although, if the tracker was set up by HBO (I don’t know if it was or not), then they are making their content available to you and downloading it is neither a violation of copyright law or your subscriber agreement.
Additionally, they say:
“It is possible that this activity has occurred without your permission or knowledge by an unauthorized user, a minor who may not fully understand copyright laws, or even as a result of a computer virus. However, as a Charter Internet account holder, you can be held liable for this activity.”
This is incorrect. As I understand it, you cannot be held liable for what someone else does with your connection, for the same reason that ISPs cannot be held liable for what subscribers do with their service. Even if the subscriber agreement does specify such liability, any part of a license agreement that is contrary to established laws is invalid.
Copyright law in the US has many issues, almost all of which have resulted from the arrival of digital media. The DMCA is widely regarded as ridiculous, and parts of it may be ruled invalid in the future. For example, fair use says you may make a backup copy of a DVD that you own. However, DMCA makes it illegal to bypass the copy protection on the DVD, which means you can’t make the backup you are entitled to. If it went to court, I’d guess that fair use would win.
But IANAL.
Nightspark
April 7, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Anyone ever think that this might all be viral marketing-type PR from the MPAA/RIAA/HBO? I mean Nvidia did it in forums to hype their video cards. Not unthinkable for these companies to resort to guerilla infotactics to try and sway mindshare/spread fear. Especially when you start seeing all these other METOOs saying they got busted even with Peer Guardian.
art
April 7, 2006 at 2:43 pm
you guys need a better firewall and P2P client
kazaa sucks
so does emule
^_^
April 7, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Anyone can see the IP addresses of the people they are connected to when using a Bit Torrent client. If the particular BT client you’re using doesn’t display them you can use the command prompt.
For example, using the original BT client won’t show them to you, but at the command prompt you can enter something like this:
netstat -no 6
This will display a list of every IP your client is connected to with the process ID (as well as all other network connections). The number “6″ simply refreshes the display every six seconds (use whatever number you like there).
PeerGuardian is a very poor means to make yourself feel “safe” from detection by *known* MPAA or RIAA IP addresses. They can do just like anyone else does and connect through any ISP they choose. If you can see the IP addresses sharing a torrent file — they can do the same.
Of course I’m just stating the obvious here to anyone familiar with torrenting. But the point is this: PeerGuardian is a piece of shiny poop. It’s virtually useless and only succeeds in making people like “andy” feel as if they are “l33t haxors.”
Tim
April 7, 2006 at 5:21 pm
Oh for f*cks sake l3t by gones be by g0n3s u n3wbs
FFS
April 7, 2006 at 7:41 pm
THIS. LETTER. IS. FAKE.
God, just look closely at the print, people. It doesn’t even come CLOSE to looking like scanned in print. It’s a blank page scanned in with the text overlayed, which is why (aside from JPEG artifacts), every letter is perfectly formed, and there is no skew (inevitable angling of the lines of print when its scanned in.) The second page reveals this even more, since the columns on the left and the right are perfectly aligned.
Hello, this doesn’t even come close to looking real.
HatesJerksWhoFakeStupidThings
April 7, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Look, even if the letter is fake (though I’ve yet to hear a truly convincing argument for this), the concept is entirely possible and plausable.
The RIAA has been trying to nail people for quite a while now, obviously HBO and others have seen there is money to be made here. I agree, it’s greed plain and simple. But it costs them nil to threaten you, and they can always try taking you to court if they think they can soak you.
You people talk about IP masking, encryption, etc. Ha! None of that matters. As long as you are bouncing data back and forth between the tracker and other clients, you can be traced.
Want secrecy? Go to Freenet. Otherwise, quit complaining.
But really. BitTorrent *does* have ligit uses, contrary to popular belief. I, for one am getting downright sick of hearing the media whine about how evil it is. I get Linux distros and most of my bigger OSS packages though BitTorrent.
Certain ISPs are even blocking BT all together just because of the massive load copyright infringing users are putting on it.
C’mon. Just because you loosers want free stuff dosen’t mean you should harm the rest of us.
I do agree the way TV episodes and digital music is handled is currently a complete mess. I see where you’re coming from. But I also see how much chaos you’ve fueled. You, my friend, are a major part of the problem. I’m not saying the media companies aren’t also, but we can’t exactly tell them to shut up and go away.
So, please. Stop being half the problem for a moment and help find a solution.
James
April 7, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Fuck Elinor Rose Foster – Natalee Holloway
nick
April 8, 2006 at 7:47 am
what evidence did they provide? an email… just an email?
nowerdays the western world seems to be a capitolist-dictatorship, those in power want you to feel like its a democracy but in truth they are creating sly legistation which give them dictatorship like powers… all i can say is it wouldnt happen in china lol
Simon
April 8, 2006 at 8:51 am
[...] read more | digg story [...]
HBO is tattling to your ISP if you download torrents of The Sopranos · CHEESETOE BitTorrent
April 8, 2006 at 9:47 am
Well, use some proxies and peer guard henceforth…
Qwerty Maniac
April 8, 2006 at 9:51 am
For anyone that may be interested, I have addressed a few issues brought up in this comments in a new post.
http://tallin.wordpress.com/2006/04/08/the-power-of-digg/
Tallin
April 8, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Should read: “Stop using your real IP”.
Route your traffic through Tor or I2P and have no fear. The copyright cartels will go after the low-hanging fruit.
human body odor
April 8, 2006 at 8:14 pm
[...] LINK [...]
Snag Daily » Be Careful When Downloading HBO Shows
April 9, 2006 at 2:41 am
[...] * HBO not happy with TV-Torrents [...]
BitTorrent & P2P Linkdump (14) · TorrentFreak, torrents and more
April 9, 2006 at 3:53 am
Your a newb…
Anonymous
April 9, 2006 at 5:05 pm
Protowall+ Peerguardian help alot. Don’t run them together. Pick one and run it always. If you guys were part of the suprnova forums when they were still a big thing. There was a section in there for threads about getting busted. Everyone whoever got busted and posted in there WERE NOT running the above mentioned program. ALSO no one who did use it posted in that section.
Anonymous
April 9, 2006 at 5:08 pm
Just get TiVo…it’s easier and won’t get you in trouble.
swartzonmedia
April 9, 2006 at 7:02 pm
“Oh for f*cks sake l3t by gones be by g0n3s u n3wbs”
Leet? you loser.
amc
April 9, 2006 at 10:33 pm
These people have got nothing on you. My defense in such a case is this:
“I regularly share and download files using torrents. I generate text files that are regularly 400Meg or greater in size, and I name them after TV shows and movies as a security precaution. The data in these files is my own work, does not belong to you, and does not violate any provision of the DMCA. Because of the design of torrents, you cannot prove otherwise. Leave me alone and have a nice day.”
j9
April 10, 2006 at 10:09 am
Can you be busted by HBO if you live in a foreign country that doesn’t run the shows? Like France, Italy, Germany or something?
ForeignGuy
April 10, 2006 at 11:56 am
You know, the whole thing never would have happened if you weren’t doing something illegal to begin with. You can argue all you want about right and wrong, and how these companies bastardize our rights, but right now, they hold the keys, and pay for these programs to be made and to go on the air. As such, they deserve to get what they put out back.
The problem I have with those people who download this stuff is that you give these companies their ammunition to continue to charge high prices while targetting the old lady whose young grandchild just downloaded the latest edition of Power Rangers. It’s this type of stuff, doanloading stuff that, for all sakes and purposes, can be bought in a local store or online, that gives these companies their target. New technology that could be used to introduce new people, projects, and ideas get shot down because that greedy bastard in the big megacompnay now has ammunition – proof of someone stealing from one of their projects – that ultimately lead to such issues as Digital Rights Management, formats that aren’t universal for all platforms, lawsuits against the innocent granny (and not-so-innocent Johnny, the eight year old we just talked about before), and the complete and utter ass-raping of consumer rights.
As far as right and wrong, these companies should charge less. First, while it does cost money for the production companies, the advertising and the product itself, the majority of the money goes back into some rich bastards pockets, whose only creative decision was how he arranged his suit choice that day. The Artist and the creators are usually the first to get screwed, as they usually have to approach these rich people with their ideas to get the funding they need to do it. And even when they do get paid well for their services, it’s usually a small percentage of the actual profit that they get.
Unfortunately, these “suits” have every right to get their share as well. The money has to come from somewhere, and unfortunately, there are too few rich people who would freely invest – without the expectation of payback – in any project they feeel they couldn’t benefit from. They brought their money, so they have the right to say what they want.
This is also why it hurts smaller independents: When you people abuse the technology you have by downloading torrents, You give these people their ammo. Granted, 2 people sharing a file will only draw attention to those two, but if 100,000 people are doing the same thing, whatever they are doing is wrong and needs to be punished. This usually ends up on restrictions, bans, and/or crushing of technology smaller companies could use to promote their latest work.
Quit your bitching, and quit downloading shit you can buy in the stores, and there’s a hell of a lot less they can say After all, it’s kinda hard to prove a case against you when you did no wrong.
w2ed
April 10, 2006 at 4:59 pm
what a jack-off
this is so made up
otisraccoon
April 10, 2006 at 7:15 pm
1st off, they are not going to try and crack your ip if you are using encoding, they are going to go after the easy targets
so claiming you were using peer guardian proves your story is fiction
I wouldn’t be suprised if you were the janitor at charter communications and are trying to get promoted to king toilet scrubber by trying to scare some charter clients
if you are dumb enough to get caught, you deserve to get caught
otisraccoon
April 10, 2006 at 7:20 pm
So the second page has evidence from a company called SafeNet Inc. I did a search and on their page they have their “Media Sentry” product, which must be a service HBO are paying for:
http://www.safenet-inc.com/products/mediasentry/index.asp
If you click on “investigation” it states the following:
“Investigation Services
SafeNet continuously monitors the Internet for copyright infringements. Data collected helps clients determine the scale and scope of their piracy problem and measure the success of enforcement campaigns. From worldwide peering points, SafeNet identifies online piracy in real-time by monitoring online auction communities, IRC networks, newsgroups, FTP sites, peer-to-peer communities and websites.
SafeNet believes that the data collected is most useful when it can be used to make decisions and drive changes in a strategic direction. Our Investigation Services permit clients to monitor the status of their copyright searches and create extensive management reports to track trends and the effectiveness of enforcement activity.”
Interesting stuff… and shows that FTP and Usenet may not be bullet proof either.
Regards,
Shane
Shane
April 11, 2006 at 5:03 am
[...] HBO isn’t happy. People are downloading episodes of their flagship series, The Sopranos, presumably in lieu of paying the subscription fee, and they’re not going to take it anymore. Personally, I’ve been so disappointed with HBO lately that I’m going to cancel my subscription and start one with Netflix instead (well, I took care of the latter; I’m still working on the former). Unless you’re a huge fan of their original series — and all the good ones are pretty much gone — or enjoy watching The Day After Tomorrow every other day, it’s not worth the price. [...]
chris makarsky's blog » blog archive » stealing cable, 21st century-style
April 11, 2006 at 7:34 am
I finally just pried the information out of CavTel as to why my service was shut off two weekends ago (the week after the Soprano’s premier) – and it was in fact a letter from HBO that caused my TOS violation. They have a three strikes policy. One down.
While I now use TOR and encryption – it really doesn’t matter – once you’re connected to a peer – even an encrypted peer – they still share IP information. TOR specifically does not allow you to move large quantities of p2p/torrent data and will boot you from their network as they do not have a sufficient number of onion routers to support the mass quantity of p2p traffic on the net. Thats why loading google can take up to 5 seconds or more when TOR is active, imagine the blazing speed you’d get on a 2 gig torrent.
Anyways, my beef with HBO is this: I don’t subscribe to cable, nor do I wish to. I do however wish to subscribe to HBO. But I can’t without first paying Comcast $57 for digital cable then adding $10 for HBO. I would gladly pay $10 for HBO, but they won’t allow me.
And before you go saying thats the cable companies fault, not HBO’s – consider – HBO is owned by Time Warner, Inc, who vehemently opposes a la carte cable service and dumps enourmous amounts of money on congress to make sure they don’t demand it. They’re a victim of their own competing interests from being a part of a massive conglomerate that does too many things.
Anyways, I still have a freebie strike left w/ my ISP – so I guess I just have to hope that HBO/SafeNet aren’t smart enough to turn on encrypted bittorrent and then I’ll never connect to them. Eh.
ChrisMD
April 11, 2006 at 3:08 pm
Hey bobie, I found this one in her stash. Funny as hell :P
http://www.fotodaze.com/view.php?view=2151
bïöµï¢
April 11, 2006 at 7:43 pm
LOL:
What’s the big deal? all this talk about IP Addresses, and ISP’s shutting people down for sharing files.. This is a joke.
I just got yesterdays ep of The Soprano’s and I’ll share it as a torrent… and you may ask yourself ‘why would he, how could he?”
The answer is simple.. War-Driving
I havent paid for internet for over 5 years. Why should I when there are still stupid people out there? HBO is not going to stop piracy. They can’t. If they could, then every company could and there wouldn’t be any debates or piracy for that matter.
So do yourself a favor… go download whatever you want, whenever you want, just use someone elses connection and let then get the letters from their ISP, and if they get their service shut off… who cares, move on to the next idiot with a good signal and a non-secured wireless connection.
Maybe I’ll make a random gmail account and send HBO a copy of this post, and they can read it while I’m watching the Sopranos…
LMFAO
Dmonn
April 17, 2006 at 9:12 pm
*let them get the letters
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Typo Corrected
Dmonn
April 17, 2006 at 9:23 pm
LOL! HBO is all pissy about a free viewing of The Sporanos. Of course it isn’t truely free. You need to pay the ISP. But I think it’s funny. I hear all these stories of people getting letters. I haven’t got one. I’ve been pirating/hacking since 1985 on a Commodore 64. To the guy who says “how about paying $10/month for HBO”. You pay for it. I wish to only watch the Sopranos. And I prefer to download it, thank you.
Mr. Commodore up till 1992, now just Mr. C
April 18, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Me too, only I also like to not pay for internet too.
I feel like calling myself Capitan Midnight (older people would know him) and make a 350 MB .avi torrent of Tony Soprano saing something like “They can lick my nutsack” over and over, and naming it ‘Sopranos SE06EP08-leak from HBO’ and see if they like it.
Dmonn
April 18, 2006 at 9:15 pm
I would just feel bad for all the real people that like torrents and would have to download it just to find out it was a bullshit message from me to HBO.
Dmonn
April 18, 2006 at 9:17 pm
I am in the UK – the only way I can get to see the latest Sopranos without waiting over a year for it to be shown on TV here is to download it. If HBO are so concerned about this why the hell don’t they release their programs at the same time everywhere?
The copyright stuff is all bullshit anyway – what’s the difernece between sharing say a DVD I have bought with my family and friends, or sharing it with the whole world via the internet? I own it – surely I can legally share it with whoever I choose, especially when I make no attempt to profit from the sharing..
tedk
May 7, 2006 at 11:48 pm
Sorry to disappoint, but I too received a letter from Adelphia yesterday with FIVE downloading violations (one I know I didn’t download, but the other four were the same file). This is very real, and seems to be increasing. I’ve been downloading for over six years, and knew eventually it would catch up with me. No big surprise, really. I’m still trying to find a way to hide being detected, but I feel that only Dmonn has only the real solution.
To you all who believe this is fake or a put on by the “Man”, watch out, because could be next. I didn’t think I would get caught either.
disappointed downloader
May 11, 2006 at 2:46 pm
For those of you who feel safe with PeerGuardian, just remember that it can only block ips after they are discovered, and these anti-p2p groups are farming out new ips faster than anyone can keep up with them. They just use a new range of IPs every week or so, and then join the peer networks to monitor traffic and gather evidence against people. Eventually the IPs are entered into the PeerGaurdian blacklist and blocked, but it’s too late. They already have what they need, and have moved on to another ip range that has not been blocked yet.
Everyone reading this should really start supporting anonymous P2P protocols instead. Yes they are still young, but we need to support them so they can evolve faster and replace the old P2P networks that are easily policed.
http://i2p.net/ is an anonymous network with a BitTorrent client already built in, and will provide “militant grade” anonymity in the near future (already provides enough to create plausible deniability). Performance can be an issue because it’s first and foremost an anonymous network layer, but it’s one of the better protocols, and can actually be integrated with Azureus with a little bit of work.
http://antsp2p.sourceforge.net/ is first and foremost an anonymous P2P network, and uses the same concepts that made BitTorrent so successful, while using anonymous peer sharing technologies. This tool has the most hope of becoming the next killer P2P application because it’s basically an anonymous BitTorrent, with promises of both high speed transfer and anonymity.
Anyway, please do your homework and start adopting one of the anonymous networking clients so we can all benefit and share freely once again. I understand that no protocol can truly be 100% completely anonymous, but these programs introduce so much complexity that even if an anti-p2p agency were to spend the time and money to track every packet on the network, there is so much plausible deniability that they would not have any grounds for a case.
BOTTOM LINE: Give AntsP2P or I2P a try and don’t give up so quickly if you’re not impressed. The available file pool cannot grow until more people see the light and start using the next generation P2P tools… so we need people to start joining them and seeding. It’s our only chance of avoiding the legal headaches that the anti-p2p agencies are intent on pursuing.
anonymous p2p
May 11, 2006 at 9:15 pm
wow! you can’t just simply help, give out advice or warn people these days.
1) this is for all you C.S.I. slash Photoshop wannabes: i use Opera so the first thing i did when i looked at the documents was zoom in on the creases in the paper. creases are easy to fake, however, even the most seasoned pro’s make the mistake of not properly overlaying the vector layer with the scanned layer. if you compare two of the letter P’s, both touching the crease, you will see a difference in the number of dark and light pixels. you can take that same approach and look at all the lower case P’s and notice a difference in pixels throughout both documents. just zooming in on these documents reveals a lot about them. if these are faked then a lot of thought went into the process, especially concerning tiny details most people with a reasonable IQ would miss completely. i don’t have to spell it out for you because, well, your all like C.S.I. right?
2) re: noob B.S. : if you were a real human being instead of a disgruntled-excuse-for a-human-because-you’re-mad-that-AOL-went-of-style-along-with-your-fakeass-h4×0r-skills, you would try to educate people instead of attempting to make them feel small. either you’re 30 but never grew up because you’ve spent your adult life sitting behind a computer or you’re really 12. either way, you deserve a spanking.
3) dear Tallin: blogs are difficult. no, wait. the people who read blogs are difficult. no… people are difficult.
i agree with what B the network freak wrote:
“Best way to stay protected is to use a tracker that requires encryption and a login. That way when the copyright holders signup for an account, the TOS or the EULA they agree to (if done properly), will nail there asses when they try to sue you (again…if they can find out who you are…)”
that’s the only way i DL. i haven’t had any problems and don’t expect to. the tracker is always the same because one of the rules is you can only use that one tracker in your uploads. besides, if you don’t use that tracker then you don’t get credit for the ration. if you don’t keep your ratio up then you get booted from the site. and blah blah blah.
keep your head up and thanks for the .nfo
p.s. what’s with the constant browser refresh on your blog. it’s going at about 3 refreshes ever second.
daemon
May 20, 2006 at 2:30 am
hey i live outside of st. louis MO… i got the same letter.. i wonder if it is region specific…?? have they sent you anything else??
rek
June 3, 2006 at 10:38 pm
Florida got same message. well my ISP from NBC universal about munich.
gratti
June 6, 2006 at 5:27 pm
That’s Funny I got nailed for Munich also via NBC Charter
Ace
June 16, 2006 at 11:55 pm
Upstate New York. Got a letter from Adelphia with an attached letter from NBC/ Universal saying i downloaded Jarjead. Who knows, we’ll see where this goes.
TheSpoiler
June 17, 2006 at 4:06 pm
I just received a letter too for a king kong download via azureus,it had the day,time,file size and exact torrent name.luckily my name was witheld from nbc universal but bittorrent isnt so safe no more,and I miss the good ol’ days :/
fuckcorporatepigs
June 17, 2006 at 9:42 pm
yeah this happend to me too as well, but it wasnt with a torrent program it was with LimeWire. i “accidentally” shared a copy of Doom 3 before it came out and id Soft whined about it… and my University just gave me a slap on the wrist.
ArtDamage911
June 24, 2006 at 1:14 am
Just got a call from my isp for downloading Deadwood, HBO’s been watching. This brings up another point, though I stopped downloading music off of bittorrent a while back, is it possible that they could still have that info and are just waiting to subpoena? Or are you in the clear if you havent heard anything thing in months?
chaching
July 2, 2006 at 11:40 am
so…i got a letter from adelphia too. hbo show as well.
how bout that.
anyone know of subpoena’s being sent? to anyone?
or are these just warning letters?
onlyAbitConcerned
July 3, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Me too. What do you know.?
We were cut off yesterday and we werent downloading but I think emule was running.
snowbird42
July 21, 2006 at 7:01 am
My brother just got a letter from his new ISP for downloading Sopranos. The ISP cut his service off even though it was his first time. He called and said that it was his ex and that she was gone, so sorry about it, won’t happen again, etc. They said they were going to turn his internet on again, but to be more careful about what is done with his computer. He was using Azureus, but he didn’t have the encryption on (he wasn’t aware that there even was encryption available, and neither was I). I am now using Tor as a result, and will check out the anonymous P2P clients.
Deep Azure
July 25, 2006 at 12:30 am
got a letter bout someone maybe hopping on my wireless signal to download hbo’s entourage. seems hobo been putting up fake torrents to track down sneaky bitches! sneaky!
i think they’re just mad because their shows aint as good no more.
saidtheOwlatMidnight
July 25, 2006 at 8:16 pm
Ha HA they will never stop the unceasing, relentless march of P2P software!
For every big P2P application they terminate, ten more up and coming ones take its place.
For every person whose computer they confiscate, for every person they fine or imprison, ten more of them become interested in P2P.
These disproportionate and aggresive actions only exacerbate the ‘problem’ for them!
It’s logical – there are a limited number of organisations, all with limited funds to stop P2P sharing. There are billions of people worldwide who own PCs, most of them with internet access…it only costs your monthly fee to the ISP to do whatever you want with your internet access, including using P2P programs.
So, essentially, it costs nothing for people to use P2P and even develop it, whereas it would and does cost the organisations charged with stopping P2P millions of dollars/pounds just to employ the people they need, let alone carry out the actual operations to stop P2P!
Chris
August 14, 2006 at 10:16 am
I have recieved two of those letters for downloading movies recorded in the theaters. Charter hasn’t cut me off yet.
Brain
October 31, 2006 at 11:25 am
Ok, this is admittedly wayyyy late. But this has to be said. Everyone who discussed whether the letter was photoshopped is a moron. Why would anyone photoshop a letter? It’s much faster to just type it up, print it out, and then scan it back in. No need to “put a lot of thought into” making the creases look right. The widespread fear of photoshopping has gone too far.
trentblase
December 29, 2006 at 8:26 am
got this exact letter, but i didn’t download anything from HBO, I downloaded an EA game FIFA07. What’s the worst they can do if i continue to download?
ph0bolus
March 17, 2007 at 11:29 pm
well i shit on all these legal stuff, people should not pay for all the craps, thank god piracy exists.
billgates
March 29, 2007 at 6:28 pm
I received on from Charter about NBC. A bootleg movie that was on my computer. It was video recorded in a theater & dubbed.
John
April 8, 2007 at 10:31 pm
[...] service, including such titles as The Sopranos.” Scanned copy of the two-page letter included.read more | digg [...]
Mr. Today » Blog Archive » HBO is tattling to your ISP if you download torrents of The Sopranos
November 19, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Well, I saw the warnings on Mininova.org that HBO was ‘tracking’. I still took a chance and downloaded the first two episodes of Generation Kill. Today I came home to a message on my answering machine from my ISP, saying that HBO contacted them, bla bla…so the tracking thing is real and it’s apparently been going on for years now. I have this to say to HBO: I have been a dishNetwork subscriber for years, and I had ALL the premium channels for as long. In that entire time, the only two original things I saw on HBO was The Sopranos and The Wire. The rest of the time, nearly 100% of the time, it was recycled reruns. Nothing but the same old shit. I love Bruce Willis, but there is only so many times in ONE year I can tolerate Die Hard, only to have it repeat AGAIN the next year, and the next year after that. They way I see it, HBO owes me, and ALL of us, for taking my 10 bucks every month for 5+ years = $600+
Screw HBO…I will never subscribe to them again. Now they lost way more than they ever would have. You know, if they offered downloads of Generation Kill for pay by the episode, I’d have paid. When are these a-holes going to realize that if they weren’t breaking people’s balls and sucking them dry making them pay for 10 year old reruns, people would be a lot more willing to shell out a few bucks for a download. The music industry is slowly getting wise, maybe the movie industry needs to weed out some of their greedy non-innovators at the top and move into the 21st century. F U – HBO!
"Generation Kill" HBO
August 22, 2008 at 7:20 am
Even though this goes against the very foundations of p1r4cy, I got a subscription to Netflix. It’s far easier to become a burn master and just copy and .iso your shit to an external HDD instead of downloading it, especially with all the movie Nazis afloat.
On the same note, I usually BT games for the PC and some music. That seems to be safer. If you notice from most people who’ve posted here, about 99% of the letters were sent for people downloading movies and tv shows, and about 90% of that being HBO releases.
Moral of the story? If you’re a movie freak, Netflix will pay off sooooo much more in long run, not to mention offer obscure shit you’ve never heard of. Granted it costs you that measly $14 a month for a 3 at at time subscription and blank DVDs. Encryption is getting super tough now too, but it’s a thought.
Save BT for porn, music, and games, and you’re at least safer than downloading the latest movie a week before it’s out. As most people pointed out, you’re hardly ever totally safe and/or anonymous on the interwebz for -anything-. Just be smart when downloading.
I hope our copyright laws change. It’s getting ridiculous. If I made a show and put it on HBO, I’d be rich before the piracy even began to dent anything money that was going into my pocket. Greedy fucking corporations, stick it to the man. The rest of the world is laughing at us getting our balls twisted, while they’re enjoying Sopranos in French and risk-free. Damn the RIAA and HBO.
HBO = Epic FAIL
October 13, 2008 at 3:08 am