redditors who have been in legal trouble
after pirating a song movie slash Etc
what happened not been in legal trouble
but at University I had an awkward phone
call hi this is Bill from the Ed
Department would you care to explain why
you're downloading Tropic Thunder we've
had a cease and does this notice from
Paramount Pictures uhh I heard it was
good and wanted to watch it awkward as
hell response well can you stop you're
okay thanks bye nothing happened in
college I was one of three students at a
major Los Angeles University to be sued
by the riot in 2005 for downloading
music on Kaza I woke up one morning to a
thick pocket of material outlining the
lawsuit from a law firm called Mitchell
sieberbergen up or something along those
lines and learned that I was being sued
for one dollar zero five million long
story short I called the riot settlement
hotline to settle out of court they
proposed a settlement of fifty thousand
dollars I told them I'd call back after
I mulled it over I called back a week
later and said I couldn't afford that
this process repeated until they offered
to settle for
3750 I had that in my account at the
time so I agreed they sent me an
authorization form to charge my account
months passed and no charges appeared on
my account then I get a call from
another Law Firm saying that they needed
my information because Mitchell
siebelbergen up had gone out of business
and had failed to pass on my files to
the new Rio Law Firm I hung up never
heard from them again I actually am
still in legal trouble when I was a
freshman in college 2005 to 2006. I
allegedly downloaded some songs
illegally using limuir or maybe Kaza I
can't even remember anymore on the dorm
Network sophomore year of college I get
a letter from my school and there is
saying that they caught me here's a list
of 18 songs I downloaded and I could
settle for three thousand dollars or
they would take me to court I thought it
was some kind of joke slash scam and
ignored it a few months later I get
another letter from the writer saying
that I could still settle but now for
five thousand dollars and if not they
would take me to court this is when I
decided to look into the whole thing
found out that they are in fact a real
company and I was in trouble I talked to
a lawyer who told me to just settle
because fighting would cost a lot more
than that and I would likely lose but
being a broke college student I
certainly didn't have five thousand
dollars decided to ignore it and hope it
went away in the meantime I took off any
identifying information my address slash
phone number on any accounts I had
anywhere I don't hear anything for a
long time maybe two or three years I
thought it had all gone away I had
graduated college and moved far away my
mom calls me tells me that a lawyer had
just tried to serve her papers because
they couldn't find me anywhere the
papers say that I have a default
judgment against me for seven thousand
dollars a few months later I start
getting phone calls on my cell phone
from debt collectors trying to collect
this default judgment I never picked up
it's been almost eight years now and I
still haven't paid but I probably will
have to someday I don't get phone calls
anymore from debt collectors I thought
it would mess up my credit but I
recently looked at my credit score and
it looked fine so I'm not really sure
what's going to happen sucks though I
hate the writer I downloaded [ __ ] from
HBO and got an ml from my internet
company and HBO I called my service
provider pretended to cry and said that
it was probably my junky room at that
watches that filth seeing as I was away
volunteering on a mission trip I also
told them that my room had had recently
moved out and stuck me with everything
they took away everything and I was
never contacted again I didn't actually
have a roommate and I don't go on
volunteer missions I just like watching
HBO fo3
I accidentally seeded a torrent of a
major movie from my work a university
and it got traced back to me I got a
shitty letter from Warner and a legal
disclaimer from my work to fill out and
scientists say that I'm a dishonest
low-life idiot and I will never do that
kind of thing again the Ed guy who
delivered the paperwork to me hooked me
up with a proxy to mask what I upload
download edit I've been asked a few
times what the proxy service was I
actually didn't need to use it and can't
remember the details and it was set up
on a computer I no longer have so I'm
afraid you'll have to search for one on
your own the Asian guy who used to sell
me pirate to DVDs from the back of his
car in a parking lot disappeared I
really miss him freshman year of college
the connection speed in the dorm was
mind-boggling compared to what I had had
back home I went Hog Wild a month later
I got an ml from the Ed Department
letting me know I was in the 99th
percentile of data use for the entire
College I went to a big school and that
if I was doing something legitimate to
let them know what it was and if not to
cut it out it was fine though it took me
years to get through what I had already
grabbed at that point me wait it's my
laptop going to be taken away now police
no but you won't be able to go to law
school anymore I'm cool with it I
pirated The Sims 2 in high school my dad
came up to my room a few days later and
solemnly handed me a letter from
whomever the [ __ ] threatening to take
legal action unless I removed the game I
didn't remove the game a week later
another letter arrived this time much
more Stern I removed the game and taped
my webcam over because I had no [ __ ]
clue how technology worked
back in the PlayStation one day's the
guy that copied my disks used to charge
ten dollars a game got his door kicked
down by the cops he was able to find
original copies of albatu of the 100
plus ore so games he had you were
allowed to make backup discs I think he
got a decent fine for each game maybe
one thousand dollars per game or
something no jail time or anything like
that this happened in Australia
it was not pirating I was making
electronic musics originals and remixes
too so I made her a mix from a popular
song then I sent it to few DJ friends
and operated a one-minute teaser from it
to SoundCloud without download option
actually a lot of people loved it then I
sent it to the original song's record
label if they are interested in the
remix then they sent me a warning if I
don't remove it from the internet they
will sue me for 10 000 Euros because of
copyright so I have removed the track
from SoundCloud because I didn't want
any trouble though my DJ friends played
it in parties for a few weeks months
my friends have got an email letters my
particular ice actually called me about
it once but now we'll use proxy software
and the letters and phone calls stopped
my I spare Sudden Link one day my
internet randomly shut off I called my
ice and I was told that someone at my
residence downloaded copyrighted
material Back to the Future after
hearing what they had to say I was told
that if my residence was caught
downloading copyrighted material 10
total times my internet could get shut
off for up to six months NBD apparently
it'll take 63 years before they catch me
the tenth time
TL doctor got a job I got a letter while
in college about downloading Sean of the
Dead went to their ass lash discipline
hearing saw they needed a work study to
help students with computer problems I
applied and accepted I then spent my
evenings telling people to remove
pirated movers from their PC and
installing antivirus software I ended up
getting to know a lot of it and raise
life people and landed the job I have
now five years later because of it
I once posted a torrent link to a pawn
once and got a message from an account
claiming to represent a major Pawn
production company strongly suggesting
that I stop posting links I'm not sure
what they could do especially to a
Canadian I also got a PM from a guy once
asking if I actually worked for a porn
company and was setting up honey pots to
entrap people he used link I posted and
got a cease and desist letter so he
assumed I had set it up I didn't I
believe in the freedom of the fap for
all I don't post torrent links anymore
though people can find them on their own
one of the funniest shittiest things I
did as a teen was get a convenience
store busted for selling pirated movies
the dude had M on the counter I wanted
Spider-Man 2 but didn't want a shitty
cam I wanted a screener he assured me it
was an HD screener and told me he'd
refund me if it wasn't got home and it
was a shitty cam I go back the next day
and demand My Refund and the guy refuses
and tells me to [ __ ] off so I went
online and found sona's info to report
the guy a week later his store got shut
down and he got sued as far as I heard
should have given me my three dollar
Amir
in zero nine I pirated The Notorious BIG
movie the next day accessing the
internet brought a year ice has detected
The Notorious BIG movie on your computer
please delete this file and call us to
access the internet apparently they have
a three-strike policy always found it
funny that for everything that I've got
over the years it was that movie lol
myself and several friends in the early
2000s used Merc and wma1 to distribute
pirated movies I'm not talking about
simple little torrents I'm talking we
had some top site access and distributed
stuff a couple weeks before it hit the
theaters as you can imagine this meant a
lot of bandwidth usage a couple of us
received seats and assists letters from
our providers Time Warner at the time
one of our friends actually was greeted
with a browser window which said if he
did not stop he would have his service
terminated he had to press an I
understand button to continue
can we just take a moment for Frank
Ocean who got sued by The Eagles for his
cover of Hotel California they demanded
he remove it it was a free download and
never play it Stone Cold bastard then
plays it live at Coachella received a
letter about a porn video I downloaded
Comfort cocktails my mum actually read
the name of the film in question out
loud I threw a bad poker face and
rambled about iPad dresses I think they
bought it my only regret is that I later
found the video available for streaming
on PornHub I also got a letter from an
American lawyer forwarded by the ice
they said we are sure it's an oversight
that it's being shared and you own the
original please remove the share the
translation is we don't care and we want
to keep you as a customer could you
delete that file so we can make this
lawyer to go away thanks deleted the
file in question never heard from them
again Don will aided terabytes I lived
in Switzerland at the time it was a
movie that wasn't even in Sydney's in
Switzerland at the time
I had to promise to write an apology
letter to the Borderlands Dev team in
exchange for having my internet turned
back on I didn't write it if anyone who
worked on Borderlands is reading this IM
sorry for torrenting your game I bought
it a year later Borderlands 2 was better
I got a nasty letter from my university
is it after downloading Linux I had just
built my first PC and had torrented an
ISO fallenix mint which is how that
distro is distributed to install on it
which I left seeding for the better part
of a day while I worked on my computer I
was smart enough to set upload speed
caps to avoid drawing too much attention
later that week I got this nasty letter
from University it basically saying
they'd noticed illegal activity
associated with my Mac address and if I
did it again I'd get kicked off the
Network slash referred to the dean of
students seeing as I hadn't done
anything illegal I called it to see what
their problem was I spoke to a student
at employee Who You'd figure would be at
least moderately up to date on computer
things turns out nope they basically
said that they saw a 2GB download that
went really quick on ports associated
with torrents and that I must have been
downloading a movie I said that no I had
been downloading Linux to install on my
desktop what happened next still blows
my mind it Linux isn't that an operating
system me yeah it's a free operating
system it well just because you
downloaded it doesn't make it free you
still need to pay for it me no I don't
it is literally designed to be
downloaded for free it just because you
can download it doesn't make it free
this went back and forth for about five
minutes before I finally got him to go
look at the site and see I wasn't lying
he finally gave up and left me by saying
well Linux won't work on the campus
Network you need to use Windows funny it
seems to be working just fine
I downloaded a lot of movies and shows
while studying abroad they were legal in
the country I was in during the winter
months I had nothing to do but watch TV
in a language I didn't understand my
friends and I would all download show
slash movies to watch when we weren't
out drinking I never got rid of the
files from my computer and within the
very first hour of being back in the US
my parents got a phone call saying that
our internet services were temporarily
shut down due to Illegal torrent
activity I explained the situation to
the monophone and deleted them off my
computer they turned the service right
back on after that it was strange
especially since I hadn't even unpacked
my computer or anything yet I have no
idea how they knew they were on there
foreign
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