Don't even need to respond, just toss the letter. You will never hear from them again. But do use a VPN when torrenting from especially Germany.

An acquaintance from Germany received one or two of these letters. They didn’t react and there has never been more.

They told me the letters had big and official, scary looking paper work.

A non-reaction seemed to be enough to fend off these unrealistic accusations, they told me.

It’s been a few years since I heard this story.

I wouldnt admit not having a wifi password in germany. Theres the "Störerhaftung". If its your device you are responsible. Thats why germany has so few open public wifis.

But i never got a letter and looked up what to do? Probably tossing the letter into the trash is enough. Just be sure to seperate your waste properly so your neighbour doesnt sue you.

I’ve also received a letter about seeding a torrent when I was in Germany in early 2010s. I went to see a legal aid lawyer, who was almost free, and he already had a prewritten letter saying that basically I was sorry and that I should come back if I received another letter.

The first letter said that if I didn’t pay within a few days, they would start a very expensive legal procedure. About a month later, I received a reminder, so I went back to the lawyer. This time, his letter said that I wasn’t able to pay the amount and that I should come back if I received another letter.

I never received anything after that. So, based on my experience, I agree: it’s all bark and no bite.

I was in this situation once, when I was the legal contact for the internet used by me and my roommates. One of them apparently downloaded porn and I got the letter. I contacted a lawyer, paid a flat fee (meaning even if it had gone to court I wouldn't've had to pay more), he wrote one letter, saying I don't even know what a torrent is, and I never heard from them again. I felt much better having the lawyer handle it.

"Don't talk to someone who is a trained professional to handle these kinds of problems, instead talk directly to the party trying to get you into legal trouble" is the dumbest advice I can imagine.

One letter = what letter?

Second letter = Maybe consider a VPN & plead ignorance.

Depends. Those are just letters. First and foremost meant to scare you and do something without thinking it through. You can decide to respond, or not respond, that's up to you. Though it's strongly recommended to contact a lawyer before signing any contract with them, admitting to wrongdoing or give them information about yourself. I'd probably try to avoid (5) without legal advise.

If you toss it in the bin, they'll have to decide whether they have enough evidence and whether it's worth the effort to actually sue you. Usually that letter was an invitation to settle out of court. At their terms and conditions, though.

And yes, they're most certainly backed by the media companies. Otherwise they wouldn't have any business messing with their intellectual property. And maybe the law firm only does letters, maybe they have some number of court cases to achieve each month, who knows? Maybe they already exhausted their more promising X court cases this month and you won't hear from them again if you decide to just ignore them. Maybe you're one of the "lucky" few who get sued.

Meanwhile the AI bros are pirating every media they can get a hold on in total impunity...

But individuals get targeted by lawyers.

I used to work the abuse department for an isp back at the turn of the century.

While we covered our arses by emailing customers "we have received a copyright notice blah blah don't be naughty", the companies that filed the "complaint"? Got a big fat "fuck off and come back with an Australian court order"

We never released a single customer detail. Because privacy laws in Australia meant $50,000 per breach.

This is terrible advice, please just get a VPN like IVPN or Mullvad and just keep the letter somewhere*. Anyone telling you to forego a legal professional when it comes to legal issues is leading you astray.

Thank God my country doesn't pursue piracy at all (unless it's related to live football matches)

The family I stayed at got a letter after I visited and had my torrent client on (it always started on boot). A lawyer sent one letter, costing 300 euros and we never heard from it again. Though, I think there was an update on laws against these practices

From my totally uninformed non-lawyer knowledge: It's more or less safe to ignore random letters from German lawyers until they are forwarded to you by a German court (usually in a yellow(?) envelope).

In Canada the max they can get from an individual is around 5k which means they don't often pursue things.

They still send the emails though. At least here unless it's registered mail I would just toss it.

In Germany, they don't have to prove guilt, you have to prove innocence or else you get fined. If you don't voluntarily pay the fine and they have to go to court, the fine doubles. The system is rigged for the corporations. That's why they've done this in Germany for a long time. The expansions to other countries are experimental.

You should just use a VPN in the first place and then none of this is a problem.

I received a notification for downloading something I didn't download - I'm not even interested in it. Went to court, court said it was my IP and I had to pay. 1500€ for something I didn't download. In Germany you have to prove innocence, which is impossible if all you can say is "It wasn't me."

In Belgium, just next to it, I know someone who was doing tons of torrenting and sharing with friends and family back in 2005-2010 time and got prosecuted for his piracy (like 5 years after he was doing it) and had to pay huge fines as a young adult from what he did as a teenager. He definitely wasn't using a VPN and probably port forwarding and openly sharing back in those days. It definitely happens. (Not Germany but neighbors)

Just get and use a VPN with a client kill switch. Paying 50-100€ per year is much cheaper than 10k in fines down the line, and don't share it with anyone outside of your household.

I'd rather VPN to some EU country east of Berlin if I were you.

Slovakia has some copyright laws but they're not that strictly enforced. Also no c&d letter equivalent has arrived to my physical inbox for what I've done on the Internet.

From what I've heard from my German friends the network owner, so the one paying the isp bill, is responsible for whatever happens on the network. If someone broke in onto your network and downloaded illegal stuff, you are still liable for the fines as you should have protected your network sufficiently. Maybe you can get away with it if you are able to present hard evidence your sufficiently protected network was broken in to.

It's the same with speed cam tickets. If you prove in court someone else was driving your car, you won't have to pay the fine. If you are unable to, you are liable.

Imo it goes against the law. There's this thing called "innocent until proven guilty", so the burden of proof lies with the authorities, not with you. But sadly it's not always the case. This did cause a lot of legal fights though, and to my knowledge this caused the German police to flash cars from the front now, so the driver would be visible in the photo in most situations.

Or just ignore it. If you actually read it, it never says anything about you being in trouble at that moment, but it's intentionally worded to invoke that fear.

Toss it in the bin, and use a VPN or Usenet.

Nah unless they're at the door with the cops, all threats are empty.

Edit for clarification: I meant threats in cases of piracy like the one this post is about.