Copyright infringement from email

[warforce1]

I don't know if some of you have actually recieved a notice from your internet service provider but I did. Here is the following message that i got from verizon:

Sample Notice: 1st E-mail Notification

Subject: Notice of Claim of Copyright Infringement

Dear Verizon Online Customer:

We are writing to advise you that Verizon recently received a notification from a copyright owner of a possible copyright violation that appears to involve your Verizon Online account (the “Complaint”). The work(s) identified by the copyright owner in its Complaint are listed below.

We are contacting you because our records indicate that the Internet protocol (IP) address provided to us by the copyright owner was assigned to your service on the date and time identified by the copyright owner. While this activity may have occurred without your permission or knowledge by an unauthorized user, or perhaps by a minor who may not fully understand the copyright laws, as the primary account holder, you are legally responsible for all activity originating from your account.

Copyright work(s) identified in the Complaint:

Notice ID:
Title:
Protocol:
IP Address:
DNS:
File Name:
File Size:
Timestamp: (GMT)

Copyright infringement is a serious matter that violates U.S. copyright law and subjects infringers to criminal and civil liability. It also violates our Acceptable Use Policy (»www2.verizon.net/policies/acceptable_use.asp) and Terms of Service (»www2.verizon.net/policies/tos.asp). If you, or someone using your Internet connection, are engaged in the conduct alleged by the copyright owner, we urge you to stop (and ensure that anyone else who might have access to your Internet connection also stops).

Protecting Your Privacy: The copyright owner has not asked Verizon to identify you, and Verizon will NOT provide your identity without a lawful subpoena. However, if the copyright owner does issue a lawful subpoena that identifies your account as allegedly infringing its copyright rights, Verizon will be legally required to provide your identity to the copyright owner.

If you have questions regarding this notice or would like to view Frequently Asked Questions about copyrights and piracy please visit us at www.verizon.net/copyrightfaq.

We appreciate your cooperation on this matter.

Sincerely,

Verizon Online

The stuff in the middle like the ip address and the file name is left out for security purposes but i can tell you that the file is a movie.
It wasn't me who downloaded the file but it was my dad on HIS computer.
The file name is correct but for some reason the ip address that was included in the mail is somewhat incorrect. So i think it could've been that the file was uploaded to somebody and verizon tracked down that ip address.

But anyway, there are alot of uploaders/downloaders in the torrent section but i wanna know if any of you guys ever got some email like this? Does this kind of email scare you in any way? What would you do when you actually have received one? What can you do to protect yourself from this?
It doesn't need to be files on akibaonline, it could be anything but so far similar situations that other people have gotten into were only for movie files. Is it safe to download torrents from akibaonline?

 

[BudEWiser]

1st off, make sure that he fully understands that YOU should lose the account if he keeps it up with out proper protection.
2nd Make sure that the computers that may be used for downloading torrents are running peer guardian. Get some more blocklists other than those included with PG and make sure they auto update.
3rd remember the only 100% safe way to avoid getting the letter is to just not download any copywritten material. MANY people get "the letter" and that's when they figure out that anyone who is downloading is also seeding.
Don't download high risk torrents with your ass hanging out. Make sure to use proper protection, PG, antivirus, anti-spyware, etc. and hope for the best. Generally 3rd time is the cut off, but some ISPs cut off on the 2nd. The first letter is just telling you to stop what you are doing.

 

[ShanksYYZ]

Was it a recent American movie?

 

[Ceewan]

Peerguardian is definitely a good idea and blocklists of all sorts for all reasons,(don't use them all for petesake), can be found at http://iblocklist.com/. It would be a good idea to read about the lists and choose the ones you are interested in. There are a lot of businesses that make a living, all over the world, trying to stop P2P filesharing because of anti-infringement laws of course but mainly because of the money they are getting paid. These are not government agencies in the large but just hired guns from corporations who don't want to miss out on some of their DVD and box office income.

If you are into P2P filesharing there are steps you can take to make it safer for you and not get annoying emails and threats. You can search the Tech section here for advice as well other places such as http://forum.suprbay.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=43, (some nice tutorials there from piratebay members).

If you are just posting your query about the email because you wonder if you have something to actually worry about or not my answer would be a definite no, you have nothing to worry about at all. If it was a government agency you wouldn't have got an email you would have got a knock on the door and they don't often do that over something as trivial as this. What ever agency tagged your IP and emailed your ISP probably has dubious rights to be engaged in snooping activity in the first place and are merely picking up a paycheck. It is like a rent-a-cop writing you a speeding ticket, you can just throw that one away. Notice how Verizon included the "Protecting Your Privacy" part, they probably told some one to go piss up a rope and were actually just sending you this notice to make you aware of the situation and cover their own ass in the process. If these people tried to take everyone to court over this stuff they would go broke within a year so I wouldn't be worrying about any civil suit at the moment either.

Okay, so maybe I had a bit to say on that.....I got carried away a little but it is a subject I am kinda passionate about,(can you tell?).