Social Anxiety Support

pita · 11-05-2009, 03:41 PM

Rather, they emailed my mom, who is pretty angry with me right now and thinks that the cops are coming to take her away at any moment.

Basically the email just said "stop what you're doing or we'll cut your internet off permanently." That means no more illegal Nurse Jackie episodes for me. My mom is freaking out, though.

How concerned should I be about this? Mom seems to think the police will be knocking on my door and arresting me any minute now, but the email didn't seem that threatening.

njodis · 11-05-2009, 04:00 PM

I'm 100% sure that nothing will happen and there's no reason to be concerned at all, especially since you're Canadian (if I remember correctly?)

I'm guessing you were downloading torrents? What usually happens is companies will set up a fake peer to catch the IP address of people that are downloading their show/product/whatever and then send a threatening email to their ISP who in turn sends you one. If that happens again, yeah, they'll probably cut off your internet access, but as far as having the police breaking down your door, that doesn't happen.

Iced Soul · 11-05-2009, 04:02 PM

I've never gotten an email like that. It would make me laugh, honestly.

I have no real advice. Try to calm your mom down, though. I don't think the police are going to come.

pita · 11-05-2009, 04:10 PM

Yeah, I'm in Canada. I'm relieved to hear they can't do anything. I thought that was the case but the email made me a little nervous. Thanks for the tip about rapidshare.

Now I just need to calm my mom down. I'm not sure if she's more concerned about the legal issues or the moral ones. She was about to go on a tirade about all the other illegal activities going on in my house (?) but she stopped mid sentence. I'm sort of afraid to even ask.

Thomas Paine · 11-05-2009, 04:33 PM

It's not even a real crime. It's copyright infringement. And I think I remember a big ISP getting sued for throttling back bandwidth on customers who used bittorrent. And not everything being torrented is copyrighted anyway. I'd be surprised if they can really even back that threat up legally. And on top of that it was an email, so it could be spam.

Witan · 11-05-2009, 05:45 PM

Don't worry about it. I got one of those "love letters" from my ISP (sent via snail mail, not email) at the beginning of the summer, and I just eased up on/stopped my torrenting.

Narcissus · 11-05-2009, 05:57 PM

I posted about this before, but this time I'll add that I have personal experience with the other side of the issue, and it's a complete waste of time. Your ISP's abuse contact is getting spammed to death with legal threats from Big Content and they're just covering themselves. They could technically do something under their terms of service, but they probably couldn't care less, and the police are most definitely not coming to your door.

BeNice · 11-06-2009, 06:26 AM

Cable internet companies make a killing. Here we have Optimum Online with the "Optimum Triple Play", which means phone, internet, and cable TV. It's a rip off because you really don't get any movie channels but you're paying over $100 a month. I don't think they want to lose any customers. They have a decent competition in Verizon FiOS.

kenny87 · 11-06-2009, 06:38 AM

don't worry about the letter, alot of people get them and they mean nothing, I'm coming close to a TB of data on my bittorrent client and I haven't got a letter yet, must be lucky or my ISP ignores their request to give me threats.

slaughter in the vatican · 11-06-2009, 10:45 AM

I got one of those emails not long ago. The same situation - the email went to my Mom and my parents were kind of freaking out about it.

I doubt that my ISP would actually do anything, but since it's their account I only torrent things that are 100% legal now. Kind of sucks. You only get those emails from using torrents, though. And in your case, I don't think anything would ever come of it since you're in Canada.

IllusionalFate · 11-06-2009, 11:28 AM

Lol, they send an email? How about a phone call or a notice written on your bill or something. And how do they even know your email address?

Anyway, how dare they send you a warning like that. I doubt they have a warrant to monitor your internet activity. Doesn't sound like astute business tactics to treat clients like that.

ShinAkuma · 11-06-2009, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pita

Rather, they emailed my mom, who is pretty angry with me right now and thinks that the cops are coming to take her away at any moment.

Basically the email just said "stop what you're doing or we'll cut your internet off permanently." That means no more illegal Nurse Jackie episodes for me. My mom is freaking out, though.

How concerned should I be about this? Mom seems to think the police will be knocking on my door and arresting me any minute now, but the email didn't seem that threatening.

Did the email only mention the illegal download of those TV episodes?

Futures · 11-06-2009, 03:15 PM

What ISP's do all of you use? I'm curious if all cable companies do this or if some are more known for it than others.

slaughter in the vatican · 11-06-2009, 04:41 PM

I use one of the major cable companies, and I think they are more likely to do this. They also had the nerve to say that they don't monitor the account! I guess they were able to resolve the ip address given to them by the reporting agency, and from there get the account name and email address.

I think the whole things is bad business and borders on invasion of privacy.

pita · 11-06-2009, 04:44 PM

I use Cogeco. They knew my mom's email address because it's a Cogeco address. The email quoted the email they'd received from CBS, which mentioned 2 episodes of Nurse Jackie that I'd downloaded.

11-05-2009, 03:41 PM	#1 (permalink)
pita Status: SAS Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Gender: Female Posts: 2,171	My ISP emailed me about illegal downloading Rather, they emailed my mom, who is pretty angry with me right now and thinks that the cops are coming to take her away at any moment. Basically the email just said "stop what you're doing or we'll cut your internet off permanently." That means no more illegal Nurse Jackie episodes for me. My mom is freaking out, though. How concerned should I be about this? Mom seems to think the police will be knocking on my door and arresting me any minute now, but the email didn't seem that threatening.

11-05-2009, 04:02 PM	#3 (permalink)
Iced Soul Status: Dancing on Rainbows Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Calilalaland Gender: Female Age: 21 Posts: 1,775	I've never gotten an email like that. It would make me laugh, honestly. I have no real advice. Try to calm your mom down, though. I don't think the police are going to come. __________________ I scraped my knees while I was praying And found a demon in my safest haven. Seems like, it's getting harder to believe in anything Than just to get lost in all my selfish thoughts. I wanna know what it'd be like To find perfection in my pride To see nothing in the light Just turn it off In all my spite, in all my spite, I'll turn it off. - Turn It Off - Paramore http://twitter.com/MissEerie

11-05-2009, 05:45 PM	#6 (permalink)
Witan Status: O fortuna, velut luna Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Iowa Gender: Male Age: 23 Posts: 640	Don't worry about it. I got one of those "love letters" from my ISP (sent via snail mail, not email) at the beginning of the summer, and I just eased up on/stopped my torrenting. __________________ YouTube Men's SA Group - request invite by PM

11-06-2009, 06:26 AM	#8 (permalink)
BeNice Status: SAS Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Coastal New Jersey Posts: 6,838	Cable internet companies make a killing. Here we have Optimum Online with the "Optimum Triple Play", which means phone, internet, and cable TV. It's a rip off because you really don't get any movie channels but you're paying over $100 a month. I don't think they want to lose any customers. They have a decent competition in Verizon FiOS. __________________ Market capitalism can co-opt virtually any low-cost alternative and sell it right back at ridiculous prices. -Joe Bageant http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2007/0...eat-ameri.html

11-06-2009, 10:45 AM	#10 (permalink)
slaughter in the vatican Status: SAS Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Nowhere Gender: Male Posts: 58	I got one of those emails not long ago. The same situation - the email went to my Mom and my parents were kind of freaking out about it. I doubt that my ISP would actually do anything, but since it's their account I only torrent things that are 100% legal now. Kind of sucks. You only get those emails from using torrents, though. And in your case, I don't think anything would ever come of it since you're in Canada. __________________ "Now you live in the trees and salty seas, trippin' out in the blue sky..."

11-05-2009, 04:00 PM	#2 (permalink)
njodis Status: kermit in shock Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: ontario Gender: Male Posts: 7,718	I'm 100% sure that nothing will happen and there's no reason to be concerned at all, especially since you're Canadian (if I remember correctly?) I'm guessing you were downloading torrents? What usually happens is companies will set up a fake peer to catch the IP address of people that are downloading their show/product/whatever and then send a threatening email to their ISP who in turn sends you one. If that happens again, yeah, they'll probably cut off your internet access, but as far as having the police breaking down your door, that doesn't happen.

11-05-2009, 04:10 PM	#4 (permalink)
pita Status: SAS Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Gender: Female Posts: 2,171	Yeah, I'm in Canada. I'm relieved to hear they can't do anything. I thought that was the case but the email made me a little nervous. Thanks for the tip about rapidshare. Now I just need to calm my mom down. I'm not sure if she's more concerned about the legal issues or the moral ones. She was about to go on a tirade about all the other illegal activities going on in my house (?) but she stopped mid sentence. I'm sort of afraid to even ask.

11-05-2009, 04:33 PM	#5 (permalink)
Thomas Paine Status: Fail Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: USA Gender: Male Age: 28 Posts: 1,700	It's not even a real crime. It's copyright infringement. And I think I remember a big ISP getting sued for throttling back bandwidth on customers who used bittorrent. And not everything being torrented is copyrighted anyway. I'd be surprised if they can really even back that threat up legally. And on top of that it was an email, so it could be spam.

11-05-2009, 05:57 PM	#7 (permalink)
Narcissus Status: SAS Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Gender: Male Age: 27 Posts: 133	I posted about this before, but this time I'll add that I have personal experience with the other side of the issue, and it's a complete waste of time. Your ISP's abuse contact is getting spammed to death with legal threats from Big Content and they're just covering themselves. They could technically do something under their terms of service, but they probably couldn't care less, and the police are most definitely not coming to your door.

11-06-2009, 06:38 AM	#9 (permalink)
kenny87 Status: SAS Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Louisville, Kentucky Gender: Male Age: 20 Posts: 625	don't worry about the letter, alot of people get them and they mean nothing, I'm coming close to a TB of data on my bittorrent client and I haven't got a letter yet, must be lucky or my ISP ignores their request to give me threats.

11-06-2009, 11:28 AM	#11 (permalink)
IllusionalFate Status: Equilibrian Epicurius Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Western NY Gender: Male Age: 20 Posts: 783	Lol, they send an email? How about a phone call or a notice written on your bill or something. And how do they even know your email address? Anyway, how dare they send you a warning like that. I doubt they have a warrant to monitor your internet activity. Doesn't sound like astute business tactics to treat clients like that.

11-06-2009, 03:15 PM	#13 (permalink)
Futures Status: SAS Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Midwest Gender: Male Age: 28 Posts: 1,904	What ISP's do all of you use? I'm curious if all cable companies do this or if some are more known for it than others.

11-06-2009, 04:41 PM	#14 (permalink)
slaughter in the vatican Status: SAS Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Nowhere Gender: Male Posts: 58	I use one of the major cable companies, and I think they are more likely to do this. They also had the nerve to say that they don't monitor the account! I guess they were able to resolve the ip address given to them by the reporting agency, and from there get the account name and email address. I think the whole things is bad business and borders on invasion of privacy. __________________ "Now you live in the trees and salty seas, trippin' out in the blue sky..."

11-06-2009, 04:44 PM	#15 (permalink)
pita Status: SAS Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Gender: Female Posts: 2,171	I use Cogeco. They knew my mom's email address because it's a Cogeco address. The email quoted the email they'd received from CBS, which mentioned 2 episodes of Nurse Jackie that I'd downloaded.