Six Strikes Alert Messages

[motiv8x]

If you give me one alert for copyright infringement without providing me any evidence of wrong doing (so I can actually figure out who did what and stop it, not to mention you may just be wrong....) I will cancel all my services with AT&T of which I pay close to $400/month for.

[gregzoll_1]

See http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Tells-Us-Their-Six-Strikes-Wont-Include-Throttling-123297 and this link http://torrentfreak.com/att-starts-six-strikes-anti-piracy-plan-next-month-will-block-websites-12101... BTW, they do not have to provide you with the evidence until the company that owns the material tells them, or they directly send you a Cease & Desist notice.

From the torrent leak freak link:

"Under the agreement Internet providers were free to choose how to punish repeated infringers. The above confirms that AT&T decided to implement a targeted website blockade combined with a copyright course, as opposed to other repressive measures such as throttling the connection speeds of subscribers.

While there are worse punishments one can think of, AT&T worryingly notes that the alerts may eventually result in a lawsuit.

“After the fifth alert, the content owner may pursue legal action against the customer, and may seek a court order requiring AT&T to turn over personal information to assist the litigation,” AT&T explains.

As we reported previously, under the copyright alert system Internet providers have to inform copyright holders about which IP-addresses are repeatedly flagged. The MPAA and RIAA can then use this information to ask the court for a subpoena, so they can obtain the personal details of the account holder."

As for dropping services, there is always another customer waiting in line to sign up, so in ATT's eyes and the shareholders, you are just a number.

[motiv8x]

So in other words, you are gathering evidence to hand over for  potential legal case against me, without even telling me what evidence that is, althewhile I keep doing whatever it was that was triggering the alert.

I'm no lawyer, but that doesn't sound right.

“After the fifth alert, the content owner may pursue legal action against the customer, and may seek a court order requiring AT&T to turn over personal information to assist the litigation,”

I can only assume this will be used against me in the court of law.

Here's the scenario I'm concerned about:

1) let's say I have a kid who is downloading something illegal. He doesn't know its illegal, or maybe he knows. That's a personal matter I will handle myself....but as the parent I may not even know this is happening.

2) Suddenly I get a warning. I click "OK" and you don't even tell me what I did wrong.
 I read the warning, accept the agreement and go on my marry way.

3) it happens again, without my knowledge. Now that's two strikes, and I don't even know what my kids (or house guests or whoever) are doing that is causing it.

after 6 strikes, I now get sued with a trail of evidence of copyright infringement, you gave me a warning, but you're basically saying "Don't do that"....and I'm responding with "Dont' do what???"

And you won't even tell me.

 Its like getting a traffic ticket, only the police officer never tells you what you did wrong, so you don't know what to do to stop it.

Now the plaintiff has a stronger case and can say to the court "The defendant ignored copyright warnings 6 times your honor". I visit many sites, I download many files. Tell me what I'm doing wrong and I'll stop, but if you don't tell me what I'm doing wrong, how do you expect me to stop?

[gregzoll_1]

That is how it has been working for about the past 10 years now. Also as a person willfully knowingly downloading copyrighted content like movies or music through Torrent sites, and they catch you, then yes you may end up in court, and better have the money to afford a good lawyer at that point.

I know of only one case that a lady got off with a very small fine, but a whole lot of headaches, just because she downloaded one album, and did not think that it was going to be a problem.

Of course, it does not stop people from sharing ripped copies of music and movies between them and their friends. I have one co-worker at a old workplace, that her husband has to date downloaded Petabytes of data in movies, and they still have not gotten caught, only because he knows how not to get caught.

But of course, their days are only numbered, because it only takes one person either telling the law, or the person pulling the wrong stuff, to cause them to get caught.

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

By the way, neither Greg (nor I) are AT&T employees nor are we in any way connected with AT&T. This is a peer-to-peer forum, and we're just customers like you. So "we" are not "gathering evidence" against you. Your argument is with AT&T, not us. We're just telling you how it works.

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

motiv8x: I would recommend that you send a private message to the escalation team at AT&T Customer Care, and someone will get in touch with you.  They should have a way of obtaining the file names or sites visited, I would think.