My ISP got an information request from a company in Tokyo saying I used bittorrent four months ago to download two of their movies.
My ISP sent me an information release form, and I picked deny release.
Has anyone ever experienced this, and what was the result?
10 comments
Use a VPN next time.
So..the law states that if you shared something you can be sued. Someone has your IP linked to a downloaded file. If you used BIT or if it was a torrent file, then you are guilty in the eyes of the person holding the digital rights to whatever you downloaded. This can be the company that owns the film and/or the actors actresses in the film, as you have stolen their livelyhood.
First they ask the ISP for your info. ISP asks if it’s okay to send it out and sends you a letter. Even if you deny it, if the ISP feels the rights holder has enough evidence ( hash and torrent file) then the ISP releases your data to the rights holder.
The rights holders lawyer then contacts you requesting money based on how much they have lost due to your sharing of their copyrighted material. Currently in Japan, one movie and they ask for more than 500,000 yen. No, I didn’t put an extra zero there. If multiple…then more. Way outside of what just buying the movie would cost.
There are lawyers in Japan that deal with this type of thing. Contact one of them or deal with the rights holders constantly contacting you.
Torrent=sharing=crime. Even if you have sharing turned off. Good luck!
Surprised to hear that BitTorrent is still being used. Good luck with your upcoming lawsuit!
Repeat after me: it must have been someone else using my open wifi network. I have secured it since then, so it won’t happen again.
Interestingly, I’ve run a minpaku for years with tons of random guests using the internet, and no doubt lots of them torrenting lots of stuff, and never so much as a peep from Sony Nuro.
If I did, though, I would absolutely fight it in court. I would also change ISPs immediately.
I have subscriptions to Amazon prime, Hulu, and YouTube, as well as a Duscas account and account on iTunes though, so not much reason to pirate anything.
Deny deny deny.
Curious, did you torrent Japanese or English content, because a “friend” of mine has been torrented for 4 years and haven’t received anything from ISP yet.
Man/Woman up, admit you did something wrong, and accept the (reasonable) consequences.
You wouldn’t be happy if your industry was bleeding money due to crime and everyone’s reaction was to encourage the thief to be sneakier.
It’s not going to be a fine if anything happens: as u/gsi00094bad points out, it’s a crime.
Odd. We’re these Japanese products or foreign products? I know someone on ntt Hikari that downloads all the time without vpn and has never been noticed….
Consulting Japanese sources, there’s a lot more information.
It sounds like each article is typically 20-30万, but there is a lot of room for negotiation, and can be a lot more depending on the amount of up/download.
One interesting thing I saw is if you deny the information request, they can also claim the cost of filing the requests to reveal your identity… I’m going to go for a legal consultation tomorrow.