Congratulations Shawn!

Shawn, to be honest the best way to handle these freaks is to just ignore them. I've recieved at least a dozen of these crappy threats over the past couple years regarding users of our Internet Service. It is a whole different ball game when you are an ISP. You have everyone from the MPAA to Lucas Films sending cease and desists, calling us, sending threatening letters, etc... It is a nightmare. I take each call I get and send it to our "fictional employee's" voice mail and or email. Every letter visits my shredder and ends up as packing material for eBay'd items.

Not once in almost 10 years have I had anyone actually follow up on their threats. The only thing I will ever listen to are COURT ORDERS! I have received several of these over the years, mainly for kiddie porn, or trying to solicit sex from minors. In every case if I recieved and actual court order, I released any and all info.

If you come bitching to me about a downloaded movie or song, I am gonna tell you to get (well you know). If you bitch about copyrighted material, I am also going to have you suck eggs. I've even thumbed my nose at the DMCA several times, and again, no one has ever taken their threats any farther than, "you are gonna get in big trouble mister."

My policy with crap like this as been, "ignore it, it will go away", and it always does.

Good luck. Nice to see some publicity out of this. Feel free to let the MPAA know that ISP's (though I cannot speak for all of them) say, "go to hell!"

 

I'd certainly fight it then. It is well worth it. If nothing else, it would be the first (well the second) time someone stood up to them. I believe Verizon tried, and eventually ended up either losing or giving in, I cannot remember. Either way, my opinion on downloading of movies or songs is quite simple. If Hollywood and the recording industry could produce songs and movies worthy of being purchased, I think there would be a lot less problems.

I'll flat out admit I downloaded "F 911" out of morbid curiosity. I did not feel it was worth paying money to see given my experience paying to see "A Perfect Storm". I ended up purchasing mikey moores comic documentary as a result. When was the last time you were able to get your money back for a movie or cd that you were not satisfied with? With just about every other product or service on the planet, if you are not satisfied you tend to get some type of compensation or a refund. Try watching a movie in the theater and asking for a refund if it was crap. I've tried, but never succeeded in getting my money back. I'm on a try before you buy kick when it comes to movies lately. That or I wait for them to show up on HBO.

Anyway, I am straying from the original topic. Good luck, hope you make a difference!

 

I don't think it's a matter of whether or not they produce music and movies worth buying. It's a simple matter of they did produce the movies and music. If you want them, you should pay for them. It's that simple. You're not entitled to the media simple because you exist. You're not special and you don't just get to take things you want without paying for them simply because you want them - and you don't want to pay for them.

My problem is with the ass who tries to tell me that I need to pay $17 for a movie I just spent $50 to go see with my kids three months ago. I'm not stealing any media from anyone, there's no hard costs involved here. I paid for the privilege to the see the movie, and you want me to pay again? Piss off.

My problem is the same ass the wants me to buy a new copy every time my CD gets lost, stolen or broken. I paid for the right to listen to the song when I wanted. Who are you to tell me I have to pay again because I'm clumbsy?

I bought the damn DVD, but I can't put it on my PMP so I can watch it on a plane?

Anyway, I'm rambling.

 

But isn't that the same thing? I already own a HD, should I be able to get another one to have when I am somewhere else?

Either way, I was simply trying to make a point that the problems of pirating are not as severe as they would have you believe. The problem is, there are a lot of sucky artists and movies out there that no one is paying for in the first place.

My other point is, I have no recourse if I am not satisfied. No one is going to give me money back if a movie sucks. If I like it, I don't mind paying for it. I can only think of one such instance where I did not seek to purchase a movie as a result of it sucking so bad.

I buy all my music. Save for the indies that give it away. But at least with music if you do not like the entire album you can pick and choose what songs you want to buy. iTunes rules! Also, when it comes to music, you have a FULL preview (the entire song) on the radio. Movies give you little blip verts in trailers that only show the good parts. I have no idea if the movie is going to be worth paying for or not. It is a gamble.

 

Oh I wasn't directing anything toward you Mia. Don't take what I said personally. I was just ranting in general.

 

I didn't... Just ranting myself. The RIAA/MPAA thing has been a rather large issue for ISP's. They sent us letters some time back telling us (dictating to us) how we would be 100% responsible for payment (these extortion fees) for any of our subscribers that downloaded movies. They are dirt bags.

Nope, nothing personal. Have a greatt night!!!

 

I can only imagine what it's like being an ISP to be honest.

Also, congrats on your four thousanth post

 

Yeah, it has it's moments! I think one of the worst ever was some lunactic that tried to sue us for copyrighted images on a site of a customer that we had acquired via a purchase of a web hosting company. The image he was complaining about was not even his. It belonged to a manufacturer of a product both he and this other guy were selling on their web store.

When his attorney contacted us, we asked that he file the appropriate DMCA and provide us with a copy of either his filing with the US Library of Congress for the copyright, or show us where he had been using the image (published) prior to our customer. When he did, we directed him to the owner of the product whose image it was. What a turd.

Thanx... 4,000... only about 7k+ to get up there with AC.