Asian DramaWiki Forum

I was doing my hw and overheard the news talking bout this guy who got fined 5000$ or 500$ for uploading movies on BT in china. I'm really not sure about it, but i was just wondering is Bt legal. The news said it's illegal bc you're downloading stuff but Bt said it's legal cuz it's just peer to peer. Later i saw a shot of the site on the news. It showed what it looked like, and i got scared cuz it looked like this forum
Yeah i'm really confused so if anyone saw the news or anything tell me what's going on...

Oh no, another discussion about the legality of BT

You better search around the forum because this topics has been discussed many time here.

I'll let you know as soon as my Law Library torrent finishes up....

If this issue happens to be true i just hope d-addicts is already prepare to this kind of stuff.

sharing copyrighted movies is illegal... always.

sharing of movies on D-Addicts is not allowed.

...end of discussion

for further reading...
thread: do these dramas have copyright protection?
thread: J-Addicts? A site for Japanese Movies

is torrent downloading illegal?? (music drama series?)

yes... you are responsible of what you downlaod

Basically, almost anything you download off bittorrent is illegal.

This topic has been beaten to death already. Read some of the existing threads posted previously.

Whether it's illegal depends on what you share, where you live, and who caughts you.

thread: Is Bittorrent or BitComet Legal?
thread: World's 1st Test Case in Hong Kong Against P2P
thread: do these dramas have copyright protection?
thread: J-Addicts? A site for Japanese Movies

I hear stories that bittorrent is illegal in the U.S. period. But what only make sense is that only if we share copyrighted files, that is when I think it is illegal. Is sharing over seas copyright files in the United States illegal?

This is usually seen as a troll type question, because litigation regarding bit-torrent is non-existant.
Yes it is illegal, but that doesn't mean very much. Until legal action is taken and some sort of precedent develops, it is solely a moral issue, and you are free to explore the limits of your own morality as a thinking, rational human being.

Bittorrent isn't illegal, it's only some of the stuff that is being shared, which are copyrighted. I think anything that is copyrighted in the US is illegal worldwide becuz US is trying to make money all over the world and they would only lose if ppl around the world share. Many animes and non-american stuff are not copyrighted in the US, and that's good cuz they get free marketing if ppl do share in the states. Worldwide, nobody really cares cuz US can't really do anything about it. They can try to take ya to court..but it's hard. If somebody is selling illegal stuff in Thailand,......who's gonna do anything?

Actually, there's a very strong push by the entertainment industry (i.e. RIAA/MPAA) to have Congress outlawed p2p programs/technologies outright, regardless of what it is being used for. So bt isn't illegal yet, but may soon be, even if you're just using it to share your own random thought of the day .

I believe BT was made for companies to share files easier so I can't see it getting outlawed since it wasn't designed with the thought of illegal file sharing like most other p2p programs.

I think p2p and Bt are the same, they are still following the same ideal, Peers sharing to Peers.... it's jux that software companies got greedy and started to make programs that only d/l MP3 and such. but know they starting 2 make you pay for it.

It really depends on how you use it. Think about why are their servers letting use d/l P2P programs. why don't they just shut it down????

wellz p2p program just depends on how you use it.
if you is it to d/l: MPAA movies, MP3, ............. that can conlicft with the MPAA than that is illegal. anything that is copyright.

The ideal of wat p2p program was suppose to do is that. if you got a movies that you "create" or music that you "made" not ripping, and you have friend called JOHN, who you want to sent it to, by using p2p program, he can search you file and get it.

As strong as they push, there is no way that the supreme court would ever (even if they were ALL appointed by Bush) support the outlawing of a basic technology. There is nothing provably bad about P2P.

The U.S. respects the copyright laws of other nations as an obvious matter of self interest. If we respect their laws, they respect ours. Quid pro quo.

I think I can name ONE *popular* legally distrbuted BT file... the Fedora Core 4 installation dvd.

The Japanese companies are more practical than U.S. companies and will not litigate a case unless they expect to profit by it. Here in the U.S. litigation is seen as a means for the powerful to punish the weak, and corporations will spend enormous amounts of money just for the satisfaction of watching somebody squirm. It is amazing that this is seen as a part of the exercise of fiduciary responsibility, but it is.

I did not intend to say that BT was illegal as a technology in my original reply, btw. My bad.

Lowest wrote:I believe BT was made for companies to share files easier so I can't see it getting outlawed since it wasn't designed with the thought of illegal file sharing like most other p2p programs.

RIAA/MPAA doesn't care much about the intent of Bram Cohen, what they're saying is that because it is currently being used mostly for trading copyright materials, it should be outlawed. For the specifics, google for "INDUCE Act".

Poochy wrote:

Lowest wrote:I believe BT was made for companies to share files easier so I can't see it getting outlawed since it wasn't designed with the thought of illegal file sharing like most other p2p programs.

RIAA/MPAA doesn't care much about the intent of Bram Cohen, what they're saying is that because it is currently being used mostly for trading copyright materials, it should be outlawed. For the specifics, google for "INDUCE Act".

But BT is being used by companies for legitimate reasons so I don't think it will matter, it's like saying MSN can be used to share illegal files, if it can be proven that it was made for legal reasons there's no way they'll stop it. (Just like the vcr)

BT isnt illegal. If you burn w/e you download onto a cd then it is illegal. So i sugest you just download the drama, watch it, and if you really like it buy it.

pokute wrote:As strong as they push, there is no way that the supreme court would ever (even if they were ALL appointed by Bush) support the outlawing of a basic technology. There is nothing provably bad about P2P.

They don't need to outlaw the technology, but if they say "hey, your company is developing products based on a technology that could be used for piracy, and therefore you must have the intent to facilitate it, ergo you must be guilty", then the end result is the same (because no one/company would want to take this risk). Just look at the MGM vs Grokster case that made it to the Supreme Court .

I really don't know what the big deal about P2P is. I was getting my dramas and anime from snail-mail and from private FTP YEARS before P2P/Napster/BT/or whatever the hell else that was invented since then. Back in my college years back in the late 1980's I used to download software via FTPs located at various universities. And even in the early 1980's I was running a warez bulletin board (running AE Express Professional and Disk-Fur if anyone here is old enough to know about these apps) with people around the US and the world dialing in using phreaked long distance codes.

So if one day P2P were to disappear, I don't understand why some people think the world would crumble. We'd just go back to the days where L33T people with the connections would get their stuff. That's basically what P2P did -- destroy the L33T status and allow even the biggest of morons to access illegal content.

In my personal view, P2P may have brought a lof people around the world together. But just like everything else, people mis-use and abuse great technologies. Hell, pogo sticks would be illegal if people around the world used them for illegal purposes. Never blame the technology, folks... Blame the human beings who mis-use them.

--- groink

Poochy wrote:

pokute wrote:As strong as they push, there is no way that the supreme court would ever (even if they were ALL appointed by Bush) support the outlawing of a basic technology. There is nothing provably bad about P2P.

They don't need to outlaw the technology, but if they say "hey, your company is developing products based on a technology that could be used for piracy, and therefore you must have the intent to facilitate it, ergo you must be guilty", then the end result is the same (because no one/company would want to take this risk). Just look at the MGM vs Grokster case that made it to the Supreme Court .

Since you bring up the MGM vs Grokster, the ruling states that the developer is only liable if they made software with the intention of it being used for illegal means, (which is what I said) that includes them advertising it as such a software, which incidentally rules BT out since like I stated it wasn't (and is proven that it wasn't) made with that in mind.

Since you bring up the MGM vs Grokster, the ruling states that the developer is only liable if they made software with the intention of it being used for illegal means, (which is what I said) that includes them advertising it as such a software, which incidentally rules BT out since like I stated it wasn't (and is proven that it wasn't) made with that in mind.

Grokster is a company, whereas BT is a technology. Now consider RIAA/MPAA going after BT software makers (client, tracker, whatever) using the same logic as in the Grokster case. In this case, and especially if things like the INDUCE ACT are passed (which fortunately it hasn't), then I fear that there is a potential for company/people to stop developing BT, or any other P2P software, alltogether, just for fear of being sued (doesn't matter if you're actually guilty or not, the threat is enough).

I'm sure they would like to outlaw BT/P2P outright, but since that is highly unlikely, they're going after anyone having anything to do with them (by using this "intent" business), and if they suceed, the end result would have been the same. Of course, we are a long way from there (I hope), but you never know.

hi everybody i know this forum doesn't deal with problems of downloading but i have an answer how do you download with CLUBBOX i downloaded ClubBoxSetup but i can't download ? what can i do? moreover i wasn't talented with the computer (don't laughing ) help

Please check out the Official Clubbox Thread: http://www.d-addicts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14132 .

I'm using the most current version of uTorrent. Being new at this means I have a heck of alot of questions, but I'll keep it to uTorrent in relation to d-addicts...
Is d-addicts considered a "private tracker"? When I look under peers tab, it shows IP addresses. Are these the actual IP's of someone I'm connecting to? How does it work when i d/l a torrent, meaning, am I connecting directly to someone as in P2P or do I go through a server somewhere. If I do go thru a server, I would assume d-addict's, in which case I'd like to know how secure my info is if I received a notice from my ISP. Would my user name and email address be released?

torrent is p2p so the IPs you see are other people's ip.

so basically, nothing is safe. Even tho there are so-called private trackers, and some torrent sites make you register or be invited, your IP is there for anyone to see. What stops the RIAA or the movie industry from seeing those IP addresses then? seems just as unsafe as anything else.

What do you mean by safe? Using a torrent is only illegal if you are violating copyright laws or if you're distributing some sort of data that is illegal to distribute (i.e. a virus, confidential information, etc.) The act of using torrents itself is not illegal. In fact, you can find many legal and helpful uses of P2P in general on wikipedia website. (And torrents are just one P2P technology.)

D-addicts itself does it best to provide only drama that is unlicensed in the US. This means that if you're in the US, it is probably legal to download anything from d-a (from my understanding of licensing, anyways). If you are in another country, then that depends on the kind of laws as well as which dramas are licensed. It IS legal and "safe" to download drama off of d-addicts.

If you are, however, to download illegal videos, music, or other materials, then yes, RIAA is within full rights and ability to target you. So don't do it.

Poster above explained this well. Downloading Drama from this site is probably not violating any copyright laws in whatever countries you are from since none of these drama will probably ever be licensed in it. And if you don't want your IP to show, you can just get a seed box or even use some kind of proxy server.

Using torrent is at your own risk. Torrent sites such as DA don't carry any actual files ,they just track the files from users(hence the torrent file is a only few KB in size) So when you download a file, you're using the torrent file tracker as a gateway to connect to other users to download the actual file at your own risk, the torrent site has no liability whatsoever with what you do with the file(s). There are tons of torrent sites on the web, and the government can't do anything about it because the sites don't carry any actual files for sharing, so instead the Gov spy on the users to get their IP's. Speaking of spying, here are ways to prevent that:

Downloading dramas/porn is pretty safe.

But when you download Movies, games, and software you might want to use something to help you feel safe.

If you have windows XP
You can use PeerGuardian 2 to block incoming IPs from the government, advertising..etc

If you have windows Vista:
Peerguardian currently doesnt work with Vista.
However, utorrent has an embedded IP blocker feature. You can download ipfilter.dat and put it in your utorrent folder to block IPs (http://www.teckh.com/?p=87)

It is no more legal to distribute a non-licensed drama than it is to distribute a licensed one; copyright law doesn't make such a distinction. If you own a work, the right to control it includes the right to choose to not distribute it. But it's a distinction the fansubbing community apparently thinks should be made (just not applied to fansubbers, as they often claim a right to prevent the distribution of their work to streaming sites.) Wishful thinking aside, owners of non-licensed works are believed to be less likely to take action against us.

I'm unsure of where you got the notion that p2p and utorrent is safe.. Nothing is ever completely safe, people will always find ways around everything. That said.. if you're afraid of getting caught, simply don't do it. The idea of "Private Trackers" just means they allow logins from particular groups. This is done usually so they can monitor and enforce user upload/download ratios.

The whole peer guardian thing, though seems like a good idea, is pretty much useless.. noting that the RIAA watchdog, safenet, or whatever its called now does "investigations" without a licence even though its required by law in their own respective states, I don't see how they couldn't just monitor the connections from non registered IP addresses. Heck, they could sign up to the private trackers and monitor you that way.

Gokidora is correct though that non licenced drama is just as illegal as licenced ones.. the only real difference is that generally copyright enforcement RARELY exists outside their countries of origin due to the difficulty to enforce and costs of litigation. Its simply not worth trying to sue someone you can't get to pay or you'll get measly amounts that won't even cover 1/3 of your legal fees. This is why they really only target really big supply rings.

eh, time for class....

So long story short... I should only pirate from foreign nations, preferably not on this continent? I mean use utorrent... ><

is that sarcasm? hard to tell through typed text... I'll consider it not...

pretty much.. but for the most part even the RIAA seem to try to hit suppliers (kazaa users with large amounts of shared files) and taking them out would impact the system the most. Considering that bittorrent in general means EVERYONE is a supplier, it could mean they'll target anyone within reach.. it could also mean they'd have to track who the initial seeder / torrent uploader was. Last torrent I downloaded had 4000 seeds and 15000 downloaders... good luck to them trying to bring actions against everyone in that list...

All dramas you download are copyrighted (by companies in Japan, Korea, etc.). But the risk that you get caught and sued is quite low if you don't live in these countries.

Our tracker is public. Every company can monitor the IPs of all peers connected to a torrent, either by getting the IPs from the tracker itself or though the DHT network. Your IP being visible is often not enough to get caught, because in many countries your provider can release your personal data (name and address) to the authorities only if someone (e.g copyright holder) files a compliant against you. Also there must be some evidence that you broke the law. Getting evidence is sometimes difficult, usually it is acomplished by downloading the file from you (through an anti-p2p company that operates on behalf of the copyright holder).

You can do several things to make it harder to get caught. You can obfuscate all your p2p traffic by enabling data encryption in your torrent client. This way nobody can packet-analyze your traffic. Your provider or a anti-p2p company can only make a connection profile of your activities. Furthermore, you can block IPs of known anti-p2p companies spying on you through IP-filtering or firewalling mechanisms. The mentioned PeerGuardian is a good tool, but you need to update your IP-lists regularly, and it is never 100% safe. Some p2p tools support import of ipfilter.dat to block spying anti-p2p companies and other annoyances.

One last note... companies may track your traffic or p2p activities for years until they finally get evidence. But the chance that you ever get caught may be small (depending on what you download or share) considering how popular p2p is nowadays. High risk data you should better not trade through p2p are mainstream music albums and mainstream movies (generally all albums and movies licensed to U.S. companies) and porn movies (no joke!).

Being wary due to downloading off a college campus, I just wanted to check about facing possible legality issues regarding downloading off torrents off of d-addicts. I just figured that I might as well check this out with the forums just to make sure.

Like most other college campuses, they usually try to scare most people off of using P2P file sharing programs, mainly such as Limewire and torrent clients. While they don't ban them outright, if a legal notice were to arise regarding illegal downloading, due to various subpoenas, they will not hesitate to give your name. Because of this, some students from my school were successfully sued by the RIAA for such usage.

I used to download all the time at home, but being in a college network now makes me more wary. I would love downloading off torrents, I also don't want to get caught or downloading without and sort of uploading by blocking all my upload slots or get stuck with downloading solely through direct download means.

From my experience with d-addicts, I've noticed that some torrents are not available possibly due to copyright issues. So I was wondering that if I were to download off of the d-addict trackers, I won't be necessarily encountering legal issues or not.

I really don't want to settle for finding Rapidshare or Megaupload files split into 7 different parts on a free account Or even waiting until I visit home to start downloading all my dramas when I'm in immediate need for a drama fix

Anything that is licensed is illegal because well it's licensed. Anything that will never go outside a country technically you can't be sued for sharing / download it. Fansub if I'm not mistaking is also considered legal. Someone else might know more about this but I think that you are pretty safe if you download off of here, because none of the torrents have a license in your country, it's only in Japan / Korea / etc... so they're not going to bother trying to sue you in your country and no one else in your country can sue you either since they don't own any right on the material.

Once again I don't know much about this subject and maybe someone will be better to enlight you, I'm just saying what I think I know.

Nothing is really legal. However, if you stick to tv shows (no dvd rips) from Asia that are not in English you should be pretty safe. A lot of this is tolerated because fan subs help promote these OS companies and have assisted in them sometimes gaining additional contracts with the likes of Bandai etc. So it can actually unofficially be a win win situation.

There is some conflict with fan subs and some streaming sites like Crunchyroll. The new era of charged subbed streaming is just beginning - where this leads to legally is anyone's guess.

Slydog is right, any TV show torrents downloading is almost always illegal.
The chance of getting sued for downloading Japanese or other Asian videos in the US is almost zero, because there is not a strong organization like RIAA or MPAA in the US to watch for the rights of Japanese shows (with the same vigor).
You may face consequences from your own college though, for using up their bandwidth. They can snoop into what you are downloading and figure out that it's illegal TV shows and do nasty things to you... Best find out from the other pirates on campus what type of actions your school has taken in the past.

theslydog wrote:Nothing is really legal. However, if you stick to tv shows (no dvd rips) from Asia that are not in English you should be pretty safe. A lot of this is tolerated because fan subs help promote these OS companies and have assisted in them sometimes gaining additional contracts with the likes of Bandai etc. So it can actually unofficially be a win win situation.

There is some conflict with fan subs and some streaming sites like Crunchyroll. The new era of charged subbed streaming is just beginning - where this leads to legally is anyone's guess.

I think it's my personal paranoia or something. But how do people keep getting caught by record companies? Can they catch people through megaupload (this pertains to drama/tv too) or is it more likely to happen on BitTorrent?

It would be via torrent, where the IP address of each person downloading is visible. It's near to impossible that you can be caught using MU links. A friend of mine received a notice from his Internet provider who advised him that he would be blocked from using torrent due to his downloading of copyright files. Apparently he was downloading an anime at the time FUNimation was checking the IP addresses on the torrent and they tagged it (so to speak) and contacted the internet provider.

i got caught once
but it wasnt downloading problem... it was uploading problem... 30GB a month exceeded =(

Arhazivory wrote:It's near to impossible that you can be caught using MU links.

MU? mega somethingload? easier to get caught. fully traceable. IP is in fact visible and recorded while the file in question remains on MU's servers. torrents require somebody to actively be watching you. files in question don't truly exist in full.

the people that get caught are those that are downloading or uploading hundreds of gigabytes of files that are copyrighted/licensed in that area in a short period of time. also some ISPs care more than others.

InTr4nceWeTrust wrote:

Arhazivory wrote:It's near to impossible that you can be caught using MU links.

MU? mega somethingload? easier to get caught. fully traceable. IP is in fact visible and recorded while the file in question remains on MU's servers. torrents require somebody to actively be watching you. files in question don't truly exist in full.

the people that get caught are those that are downloading or uploading hundreds of gigabytes of files that are copyrighted/licensed in that area in a short period of time. also some ISPs care more than others.

Just out of curiosity. How is it easier to get caught with MU? I mean with torrents the license holder can start downloading and see everyone elses IP directly. But with MU how would they know? Wouldn't they actively need to work together with MU?

big site. files get taken down all the time due to riaa complaints and such. MU would most likely comply with a request of IPs that have accessed the file.

big picture would be that in court the case is stronger when records and files exist such as MU's records. in essence, solid evidence exists. a good number of major trackers have had attempts made to shut their sites down. they're still running.

it's because if copyright holders find their file on MU all they have to say is.... "hey MU, give me a list of who DLed this." Torrent they have to catch you in the act to know you DLed something.

So basically sites like MegaUpload are more dangerous?
I used to think they would be like YouTube, when they would go after the site itself and just ask for the content to be removed.

Which brings me to my second question...slightly non-related but still. Do Asian companies actively pursue overseas copyright infringement? How does the law work in this case? (Dramas)

Japan tends to go after distributors. They come down hard on stream sites.
Korean license holders throw fits.
China... not so much.

But then it's still volume that attract attention. If you spend less than a week DLing more than 100 gigs of content you might draw attention. Other wise you will probably not be very noticeable or classified as a threat.

InTr4nceWeTrust wrote:

Arhazivory wrote:It's near to impossible that you can be caught using MU links.

MU? mega somethingload? easier to get caught. fully traceable. IP is in fact visible and recorded while the file in question remains on MU's servers. torrents require somebody to actively be watching you. files in question don't truly exist in full.

the people that get caught are those that are downloading or uploading hundreds of gigabytes of files that are copyrighted/licensed in that area in a short period of time. also some ISPs care more than others.

Hmmm...interesting. I stand corrected. -_-

Japan really does seem to be going hard after these distributors. I was watching an anime ep that I downloaded and there was text running across at the base about obtaining it illegally etc etc etc. First time seeing that in all my days of anime watching.

In my country downloading music and videos is not illegal, so it's not really a problem here. I'm from Holland, the country with the 'Brein' group that wants to close TPB but after all these years of their existence, downloading is still legal.

But unless they break the privacy rules you can't get caught with sites like MU.

I've been into this "risky business" for years. Yet I have to recieve a single complaint.
Multiply this by about 6 (shared network) and nothing has happened for years

I download more or less about 100 gigs weeky and upload more than 100 gigs, I haven't been caught....
I download musics,movies and dramas.... do pictures count?

you have a better chance of winning the Lottery...not exactly but yeah, paranoid...imo

I got caught twice ... not at same time. Like my 2nd year of college (4 years ago), got caught downloading some action fantasy American movie and warning that says I had to delete and stop sharing the movie or else. Most recent is last year, got a warning from cable company who said some movie company told them to tell me to stop sharing the BEE MOVIE. Freaking BEE MOVIE, I downloaded like 10+ movies that time and got caught for the stupidest random movie I downloaded for the heck of it.

Yet, I still keep downloading. Best thing to not get caught is to not download American movies at all. If you want to, then once it's done downloading, don't seed (I know it's cruel to the community) but that's how people get caught using bittorrent. Seeding or uploading is their secret weapon. I've never heard of anyone getting caught using megaupload . That's weird.

Got caught once downloading with bittorrent. It was all because gurren lagann. Damn anime got licensed before I could even download the whole series. Internet came to a slow 56k download. Call them up and they told me I downloaded a licensed anime. They also complained that I took up most of their bandwith downloading/uploading dramas with bittorrent. Advised me to upgrade my account to avoid being disconnected. This is a local internet service provider by the way so they have more time to track their customers.

I cancelled my service that day and switched to comcast. I now get anywhere from 15-25mbps download and 2.5-3mbps upload compared to a measley 2mbps download and 512k upload. Been downloading anywhere from 200-300 gbs every month. No problems so far. The funny thing is my old local internet service provider actually called my house a few weeks ago and left a message asking me what they can do for me to be their customer again.

In Canada it's considered a criminal offence to spy on another person's IP. Between our high degree of privacy laws and generally free internet usage, such things aren't really a problem. I guess that's why the US finally broke down and blacklisted us for internet-based thievery. Quite honestly I don't understand the whole anti-downloading, I'd never buy anything I haven't tried out first. Why waste money on something with a potential lack in value. The only reason I've bought any Asian entertainment is as a result of my lack of interest in N. American entertainment and the freedom to view the works on line. I think it's good marketing to download and view/listen to online entertainment. Quite honestly I would no longer support Funimation because of the stunt they pulled last year. I'd prefer to buy the Japanese copies directly and add in my own English subs. American protectionism has already created a negative platform for their entertainment industry and will only lead to it's continued demise.

The only reason I've bought any Asian entertainment is as a result of my lack of interest in N. American entertainment and the freedom to view the works on line. I think it's good marketing to download and view/listen to online entertainment. Quite honestly I would no longer support Funimation because of the stunt they pulled last year. I'd prefer to buy the Japanese copies directly and add in my own English subs. American protectionism has already created a negative platform for their entertainment industry and will only lead to it's continued demise.

With the Internet, the RIAA/MPIAA just don't realize how much competition they have.
When I went to Japan I bought all three seasons of Tadano Hitoshi and shitloads of music CDs only because I was exposed to them beforehand through downloads of Anime/Jdorama. If I wasn't I wouldn't even know what to buy. My Japanese friends were actually quite impress that I knew so much about Japanese media.

After you're exposed to non-English speaking media, you start to realize how much crap the American studios churn out. I mean despite all it's hype I still haven't seen a Harry Potter movie or read one of it's books.

I also bought Banlieu 13 through a friend when he went to France. Unfortunately the movie wasn't much better than I already expected.

ohhh dear...i everyday download movies...each day i use bout 1gb..i hope i won't be caughT!!

I totally agree with some of the things said here... but there are a few misunderstandings. The RIAA and friends know what they are facing.. they just haven't come up with an effective strategy or business model to control it.. which is why they've been dragged into the Information Age kicking and screaming... TV/Radio/Movie theaters are supposed to be our sampling methods before we buy.. but not everything is offered through those sources.

The reason we sort of have uncontrolled downloading in Canada is because of a Supreme court ruling that states ISPs don't have to pay royalties to the RIAA and an earlier ruling in the Federal Courts stating that ISPs don't have to link data with IPs.. meaning they won't reveal what you've been downloading to the RIAA.

I personally download everything and anything simply because I can... only buying stuff I really enjoyed.. not because I want it.. just because I wanted to support the company that made something I liked.. most of the DVDs I buy just sit on a shelf in their original shrink wrap cause I have HD rips on my servers (which is currently 16TBs). I pull down (on average) 50+ gigs per day... and you know what is REALLY ironic? I work in the legal field.. specifically with intellectual property.. copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc...

Riea wrote:...and you know what is REALLY ironic? I work in the legal field.. specifically with intellectual property.. copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc...

"Welcome to the wonderful world of high-technology" (Quoted Skinner from The X-Files - Season 3)

Keiko1981 wrote:

Riea wrote:...and you know what is REALLY ironic? I work in the legal field.. specifically with intellectual property.. copyrights, patents, trademarks, etc...

"Welcome to the wonderful world of high-technology" (Quoted Skinner from The X-Files - Season 3)

I've downloaded and uploaded way over 600 terabytes of dramas, Kdrama, Jdorama, Cdrama, you name it between other sites before D-Addicts came around and to this day. Only "****" letters I got from my isp (Comcast) were about 2 years apart and for an ep of "Friday Night Lights" and for some movie I never even bothered to watch.

Is the possibility there? Sure. The likelihood of being flagged or prosecuted? Practically nil. Unless, of course, you're uploading 100+gigs of actively protected copyrighted material and the owners are on a witchhunt.

You are like 1000 times more likely to get caught for dl/ul American made stuff than any foreign stuff. I've been dling anime/dramas/variety , japanese, korean, chineses, since like 2000 where Kazaa and IRC were the main forms of distribution, and I've never had any issues. On the other hand I have never even touched anything American made.

I wish they would catch me for downloading Trigun, cuz then I could tell them to friggin release the dvd boxsets again so I could buy one without paying like 200 bucks on ebay.

Its more about how within reach you are... if you're in the area where the copyright holder resides, they are more likely to take action against you simply because the cost (while extremely expensive) can be minimal since a legal demand/cease letters cost very little and are often enough of a scare tactic to stop the person from continuing.

If you're on the other side of the world... the cost of figuring out the laws and then trying to enforce it would cost more then they would ever gain. Therefore.. no point in trying.. don't spend good money trying to get bad money.... companies are there to make money.. not waste it on pointless legal games.. well.. ok.. not entirely true.... some of the corps are idiots...

Riea wrote:If you're on the other side of the world... the cost of figuring out the laws and then trying to enforce it would cost more then they would ever gain.

Yea, I agree it has to do with costs. Anime and drama makers (especially in Asia countries) don't seem to bother with copyright issues, maybe it has to do with budget constraints. I think another reason is because they have more copyright infringements in their own country to bother to make the case abroad.

Riea wrote:some of the corps are idiots...

Oh!! There was a case for the piracy of Wii Super Mario Bros that got settled recently. Apparently, some guy uploaded it in Autralia before the commercial release and is fined for $1.3 Million.

We all know that Nintendo was just trying to set an example out of him. He's never going to cough up that much money to pay the fine.

I practically download something everyday! Though I haven´t uploaded anything - because my sister got warning about uploading things.
At my country (Estonia) downloading is most of the time legal - at least it isn´t controlled.

Now I remember that the site called Facebook, said that I will go to jail, because og illegal downloading Good joke, ne?

Hey guys, I was wondering if, downloading and seeding, dramas is illegal. I recently had to pay $2400 for a settlement for digital piracy, for downloading something else. I was wondering if this is as well. If it is, I'm going to stop, but if its not, then drama's is the only I will be using torrentz to download from now on.

Downloading copyrighted material such as music and films are in most countries illegal.

especially in your country where some of them are licenced

Ok well thanks for the replies guys, I'm just going to watch my dramas at crunchyroll, or dramafever from now. Can't afford to be paying thousands of dollars for downloading something that is 30-100 dollars

If you know mandarin I recommend downloading PPS, has tons of mandarin,canto dramas 90% with mando dubbed and subbed. There are also ...korean I think... not too sure -forgot- and bunch of other movies including american movies to watch that are free and with mandarin subtitles.

How did you get caught downloading? Were you using torrents? Direct downloads?

I was using utorrent, I looked up how they catch people. What they do is like how police have speed traps. They just sit and watch, and send out letters. They wont stop the person uploading, rather they go after the people who are downloading it. That way, they send out letters saying you are in a lawsuit, and you can either pay a settlement fee, or take your chances in a lawsuit. So they will send out hundredes if not thousands to people, pretty much, blackmailing and extorting a couple thousands of dollars from people. They send out letters nationwide. Just be careful out there guys, and watch out for what you download. But for me, I'm stopping cold turkey, and just going to watch stuff at dramafever and crunchyroll. They have a lot of dramas on their sites, so I dont think I'll miss out on dramas too much.
Alex

What type content were you downloading? Were you downloading a lot?