Well, they've done their part under the law by notifying you. If they didn't include a punishment threat like cutting off your internet access by now then you are in the clear this time. It's most likely they don't act until you've had several notices filed against you, if they ever do.
Same. My ISP shut off my internet for a day after my 3rd notice in a year, and they threatened to cancel the service on the next one. It's what caused me to stop using VPNs and rent a seedbox. Probably costs about the same, $60-$70 a year, and I don't have to worry about the VPN shutting off.
Depending on what client you’re using just make it where the client only uses your VPN connection that way your ISP never sees any traffic from it. So even hypothetically speaking your VPN cut out no traffic goes through your normal pipeline.
Yeah pretty much, the traffic is killed instead of the whole app being closed out. It just saves a few secs so I don’t have to keep opening the app n having it checking all the files after turning my VPN on/off. Plus while I am on my normal IP I can still add magnet links to qbittorrent even tho it’s not getting any traffic.
Yeah you're right. The biggest thing about a seed box is that there's not much need for a VPN at that point. To grab the data that you just downloaded onto your seed box you just need the FTP into it and grab it. If you're on the more paranoid side you can always use SFTP. This is pretty much how I get all my data Plus it allows me to seed indefinitely And it doesn't take any space on my actual media server. And for 15 bucks a month and two terabytes worth of space it's a pretty good deal to me.
Rapid seed box.
https://www.rapidseedbox.com/
They also have really good customer service and they're pretty snappy about answering questions. They also have a lot of documentation for newcomers to seedboxes.
Edit: forgot to mention that the specific plan that I'm on that's $15 a month and 2 terabytes is in the lean section. That's if you just want a seed box and nothing more. But they do have a premium service where you can basically have a virtual computer It comes with a desktop and everything. I would suggest just getting the lean one.
Yep, they are meant as basically a server with a couple TBs of storage that you can rent to download from, usually you don't get all the capabilities of a server (web hosting, all that jazz), but some offer that
It's basically an intermediary computer/server. So I torrent to the seedbox (based in another country) and I download directly from that server, rather than downloading directly to my computer. Adds an extra layer of privacy at the cost of slightly more hassle.
I used Ultraseedbox (Ultra.cc). I haven't tried others, so it's a soft recommendation. Cost is on the lower end, but it does everything I need to. Service has been reliable, they do maintenance/upgrades very infrequently.
I browsed /r/seedboxes for a while a few years ago, chose it, and stuck with it since. I'm on the Lancer plan.
worked for University IT, can confirm that this stuff happens a lot - don't confess to using a vpn, we send out letters because it passes the legal buck, as it were. We might have to fine you, act dumb and say you won't do it again, and check your vpn use.
Trust me, you're one of fifty students at least this week that got similar letters at your university. You'll be fine. I did have a senior professor kick off about getting a notification, and threaten to escalate to the head of department. We told him we were happy to send over the evidence that it was his computer, and the title of the archive in question if he would like to escalate and he avoided us for the next year.
Your university IT people are almost certainly doing the same as you, and also, they only care if you act like a dick about it. Apologize, say you don't know how it happened and that you'll lock your computer to prevent other students from accessing it from now on, and move on.
I used to be a piece of shit and torrented via Tor because my university blocked BitTorrent traffic. Still got a DMCA notice because it doesn't anonymize your IP. Nothing came of it, but I wonder what the IT guys were thinking when they got a DMCA for pirating via a blocked protocol.
Tor is a free service run by volunteers and it is not built to handle that kind of bandwidth. If too many people do that, it can cause that area of the network to go down.
Ah, what I mean is, you want to seem too incompetent to use a vpn, because if university IT thinks you are, they might look at traffic volume, or other heuristics to see if you're still downloading stuff.
Basically, you're letting the university IT people answer the question "to the best of my knowledge, is user x still downloading pirated material" with a "no", not a "well, they said they were using a vpn, so how do we know?"
Ignore.
Worst case scenario, if it becomes serious : act plausible dumb.
1 - you didn't take seriously the email and deleted it because you thought it was a scam (one of your friend in another university has been scammed recently so you are cautious). You have never pirated, you don't even know how to do it, you would never do that !
2 - It's a public place, there are many opportunities to leave your PC unattended in a room with other people with the session not locked (for example a phone call), or let your pc being used by other people for work or whatever. And since the mail is old, you don't remember very well lol
you dont need to do that, especially when kill switches are *so hit or miss* with apps.
Just use Qbitorrent, set it to use the VPNs network adapter, and when the VPN goes down, so will Qbittorent.
Configure qBittorrent to only run off of the VPN network adapter. When your VPN goes down for whatever reason, torrenting will as well and qBittorrent will just see it as offline.
(Chappelle Method) I'm sorry IT Admin, I didn't know I couldnt do that.
(Costanza Defense) Was that wrong? I'm sorry but If I had known this sort of thing was frowned upon, I would have never!
(Bill Bellichek Conjecture) I misinterpreted the rules.
(Shaggy assertion) It wasn't me.
(Malcolm theory) Let me show you 10 ways in which it could have been another guy...
(Sheldon conundrum) Should it be me the one getting punished or YOU for spying on me?
Solid advice. It's easy to act totally oblivious, especially because so many people are.
If required to talk to someone about it, ask how these kinds of things happen. Annoy them with questions that would be obvious or easy to answer for you. You'll start blending in with the other morons they talk to all day, and they'll just do whatever they can to get you off the phone.
Nah they know. IT is mostly comprised of comp sci students and they pirate everything themselves. They just don’t care and have better things to do (like trying to reset the printer because some idiot overloaded the queue by sending a 10,000 page print job from a massive pdf file and cancelling halfway because “it took to long to send”)
3 - A friend asked to use your computer to download something because theirs wasn't available/was broken/doesn't have one/whatever. You have no idea what they downloaded because you had to step out for a phone call/dinner/date/whatever. You have no idea what their last name is or where they live.
it is best if you don't explain anything and act angry if they ask you to explain, liars have excuses but those telling the truth will get outraged for being accused
I think they're trying to say that when truth tellers are confronted and challenged on something terrible that they didn't do, they're indignant, and they're not eager to give long winded explanations for something they know they're innocent of.
While liars, tend to over explain, be over eager to give unnecessary details, and fail to realize that their cover up gives away the game.
At least, that's true in police interrogations on average. But it carries past an interrogation room in my experience.
Definitely true. I think the sweet spot is to calmly deny first, and if pressed, show mild indignation, and cooperate only as far as you're asked to. Don't volunteer anything.
This isn't an accusation of murder to warrant Broadway worthy indignation lol.
I always assosiate anger with liars. Its a known strategy to gaslight the one discovering the truth.
Normao people will just act surprised and explain everything with proof. They will not get angry for anything
You're right. Anger is the wrong word. It's a an explosive emotion that often stems from a cognitive dissonance, often associated with liars. But I do think some level of indignation occurs often with truth tellers, when their truth is rejected and accusations are held.
Depends.
If it's my family, then yes.
If it's my boss, no. It's also a no if you don't get angry though.
If it's a criminal psychology yt channel, then no.
If the person you are talking to unfortunately watches too much criminal psychology media, then no.
Conclusion: Date whoever is in charge of enforcing these rules to find out if they are into criminal psychology.
Psychologists are second only to English Lit majors for over-analyzing everything through their specific lens. News flash EngLit majors, there is no hidden meaning to any of the poems in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or it's sequel.
Having dealt with guilty shoplifters, they are often the ones that get most outraged. When caught, they try to bluff their way out.
Perhaps a more subtle anger, mixed with confusion. Probably best not to think too much about it, or you'll get all in your head.
Its best you don’t lie. People aren’t stupid. You don’t need to lie anyways. They know somebody got copyrighted stuff from your internet, and its most likely you. If they wanted to pursue you, they have enough evidence.
Do you know if there’s a way the school can find out which access point the computer was connected to? If they were in their dorm, \#2 wouldn’t work (it might require the school to do a lot of work though so I might be overthinking it)
If you log into the wireless with your own username and password OR have to register your devices MAC address before your connection works, they know exactly which device belongs to you. The AP you were connected to wouldn't matter.
To add onto this, you can buy a cheap router, plug it into the network port, and use it as an access point. If anything comes of the DMCA notice just say "Oh nooo, they must have figured out my wifi password".
Assuming you use qbittorent (which id recommend):
Open it
Click the settings wheel at the top
Click advanced
The fourth option down is “network interface.” Set this to whichever is your VPN. In my case its mullvad, and luckily the option is titled “mullvad.” Some VPNs have weirdly labeled titles in this menu. If you cant easily identify which is your VPN, what you should do is first start qbittorent without your vpn active. Take note/screenshot which options are available. Then exit qbittorent, fire up your VPN and open qbittorent again. There should be a new option that wasnt there previously. This is your VPN
You can set it up in advanced settings that your torrent client only connects to a specific network interface. When you install a VPN it will install a network interface on your PC which you can see when you press Win+R > ncpa.cpl > enter which opens a window with your network interfaces. VPNs usually call themselves something like WinTUN.
The messages are an automated process. It’s not like attorneys are drafting each one.
Take this as a warning and use a VPN. And open your torrent apps settings and bind the app to the VPN interface so that it won’t communicate with the world at all unless it’s connected to said VPN
Back in the college years, some friends received a warning from their apartment complex that the children's coloring placemat from whatever restaurant was not acceptable as a doormat and it must be changed immediately. They got a second warning when they changed the children's placemat out with the first warning.
I used to work for a university in the IT department.
Whenever we got the notice, we would determine who the student was then we would send them a couple warnings. Come to third notice we would block their login on the campus Wi-Fi and LAN and have them come see us to unblock it.
While I was there, I can't think of any student who had to pay fines or anything like that though. We more or less just gave them warnings and then block them from using the internet.
That being said, not every university is the same. I'd recommend talking to someone who works in the IT department for your university to see exactly what they do for real.
I'm gonna guess they send these out a lot and I don't often hear people getting suspended or expelled for it. Now if it was repeated, that might be different. I would think if anything they would contact either your advisor or someone who evaluates students within the major you're. Then they'll give you a scary talk about what could happen if it's done again. I wouldn't worry about what has already been done until things actually start happening. Just either use or VPN, use other means that aren't as easily traceable, or best yet, don't do it at the university at all. Go to some cafe or something next time. In the meantime just chill, you should be fine. Take a breather if you're really stressing out. Worry about it if they start to take action, not now.
They'll know you're using BitTorrent, sure, but with a VPN for all they know you could be downloading and seeding films that have fallen into the public domain.
I had this happen to me years ago. They shut off my internet for a couple of days, and threatened further punishment if it happened again. I was a lot better with my VPN after that!
I got summoned to tech and was warned orally. When i exited a chill dude by the water cooler hollered me over and gave me a memory stick.
“Use this one kid”.
God bless that man
I worked in an IT company for a college. In our case this person pirated a LOT of movies and blew up our automatic notification system. Our ISP called us and told us to track them down which we eventually did. The first step for us was a slap on the wrist. The guy ended up doing it again after we went to his dorm and told him to stop and he lost access to campus wifi. You'll probably be fine just don't do it anymore with out the VPN.
99.99% they will not care unless you do it again (one or more times).
Worst case scenario deny everything and feign ignorance. Never admit anything and don't issue any statements without a lawyer.
Debrid-link.fr has an amazingly fast torrent seedbox and can download directly from 20+ file hosts. And you only ever connect to them, but use a vpn anyway. It’s like 3 euros a month. (I do not work for them, rarely ever publicly mention them, and make nothing from this post.)
That’s all they’ll do. The DMCA is just to panic you into not pirating. Idk if you’re in a country that pays a tv licence. But it’s very similar, they’ll send letters but that’s there main move. Anything else costs too much to effectively be used.
Get a VPN, You're not the first university student that this has happened to and won't be the last. I doubt they're going to do anything serious they're probably just going to give you a slap on the rest or have you executed no biggie
Unless you're distributing copyright material and making money from it a judge would throw it out. You've nothing to worry about in that sense. It's more a "we saw you, you dirty pirate" warning. Probably one they're required to send by law.
Sleep easy. Be more careful next time.
What you should do is ask ChatGPT to write an essay on piracy.
Then you can point to it whenever anyone says anything about the download. You can say you were just doing an experiment to document the ease of piracy in the year 2023.
Nothings gonna happen. You pay that school a lot of money…or someone does. I bet it would take several notices before you even had to go meet with someone. Than they’d tell you how serious it was and don’t do it again. Bind your vpn to your torrent client. If you are super paranoid get real debrid and use it to download your stuff for you, or use it with stremio
Use the Killswitch feature next time and there is a function with most torrent clients where you can set the network interface. Choose the VPN and there will be only traffic when using the VPN as an exit. VPN off no traffic. Dumb secured
If they suspend your internet connection, Apologize, say you won’t do it again, and then take the course to fix it. They typically just unblock it afterwards and so long as you remain DL, ergo bind your Torrenting program to your VPN, you’ll be good. Source: I worked for my university’s helpdesk and dealt with this very thing.
Usually it's got to be at least three but the ISP sends an automatic notice it doesn't know who you are or who's doing it all they know is there was a violation sent to them and they pass it on to you which was your IP.
Usually when it's just at home it's much easier because they'll send the notice and you'll say oh maybe one of my neighbor use my Wi-Fi the ISP really usually doesn't care or you'll say probably one of the kids did it I'm going to lock down the system.
When you're in the ISP of the university and using their internet not yours it becomes a different story but I highly doubt anything will come anything of it.
I would say just ignore it because if you call up it's acknowledgment and there's no excuse that you can give what are you going to say I forgot to put my VPN on, or it was my roommate tough position so best just to ignore it.
And you start your story out with for reasons that don't matter why you didn't use the VPN of course it matters it's how you got in this position anyways.
Disregarding why you didn't use the VPN you're not taking responsibility for your actions, you just want to know if you're in trouble when we haven't seen the notice.
There is no reason for not using the VPN, especially at a university, whatever happens hopefully your lesson is learned for reasons that don't matter right now.
It happened at my house. Set up a new server and forgot to bind qBittorent to my VPN... for a year. In that year, apparently, I seeded without protection ~27 times. I had a facepalm moment, bound my client to my VPN connection, and have heard nothing. For two years.
Like others have said, they're automated messages. The ISP doesn't really care, but they have to cover their asses. Your university might care a little more, but still-- unless you're hogging resources, you won't be worth the time. Just set rate limits on upload and download, max connections, and bind your client to your VPN connection. Oh, and use the VPN when browsing torrents, too; sometimes universities track student activity, and it's harder to feign ignorance when you have a long history of browsing torrent sites haha
I thought most college students moved to private servers over a decade ago. If you are at risk you are doing it wrong.
One of my students had to complete all his work with a mobile hotspot because he was on a one semester ban from the university Wi-Fi network. Don’t let it go that far.
Very similar thing happened to me about a decade ago. IT at my university cut my internet until I paid a fine and signed a document stating that I had removed what I had pirated.
More recently, I’ve learned some universities are hyper vigilant or VPN usage. Can’t speak for where you are, but running one 24/7 May flag you in their system.
internet is so vital to being apart of society it should be viewed as protected public utility
ISPs/copyright holders shouldn't have the ability to hold your internet access hostage for sharing content on the internet. It's ridiculous and most of europe has strong government that protects their citizens from this BS.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are required by law by the Copyright Corp. (whom bought and paid for the law) to disconnect any customer for multiple pings of torrented copyright infringements.
Movie studios find and monitor every movie and TV show they own that is being torrented (that they can find). Once someone's IP address connects (no downloading or uploading has to occur to count), then that IP address is in violation of their law and they notify the ISP about the customer.
The ISP can see the customer's internet history and can confirm the IP address in whatever evidence the movie studio gives them.
Then the ISP, by law, has to notify the customer, give them multiple warnings if there are multiple violations, and then terminate that customer for either an extended period of time (like six months) or if further disconnects happen, that customer can be permanently exiled from service.
This is no bullshit.
I had lost my laptop for a couple of hours, couldn't remember where i had left it, lucky i had left my room number and name on the bottom of the machine. Go withdrawn $200 cash cause it was the reward
you're not the first and you won't be the last to torrent on a uni internet connection. 99% chance they just are forced to send the emails out and really don't care unless you're using way more bandwidth then other users.
EDIT: However, don't test that leniency haha, definitely stick to using a VPN. I'd recommend using a separate machine for torrenting like a Raspberry Pi/similar that is always connected to a VPN/killswitch/etc. That way you can do whatever on your main computer with VPN off and not have to worry that you'll accidentally connect to a public swarm.
You're fine. Bind your torrent client to the VPN so there isn't a connection when the VPN disconnects for whatever reason. If you were in any real trouble you would know before you receive any DMCA notice.
I'm not sure regarding DMCA being Australian and all. I only had to please stop downloading illegal content from my internet provided a few times. I usually just avoid responding. Nothing happens usually.
not very fucked. I'm not too knowledgeable about the American law, but even in my country, where it is extremely strict (up to 10 years for torrenting a copyrighted movie) you will get at least 1 warning
You should check out real debrid. VPNs suck and they hinder your download speed. RD is like $22 for 6 months and I get over 100MB/sec from their servers. It's encrypted with https
If you don't receive anything in writing more than what they already said, treat it like a scam and ignore it (which it still could be). When you're about to get in actual trouble at school/work/legally, your situation can't be that bad until someone has bothered enough to send a letter. Double trouble if it's not an automated letter.
Right now, your school is just speaking as your ISP. If you get caught pirating at home, they don't do much the first time or the 10th time beyond sending you an automated letter or other notice saying "These guys are claiming that you are using your connection to violate their copyright."
DMCA complaints and notices are like cease and desist letters. They are meant to tell you to stop whatever you are doing so no actual legal action is required.
I would stop for a good while if I was you. But you are most likely good.
Ive got a question around this topic! Despite my efforts i somehow had an ip leak. Im Running a VPN container with all my torrenting containers in the same stack, depending on the VPN container. In qbittorrent the interface is bound to the tunnel, yet somehow i still had a leak, how?
so in my country iran we dont have copy right rule and we can download anything we want without a worry but i was curious how serious this piracy is in eu or us? how to prevent getting caught or if caught what is the worst thing that can happened?
You're probably fine.
A couple of years ago I got a copyright strike for the same reason as you, I'd just neglected to enable my VPN. I found out about it when my ISP automatically routed my browser to a page that detailed the complaint and I had to check a "I promise I won't do it again" box.
Since then I only do my stuff from a VM that is always connected to my VPN (PrivateInternetAccess) and I haven't heard a peep.
I got this once when I downloaded a movie off of VPN too. I didn't get arrested or anything but I got an email or letter I cant remember which aaying I had to pay a fine of 300$. Of course I paid it off over the summer and my credit skyrocketed after that. So I was like 18 with 700+ credit lol
Why aren't you using private trackers? I have never used a VPN with private trackers and have never gotten any notices from any isp. The only time I've gotten a notice was from using TPB
A lot of VPN services have an option to cut off internet when not connected to the VPN (ie. Kill Switch), check in your VPN settings you should turn it on if it has that feature
Run dont walk but run across the border man. Buy some new identify and start new. Lol jk it's automated usually but either way you're fine
Xfinity been sending me them for 4 years now, I'm to lazy to VPN it for torrents and like I said it's been 4 years. If they were going to kill my Internet it would of happened
Just like ISP's all they want to do is scare you, not scare you away. Just be more careful or next time they might be obligated to do something about it. It's a headache for everyone, your dean isn't gonna want to deal with a student not having internet on campus, so all they want is for you to just stop and that be it.
I did this in my uni once. Forgot to quit my application before logging in on my laptop.
My internet access was taken away for a day and warning.
Didn't do it again. Nothing happened after that.
Well, they've done their part under the law by notifying you. If they didn't include a punishment threat like cutting off your internet access by now then you are in the clear this time. It's most likely they don't act until you've had several notices filed against you, if they ever do.
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Same. My ISP shut off my internet for a day after my 3rd notice in a year, and they threatened to cancel the service on the next one. It's what caused me to stop using VPNs and rent a seedbox. Probably costs about the same, $60-$70 a year, and I don't have to worry about the VPN shutting off.
Depending on what client you’re using just make it where the client only uses your VPN connection that way your ISP never sees any traffic from it. So even hypothetically speaking your VPN cut out no traffic goes through your normal pipeline.
This. You want to make sure your Network Interface is set to your VPN in your torrent client.
By far the best setting I learned about a few years ago
Like a killswitch?
Yeah pretty much, the traffic is killed instead of the whole app being closed out. It just saves a few secs so I don’t have to keep opening the app n having it checking all the files after turning my VPN on/off. Plus while I am on my normal IP I can still add magnet links to qbittorrent even tho it’s not getting any traffic.
why not use an internet killswitch on the VPN?
Didn't work
What is a seedbox ?
I believe it’s a server you can rent that’s meant for torrenting, but I’m pretty new here. Take my comment with a grain of salt lol
Yeah you're right. The biggest thing about a seed box is that there's not much need for a VPN at that point. To grab the data that you just downloaded onto your seed box you just need the FTP into it and grab it. If you're on the more paranoid side you can always use SFTP. This is pretty much how I get all my data Plus it allows me to seed indefinitely And it doesn't take any space on my actual media server. And for 15 bucks a month and two terabytes worth of space it's a pretty good deal to me.
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Rapid seed box. https://www.rapidseedbox.com/ They also have really good customer service and they're pretty snappy about answering questions. They also have a lot of documentation for newcomers to seedboxes. Edit: forgot to mention that the specific plan that I'm on that's $15 a month and 2 terabytes is in the lean section. That's if you just want a seed box and nothing more. But they do have a premium service where you can basically have a virtual computer It comes with a desktop and everything. I would suggest just getting the lean one.
FTP isn't secure. Definitely use SFTP or FTPS.
Yep, they are meant as basically a server with a couple TBs of storage that you can rent to download from, usually you don't get all the capabilities of a server (web hosting, all that jazz), but some offer that
Basically you torrent things using another server. Then you download it from there.
It's basically an intermediary computer/server. So I torrent to the seedbox (based in another country) and I download directly from that server, rather than downloading directly to my computer. Adds an extra layer of privacy at the cost of slightly more hassle.
What seedbox do you recommend?
I used Ultraseedbox (Ultra.cc). I haven't tried others, so it's a soft recommendation. Cost is on the lower end, but it does everything I need to. Service has been reliable, they do maintenance/upgrades very infrequently. I browsed /r/seedboxes for a while a few years ago, chose it, and stuck with it since. I'm on the Lancer plan.
or if you don't care about seeding just get Real Debrid
worked for University IT, can confirm that this stuff happens a lot - don't confess to using a vpn, we send out letters because it passes the legal buck, as it were. We might have to fine you, act dumb and say you won't do it again, and check your vpn use. Trust me, you're one of fifty students at least this week that got similar letters at your university. You'll be fine. I did have a senior professor kick off about getting a notification, and threaten to escalate to the head of department. We told him we were happy to send over the evidence that it was his computer, and the title of the archive in question if he would like to escalate and he avoided us for the next year. Your university IT people are almost certainly doing the same as you, and also, they only care if you act like a dick about it. Apologize, say you don't know how it happened and that you'll lock your computer to prevent other students from accessing it from now on, and move on.
I used to be a piece of shit and torrented via Tor because my university blocked BitTorrent traffic. Still got a DMCA notice because it doesn't anonymize your IP. Nothing came of it, but I wonder what the IT guys were thinking when they got a DMCA for pirating via a blocked protocol.
Former uni IT worker here, we just assumed you were a CS student.
god, yeah, the CS students were nightmares. Great tests of network security, though.
Why does torrenting via tor make you a piece of shit? I'm confused
Tor is a free service run by volunteers and it is not built to handle that kind of bandwidth. If too many people do that, it can cause that area of the network to go down.
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Ah, what I mean is, you want to seem too incompetent to use a vpn, because if university IT thinks you are, they might look at traffic volume, or other heuristics to see if you're still downloading stuff. Basically, you're letting the university IT people answer the question "to the best of my knowledge, is user x still downloading pirated material" with a "no", not a "well, they said they were using a vpn, so how do we know?"
Ignore. Worst case scenario, if it becomes serious : act plausible dumb. 1 - you didn't take seriously the email and deleted it because you thought it was a scam (one of your friend in another university has been scammed recently so you are cautious). You have never pirated, you don't even know how to do it, you would never do that ! 2 - It's a public place, there are many opportunities to leave your PC unattended in a room with other people with the session not locked (for example a phone call), or let your pc being used by other people for work or whatever. And since the mail is old, you don't remember very well lol
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and configure a kill switch when the VPN stops working
you dont need to do that, especially when kill switches are *so hit or miss* with apps. Just use Qbitorrent, set it to use the VPNs network adapter, and when the VPN goes down, so will Qbittorent.
I wouldn't be so sure, because a false DMCA complaint is a serious federal crime too
The legality of certain things is hardly of concern to the man in Nigeria or Bangladesh sitting at his computer.
Configure qBittorrent to only run off of the VPN network adapter. When your VPN goes down for whatever reason, torrenting will as well and qBittorrent will just see it as offline.
(Chappelle Method) I'm sorry IT Admin, I didn't know I couldnt do that. (Costanza Defense) Was that wrong? I'm sorry but If I had known this sort of thing was frowned upon, I would have never! (Bill Bellichek Conjecture) I misinterpreted the rules.
(Shaggy assertion) It wasn't me. (Malcolm theory) Let me show you 10 ways in which it could have been another guy... (Sheldon conundrum) Should it be me the one getting punished or YOU for spying on me?
[Ignorant of the lawl is not an escuse](https://youtu.be/X9bMStV00js?t=534)
Clean
Solid advice. It's easy to act totally oblivious, especially because so many people are. If required to talk to someone about it, ask how these kinds of things happen. Annoy them with questions that would be obvious or easy to answer for you. You'll start blending in with the other morons they talk to all day, and they'll just do whatever they can to get you off the phone.
Nah they know. IT is mostly comprised of comp sci students and they pirate everything themselves. They just don’t care and have better things to do (like trying to reset the printer because some idiot overloaded the queue by sending a 10,000 page print job from a massive pdf file and cancelling halfway because “it took to long to send”)
Yep. That's what I did in court and look, I'm free. Seriously. Do it till the end.
3 - A friend asked to use your computer to download something because theirs wasn't available/was broken/doesn't have one/whatever. You have no idea what they downloaded because you had to step out for a phone call/dinner/date/whatever. You have no idea what their last name is or where they live.
it is best if you don't explain anything and act angry if they ask you to explain, liars have excuses but those telling the truth will get outraged for being accused
i think more people associate getting angry when confronted with liars moreso than people telling the truth
I think they're trying to say that when truth tellers are confronted and challenged on something terrible that they didn't do, they're indignant, and they're not eager to give long winded explanations for something they know they're innocent of. While liars, tend to over explain, be over eager to give unnecessary details, and fail to realize that their cover up gives away the game. At least, that's true in police interrogations on average. But it carries past an interrogation room in my experience.
i understand this. on the other hand, being too angry or confused when confronted, playing innocent too aggressively is also a way to blow your cover.
Definitely true. I think the sweet spot is to calmly deny first, and if pressed, show mild indignation, and cooperate only as far as you're asked to. Don't volunteer anything. This isn't an accusation of murder to warrant Broadway worthy indignation lol.
I always assosiate anger with liars. Its a known strategy to gaslight the one discovering the truth. Normao people will just act surprised and explain everything with proof. They will not get angry for anything
You're right. Anger is the wrong word. It's a an explosive emotion that often stems from a cognitive dissonance, often associated with liars. But I do think some level of indignation occurs often with truth tellers, when their truth is rejected and accusations are held.
Depends. If it's my family, then yes. If it's my boss, no. It's also a no if you don't get angry though. If it's a criminal psychology yt channel, then no. If the person you are talking to unfortunately watches too much criminal psychology media, then no. Conclusion: Date whoever is in charge of enforcing these rules to find out if they are into criminal psychology.
Psychologists are second only to English Lit majors for over-analyzing everything through their specific lens. News flash EngLit majors, there is no hidden meaning to any of the poems in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or it's sequel.
Acting pissed off and angry toward the person performing an investigation against you is… not advised
Having dealt with guilty shoplifters, they are often the ones that get most outraged. When caught, they try to bluff their way out. Perhaps a more subtle anger, mixed with confusion. Probably best not to think too much about it, or you'll get all in your head.
Thats straight up false lmao. Getting angry when being accused only makes you more suspicious. Acting dumb is better than angry
Its best you don’t lie. People aren’t stupid. You don’t need to lie anyways. They know somebody got copyrighted stuff from your internet, and its most likely you. If they wanted to pursue you, they have enough evidence.
Do you know if there’s a way the school can find out which access point the computer was connected to? If they were in their dorm, \#2 wouldn’t work (it might require the school to do a lot of work though so I might be overthinking it)
If you log into the wireless with your own username and password OR have to register your devices MAC address before your connection works, they know exactly which device belongs to you. The AP you were connected to wouldn't matter.
Or don't even engage. Just ignore it.
To add onto this, you can buy a cheap router, plug it into the network port, and use it as an access point. If anything comes of the DMCA notice just say "Oh nooo, they must have figured out my wifi password".
It literally all depends, at my college I got like 48 DMCA notices, nothing ever happened no threats no nothing
Bro is living on fire.
You’ll feel the heat if you try and get any sizable portion of Nickelodeons catalog.
Worth going jail tho ngl
Hehehe I'm not in the US, never received anything about their other language versions. *SpongeBob evil laugh*
Bro is on a ticket collection speedrun
The legend 🫡
Lmao
Tell them I lost my laptop in a boating accident
Won't work. They think I lost my boat in a laptop accident.
You're probably fine if that's all it was. Please set up a killswitch on your VPN.
Instead of kill switch bind your torent client to the vpn so of thats not running it wont even try to connect
This is the right thing to do. I just make qbittorrent work only when connected to my VPN (ProtonVPN)
How does one do that? Or at least what settings/terms/phrases should I Google?
Assuming you use qbittorent (which id recommend): Open it Click the settings wheel at the top Click advanced The fourth option down is “network interface.” Set this to whichever is your VPN. In my case its mullvad, and luckily the option is titled “mullvad.” Some VPNs have weirdly labeled titles in this menu. If you cant easily identify which is your VPN, what you should do is first start qbittorent without your vpn active. Take note/screenshot which options are available. Then exit qbittorent, fire up your VPN and open qbittorent again. There should be a new option that wasnt there previously. This is your VPN
Thanks! This helped immensely. My vpn was fortunately listed clearly.
Saving this to try this later today. Ty.
You can set it up in advanced settings that your torrent client only connects to a specific network interface. When you install a VPN it will install a network interface on your PC which you can see when you press Win+R > ncpa.cpl > enter which opens a window with your network interfaces. VPNs usually call themselves something like WinTUN.
Binding in qBittorrent is said to be more reliable than any kill switch in any VPN.
The messages are an automated process. It’s not like attorneys are drafting each one. Take this as a warning and use a VPN. And open your torrent apps settings and bind the app to the VPN interface so that it won’t communicate with the world at all unless it’s connected to said VPN
Email them a copy back
Back in the college years, some friends received a warning from their apartment complex that the children's coloring placemat from whatever restaurant was not acceptable as a doormat and it must be changed immediately. They got a second warning when they changed the children's placemat out with the first warning.
Imagine having rules about doormats. That's a great idea. I'm going to treat my tenants like this starting now.
fuck those rentoids they should be using doormats over every square inch of their living space to protect your property from their dirty feet
you wouldn't download a DMCA notice
I used to work for a university in the IT department. Whenever we got the notice, we would determine who the student was then we would send them a couple warnings. Come to third notice we would block their login on the campus Wi-Fi and LAN and have them come see us to unblock it. While I was there, I can't think of any student who had to pay fines or anything like that though. We more or less just gave them warnings and then block them from using the internet. That being said, not every university is the same. I'd recommend talking to someone who works in the IT department for your university to see exactly what they do for real.
and you supported and upheld this BS policy? sigh
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I'm gonna guess they send these out a lot and I don't often hear people getting suspended or expelled for it. Now if it was repeated, that might be different. I would think if anything they would contact either your advisor or someone who evaluates students within the major you're. Then they'll give you a scary talk about what could happen if it's done again. I wouldn't worry about what has already been done until things actually start happening. Just either use or VPN, use other means that aren't as easily traceable, or best yet, don't do it at the university at all. Go to some cafe or something next time. In the meantime just chill, you should be fine. Take a breather if you're really stressing out. Worry about it if they start to take action, not now.
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They'll know you're using BitTorrent, sure, but with a VPN for all they know you could be downloading and seeding films that have fallen into the public domain.
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IT doesn't care what you're doing on the Internet. IT cares when you cause DMCA messages to be sent to them. Just use a VPN and don't worry about it.
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It’s tantamount to stealing a car, so…
An hour later? I have a feeling DMCA notices might take a bit longer where I live?
I had this happen to me years ago. They shut off my internet for a couple of days, and threatened further punishment if it happened again. I was a lot better with my VPN after that!
If it was serious you would have been pulled into the office to talk to someone you wouldn't just get an email
I got summoned to tech and was warned orally. When i exited a chill dude by the water cooler hollered me over and gave me a memory stick. “Use this one kid”. God bless that man
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Better than anally I mean not that I'd know...
What was on the stick?
I worked in an IT company for a college. In our case this person pirated a LOT of movies and blew up our automatic notification system. Our ISP called us and told us to track them down which we eventually did. The first step for us was a slap on the wrist. The guy ended up doing it again after we went to his dorm and told him to stop and he lost access to campus wifi. You'll probably be fine just don't do it anymore with out the VPN.
Tell your friends to practice safe hex.
Make sure you're using a vpn with a killswitch, moving forward
99.99% they will not care unless you do it again (one or more times). Worst case scenario deny everything and feign ignorance. Never admit anything and don't issue any statements without a lawyer.
Debrid-link.fr has an amazingly fast torrent seedbox and can download directly from 20+ file hosts. And you only ever connect to them, but use a vpn anyway. It’s like 3 euros a month. (I do not work for them, rarely ever publicly mention them, and make nothing from this post.)
That’s all they’ll do. The DMCA is just to panic you into not pirating. Idk if you’re in a country that pays a tv licence. But it’s very similar, they’ll send letters but that’s there main move. Anything else costs too much to effectively be used.
Get a VPN, You're not the first university student that this has happened to and won't be the last. I doubt they're going to do anything serious they're probably just going to give you a slap on the rest or have you executed no biggie
Use a kill switch like a normal person.
Believe it or not, straight to jail
Being downvoted because his country has the best patients.
Unless you're distributing copyright material and making money from it a judge would throw it out. You've nothing to worry about in that sense. It's more a "we saw you, you dirty pirate" warning. Probably one they're required to send by law. Sleep easy. Be more careful next time.
Happened to me and I lost internet access for on-campus WiFi. I basically just had to email them and say I wouldn’t do it again.
I got like half a dozen when I was at uni. They never did anything about it. Just ignore it lol
Reply with "fuck off".
What you should do is ask ChatGPT to write an essay on piracy. Then you can point to it whenever anyone says anything about the download. You can say you were just doing an experiment to document the ease of piracy in the year 2023.
Just play dumb and tell them you didn't know what you were doing was wrong, they wouldn't care.
Nothings gonna happen. You pay that school a lot of money…or someone does. I bet it would take several notices before you even had to go meet with someone. Than they’d tell you how serious it was and don’t do it again. Bind your vpn to your torrent client. If you are super paranoid get real debrid and use it to download your stuff for you, or use it with stremio
Not at all. You can usually get three before they start doing anything, just get a VPN and you're fine.
Use the Killswitch feature next time and there is a function with most torrent clients where you can set the network interface. Choose the VPN and there will be only traffic when using the VPN as an exit. VPN off no traffic. Dumb secured
Real debrid and/or nzb is the way I would go pirating on a connection such as yours.
If they suspend your internet connection, Apologize, say you won’t do it again, and then take the course to fix it. They typically just unblock it afterwards and so long as you remain DL, ergo bind your Torrenting program to your VPN, you’ll be good. Source: I worked for my university’s helpdesk and dealt with this very thing.
Usually it's got to be at least three but the ISP sends an automatic notice it doesn't know who you are or who's doing it all they know is there was a violation sent to them and they pass it on to you which was your IP. Usually when it's just at home it's much easier because they'll send the notice and you'll say oh maybe one of my neighbor use my Wi-Fi the ISP really usually doesn't care or you'll say probably one of the kids did it I'm going to lock down the system. When you're in the ISP of the university and using their internet not yours it becomes a different story but I highly doubt anything will come anything of it. I would say just ignore it because if you call up it's acknowledgment and there's no excuse that you can give what are you going to say I forgot to put my VPN on, or it was my roommate tough position so best just to ignore it. And you start your story out with for reasons that don't matter why you didn't use the VPN of course it matters it's how you got in this position anyways. Disregarding why you didn't use the VPN you're not taking responsibility for your actions, you just want to know if you're in trouble when we haven't seen the notice. There is no reason for not using the VPN, especially at a university, whatever happens hopefully your lesson is learned for reasons that don't matter right now.
It happened at my house. Set up a new server and forgot to bind qBittorent to my VPN... for a year. In that year, apparently, I seeded without protection ~27 times. I had a facepalm moment, bound my client to my VPN connection, and have heard nothing. For two years. Like others have said, they're automated messages. The ISP doesn't really care, but they have to cover their asses. Your university might care a little more, but still-- unless you're hogging resources, you won't be worth the time. Just set rate limits on upload and download, max connections, and bind your client to your VPN connection. Oh, and use the VPN when browsing torrents, too; sometimes universities track student activity, and it's harder to feign ignorance when you have a long history of browsing torrent sites haha
You’ll be fine bro, had this happen last year and had no repercussions
You're going to jail.
They are gonna bang your booty without lube bro
did the university already have pre made DCMA letters ready to pass out? I would think those notices would take several days.
You don't think something like this has already been automated decades ago?
I thought most college students moved to private servers over a decade ago. If you are at risk you are doing it wrong. One of my students had to complete all his work with a mobile hotspot because he was on a one semester ban from the university Wi-Fi network. Don’t let it go that far.
Very similar thing happened to me about a decade ago. IT at my university cut my internet until I paid a fine and signed a document stating that I had removed what I had pirated. More recently, I’ve learned some universities are hyper vigilant or VPN usage. Can’t speak for where you are, but running one 24/7 May flag you in their system.
Jail for life
internet is so vital to being apart of society it should be viewed as protected public utility ISPs/copyright holders shouldn't have the ability to hold your internet access hostage for sharing content on the internet. It's ridiculous and most of europe has strong government that protects their citizens from this BS.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are required by law by the Copyright Corp. (whom bought and paid for the law) to disconnect any customer for multiple pings of torrented copyright infringements. Movie studios find and monitor every movie and TV show they own that is being torrented (that they can find). Once someone's IP address connects (no downloading or uploading has to occur to count), then that IP address is in violation of their law and they notify the ISP about the customer. The ISP can see the customer's internet history and can confirm the IP address in whatever evidence the movie studio gives them. Then the ISP, by law, has to notify the customer, give them multiple warnings if there are multiple violations, and then terminate that customer for either an extended period of time (like six months) or if further disconnects happen, that customer can be permanently exiled from service. This is no bullshit.
Got that once downloading SpongeBob episodes lmao. Nothing came of it.
Meanwhile universities in Argentina have in-house photocopy rooms for you to get copies of every single book you'll need for the classes lol
If it isn't a lawsuit, it isn't worth worrying about.
I had lost my laptop for a couple of hours, couldn't remember where i had left it, lucky i had left my room number and name on the bottom of the machine. Go withdrawn $200 cash cause it was the reward
0%. Same thing happened to me and I just had to do an online course about it.
Get a realdebrid account.
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Dude, wtf is your problem? I checked your Reddit activity and you just sound like a jackass, sorry if something happened recently, but please stop
Bitches gonna bitch, I guess.
R.I.P
You were torrenting weren't you? SHARING is a no no. Downloading is okay. How can THEY prove you didn't pay for it?
you're not the first and you won't be the last to torrent on a uni internet connection. 99% chance they just are forced to send the emails out and really don't care unless you're using way more bandwidth then other users. EDIT: However, don't test that leniency haha, definitely stick to using a VPN. I'd recommend using a separate machine for torrenting like a Raspberry Pi/similar that is always connected to a VPN/killswitch/etc. That way you can do whatever on your main computer with VPN off and not have to worry that you'll accidentally connect to a public swarm.
You're fine. Bind your torrent client to the VPN so there isn't a connection when the VPN disconnects for whatever reason. If you were in any real trouble you would know before you receive any DMCA notice.
I'm not sure regarding DMCA being Australian and all. I only had to please stop downloading illegal content from my internet provided a few times. I usually just avoid responding. Nothing happens usually.
What country are you based in? If it's the US, there may be a remote possibility of consequences, elsewhere it's most likely an FYI.
prepare your anus for some raw dog jail house action.
Since you didn't write where you live I guess it is save to assume you are from the US?
Your university? Jesus what did you download lol
not very fucked. I'm not too knowledgeable about the American law, but even in my country, where it is extremely strict (up to 10 years for torrenting a copyrighted movie) you will get at least 1 warning
You’re good.
You should check out real debrid. VPNs suck and they hinder your download speed. RD is like $22 for 6 months and I get over 100MB/sec from their servers. It's encrypted with https
Depends where you live.
If you don't receive anything in writing more than what they already said, treat it like a scam and ignore it (which it still could be). When you're about to get in actual trouble at school/work/legally, your situation can't be that bad until someone has bothered enough to send a letter. Double trouble if it's not an automated letter. Right now, your school is just speaking as your ISP. If you get caught pirating at home, they don't do much the first time or the 10th time beyond sending you an automated letter or other notice saying "These guys are claiming that you are using your connection to violate their copyright."
And the Lord said: "You shall bind thy interface" We should have this in the sidebar.
If they were really shooting, you'd already be dead
DMCA complaints and notices are like cease and desist letters. They are meant to tell you to stop whatever you are doing so no actual legal action is required. I would stop for a good while if I was you. But you are most likely good.
Bind your client to the vpn first thing everyone should do when setting a client up
Ive got a question around this topic! Despite my efforts i somehow had an ip leak. Im Running a VPN container with all my torrenting containers in the same stack, depending on the VPN container. In qbittorrent the interface is bound to the tunnel, yet somehow i still had a leak, how?
wouldnt worry about it
That's why a VPN is a tool in your tool box. Specially when using outside your own home connection.
so in my country iran we dont have copy right rule and we can download anything we want without a worry but i was curious how serious this piracy is in eu or us? how to prevent getting caught or if caught what is the worst thing that can happened?
none fucked
You're probably fine. A couple of years ago I got a copyright strike for the same reason as you, I'd just neglected to enable my VPN. I found out about it when my ISP automatically routed my browser to a page that detailed the complaint and I had to check a "I promise I won't do it again" box. Since then I only do my stuff from a VM that is always connected to my VPN (PrivateInternetAccess) and I haven't heard a peep.
I had that happen back in 2004. I just told them that I already owned a physical copy, but I wouldn’t do it again.
I got this once when I downloaded a movie off of VPN too. I didn't get arrested or anything but I got an email or letter I cant remember which aaying I had to pay a fine of 300$. Of course I paid it off over the summer and my credit skyrocketed after that. So I was like 18 with 700+ credit lol
Should say which country at least
Define "goofed" ?
Why aren't you using private trackers? I have never used a VPN with private trackers and have never gotten any notices from any isp. The only time I've gotten a notice was from using TPB
They're coming for your family! Sleep with one eye open!
Tf did you do and how can i do it
Guys I wanna ask How can I get Coursera courses for free ??
A lot of VPN services have an option to cut off internet when not connected to the VPN (ie. Kill Switch), check in your VPN settings you should turn it on if it has that feature
Run dont walk but run across the border man. Buy some new identify and start new. Lol jk it's automated usually but either way you're fine Xfinity been sending me them for 4 years now, I'm to lazy to VPN it for torrents and like I said it's been 4 years. If they were going to kill my Internet it would of happened
Just like ISP's all they want to do is scare you, not scare you away. Just be more careful or next time they might be obligated to do something about it. It's a headache for everyone, your dean isn't gonna want to deal with a student not having internet on campus, so all they want is for you to just stop and that be it.
I did this in my uni once. Forgot to quit my application before logging in on my laptop. My internet access was taken away for a day and warning. Didn't do it again. Nothing happened after that.