I always got the feeling it was much easier to get caught using something like Limewire, Soulseek, etc.. rather than getting caught from torrents. I really hadn't heard of anyone getting caught downloading/uploading from torrents until now.
I've also gotten a warning from my cable provider, that they got a warning from NBC, about my dl episodes of Heroes. The guy was nice about it. He just said delete them, and try to be more careful next time. He said if you've been warned 3 times (by the cable company), they'd cancel my service. I never got a direct message from NBC though. And I actually didn't know they aired episodes online, I would've done that rather then torrents. I delete the files after watching them to save hd space.
How did they contact you? I don't understand why networks would care so much over their own shows. It helps more people access the show. Most people I know download these shows from torrents, since they missed the actual airing. Then when they catch up via torrents, they watch the show on live tv or Tivo, etc.. when it runs again. If people couldn't catch up to past episodes, it would drop alot of viewership, imo.
Remember the Boki's dunk and following block against Karla Malone in the playoffs a few years ago? It was all over youtube at one point but when I went searching for it a few months ago, they were all gone. I wonder if the NBA asked youtube to take it down.
A representative from my cable company (Cox) contacted me. He said they received a warning from NBC. So I guess in my case, NBC wanted my cable company to take action rather then contact me directly.
It's all the same. You are naked on the net. Bittorrent wasn't designed for anonymity. It was designed to get stuff the quickest way possible. Again, the number of downloaders make it impossible for the media companies to litigate everyone, so they go after the biggest offender or do a random audit of a torrent and litigate from that list. The biggest thing going for us is that it doesn't look good for a company to litigate their customers.
\ Yeah. I never do that. Never have time to watch it. I just pirate the episodes and never watch them live.
If Cox doesn't make you take it down, they would have their safe harbor rights revoked and could be liable for your downloads. You'd still be liable, but Cox has a bigger wallet than you.
That's partially why I think they went after Cox. This way they make Cox spend time/money policing rather then NBC themselves.
