Transmission (torrent client)- Selling me out to my ISP - Help Please

[chris001]

hey guys.\
i recently got an email from my ISP telus that i was in violation of copyright laws =0
for downloading an episode of House MD.

i download alot of tv shows because i'm rarely at home to watch them when they are on or i just forget

so i was wondering if there is a way to block my ip or if there is something that anyone knows how to do so that this wont happen again...

they said if i continue my services will be cancelled =0

so hopefully there is a way to block my IP so that this won't happen again??


this is a copy of the complaint...

Title: House MD S04E07
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 27 Jan 2008 03:19:56 GMT
Recent Infringement Timestamp: 27 Jan 2008 03:19:56 GMT
Infringing Filename: House MD S04E07
Infringing File size: 88128
Infringers IP Address: xx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Infringers DNS Name: xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx.bchsia.telus.net
Infringing URL: http://vip.tracker.thepiratebay.org:80/announce


please and thank you

 

[mrock]

What do you mean by 'block my IP'? The ISP has powers to cut your service off, is this what you mean? There's no way to hide your IP from your service provider...

The only surefire way to avoid this is to close Transmission and never use it again.

 

[russell.h]

Assuming you are in the United States:

1. You had better hope that your ISP determined this on their own, and that they aren't only alerting you because some content owner is suing them for your identity (the first step in the process of suing you for copyright violation).

But you are probably ok on that count if you haven't been downloading music. The MPAA (which represents the movie studios, not really sure about TV places) hasn't been suing individuals, only shutting down torrent trackers and the like. If you've been downloading music... well, chances are you're still ok and your ISP is just looking for a way to be a pain in the ass (they seem to take it upon themselves to do stuff like that), but if you get any scary looking letters you might want to think about getting a lawyer.

2. If you are going to keep on downloading, using encryption will prevent them from seeing what the actual traffic is (ie, they won't really be able to know that you are violating copyright law, not that they probably have to know for sure).

In Transmission go to the Advanced tab in preferences, then check "prefer encrypted peers" and "ignore unencrypted peers".

They will still be able to see who you are connecting to though, which would be enough for them to know that you're connecting to torrent trackers if they are really investing a lot of energy in the matter. Theres no way around that though. P2P traffic patters are pretty obvious (transferring lots of data to and from lots of IPs in ranges known to belong to be used primarily by residential internet connections.

There are also plugins for a lot of torrent clients that will blacklist known "anti piracy" companies. I wasn't able to find such a plugin for transmission when I looked, but that was quite a while ago.

 

[Fearless Leader]

I'd seriously consider stopping this. NOW. unless you like getting your ass handed to you in court. Though you can claim you had a wifi router and it is open, well now you can't.

It may just be your isp not liking the fact you are sucking up the bandwidth they promised you.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Well, the fact is you are in violation of copyright, and that most likely does breach your user contract with your ISP.

Regardless what the content is, some ISPs consider bittorrent activity of any kind to be against their terms and conditions (most of which say "thou shalt not run a server or upload service through thy residential connection, or thou shall suffer the wrath of the Mod")

Simple answer, as already stated, is: don't do it. Get a $29 VCR to do time shifting off air by analog, which is permitted for broadcast commercial TV.

 

[sulhaq]

Speaking from personal experience as a friend of mine recieved not one or two but SIX copyright infringement letters from comcast, I'd say you're pretty much in the clear. If you listen to your ISP and stop doing it now there won't be any problems. ISPs don't usually report copyright infringement to the MPAA if it's your first offense.

 

[chris001]

well the thing is...

someone contacted my ISP saying that this IP (my ip) was downloading illegally.

MY ISP said they didn't give out my information because they arn't allowed to unless they get a court order. and in that case they will give my info to the person(s) who contacted them in the first place.

so to clear things up. my ISP didn't determine this on their own. An external source contacted them about my improper use =S

hopefully nothing comes from this..
but i'll probably lay off the downloading for awihle
i do have a wireless router, and i'll just claim that someone else is using my net if worst comes to worse =0

thanks for your repsonses everyone

and if anyone has anything else to post i'd appreciate it.
thanks.