The 5 Steps You Should Take When You Receive A Subpoena Letter From ISP
Website design By BotEap.comCopying music, movies and software over the Internet using BitTorrent is now quite common. Sandvine recently posted information on the amount of internet traffic being used by top apps, with BitTorrent ranked # 1 upstream app, # 4 downstream app, and # 4 overall app behind Netflix, YouTube, and HTTP. What’s worse is that many people don’t even know that it is illegal to use BitTorrent or other file-sharing programs to copy content. Given this background, it should come as no surprise that copyright holders have become increasingly aggressive when it comes to going after Internet file-sharers.
Website design By BotEap.comWhile file-sharing lawsuits began several years ago based on music-sharing on services like Napster, Grokster, and LimeWire, the vast majority of massive copyright lawsuits now center on BitTorrent. Torrent lawsuits generally take the form of a copyright holder suing numerous “John Doe” or “Doe” defendants. The defendants are named John Doe because the copyright holder only knows them by their individual IP addresses. However, once litigation has started, the copyright holder may request the Court’s permission to issue subpoenas to the Internet Service Providers of the various Doe Defendants in the case. Subpoenas to ISPs will look for identifying and contact information for the Do’s in the case, including the name and address of each Do, and generally the phone number and email address.
Website design By BotEap.comIf you’ve received a subpoena letter from ISP informing you that your information will be released to a massive copyright plaintiff in the near future, chances are you and your family are under enormous stress. Additionally, there is a lot of conflicting advice on the Internet, most of it posted by non-attorneys or by attorneys who have handled few or none of these types of lawsuits. Also, most online sources do not provide practical advice. Below is an action plan that I recommend to clients, and hopefully it can help them resolve their copyright lawsuit.
Website design By BotEap.comPlain Action
Website design By BotEap.com1. Don’t ignore the letter of summons. Make no mistake about it – you have been charged with copyright infringement by copying content over the internet, and the copyright holder has filed a lawsuit. This is no laughing matter. There are a lot of bad advice on the internet stating that you can simply ignore a subpoena letter from the ISP. However, non-compliance judgments of more than one million dollars ($ 1,000,000) have been awarded in multiple file-sharing lawsuits in which Does chose to ignore the ISP’s subpoena letters. Ignoring an ISP citation letter can literally ruin your life – don’t do it.
Website design By BotEap.com2. Act quickly. Take the ISP’s letter of summons seriously and get to work right away. In each case, the key parameter of your action plan is whether you will fight the claim or settle. You will need to determine this prior to the date your information is released by your ISP to the copyright holder. In particular, unless the copyright owner has been prohibited from listing it publicly, the copyright owner will be able to do so once they have your information, giving the copyright owner additional leverage. about you (especially if the content you are accused of copying is pornographic). Similarly, obtaining information on file sharers is costly for copyright holders – it requires a successful subpoena. Once your name is “out there”, a second copyright holder is much more likely to decide to go after you.
Website design By BotEap.com3. Get the facts. The first step in determining whether you want to fight the case or settle is to determine whether the allegations that have been made against you are true. Here is a checklist for your research:
Website design By BotEap.comGeneral background questions
- Who are the computer users in your home?
- Of all computer users, are any of them under 18 years of age?
- Do you or someone else in your household copy content over the Internet?
- What are the make and model of your home computers, including desktops, laptops, servers, smart TVs, gaming rigs, digital media players, including DVD players, Blu-Ray players, game consoles? games, portable game devices, smart devices? phones and tablets.
- Is there a BitTorrent client installed on a computer in the house? If so, which ones?
- Is there any antivirus software installed on any computer in the house? If so, which ones?
- Who is your broadband Internet service provider?
- Who is your cable or satellite service provider?
- Who is your wireless service provider?
- Is your network fully wired or is there a wireless router?
- What different networks are configured for wireless access? For example, it is common to configure a “full access” network and a “guest” network.
- Does each network have a password or is it open?
- For each network with a password, who knows the password?
- Does the router keep a log of network access and show any unexplained activity?