Hey friends!
Let’s say (hypothetically) that my friend got a (hypothetical) letter threatening legal action for (hypothetical) copyright violation of adult content, and they provided an IP address which is not quite, but almost the same as my friends own IP address.
If my friends current IP is in the form “12.345.XXX.XXX”, then the provided IP is of the form “12.345.YYY.YYY”, where the X and Y numbers differ, but the first 2 parts are the same (although I obviously changed it here). The provided IP links to the same city as the original, but it is different in the last 2 parts. The provided IP was supposedly recorded back in September. Also, according to whatsmyipaddress[dot]com, both addresses are “Likely Static”.
Could my friends IP have been the prodived one a few months ago, and then changed by my ISP? Can this be linked back to my friend?
I’m not asking for legal advice, simply to understand the IP protocol a bit better.
Also, sorry if this isn’t the correct community to post such a question.
Thanks!
If you got the letter, your ISP must have linked the IP to you. That’s how these things work: rights holders tell the ISP that they have proof that someone from Ip address X uploaded their material on date Y, and then the ISP matches that up to a customer.
Without the ISP involved, the rights holder has no way of matching an IP to an identity
I’d be checking if the internet service has a static IP. If it does, and another letter comes respond to the letter with “I believe this letter has been sent to me in error. My Static IP provided by my ISP while being similar to the one listed, is not the same. If it’s not check with the ISP if they have a record of all IP Addresses used for that service.
I’d also ask for specifics when the infringement occurred and as much data on the machine like hostname or local IP used in question, there is a chance someone hacked the wifi.
Note this is probably a scam and you should ignore the letter. Unless it was child porn then they’ll never do anything. And if it was child porn the cops would come not a letter.
Yes, yes, and yes. The sender of the letter (not your ISP) is complaining about your friend distributing copywrite content - not downloading it.
This happens when you are downloading via torrents - because you are also sharing everything you have downloaded. They are complaining about the sharing.
So, use a VPN, stop sharing torrents, or stop torrenting. Those are the options, if you don’t want to get in trouble.
had a dcma take down request a few years ago, made me look into security like vpn and seedbox, as far as my isp is concerned, I am doing some work stuff and then some data tap is opened, nothing to trace to me
unlikely to be a scam, you or your friend were probably torrenting one of those films made to snare people and demand cash as the film is crap, but you will not know this until you download it
have friends on I think virgin who used to and probably still do leave torrents on 24/7
if the letter is along the lines of ip address 127.0.0.1 was observed to be downloading some adult film on the 1st sept 2023 for 9 weeks… then there is the implication that action would be taken if they did not stop and yes it can get very expensive, along the lines of please pay $25,000 or we will see you in court
Probably a scam, either way it’s nothing to worry about. Use a VPN, stop sharing torrents after they are done, and check if your network configuration IS on a static ip. Your friend doesn’t seem to be too knowledgeable and shouldn’t leave his torrents running 24/7.