In countries like Germany or United States it is not possible to hack without VPN, since they have implemented the system of three strikes. If they catch you three times the IP downloading content by torrent, they can go to fine you hundreds of euros. These letters border on extortion, since they urge the user to pay in exchange for not going to trial. Thus, hundreds or thousands of these types of lawsuits can be a great source of income for companies.
Letters from a company that owns a movie
Now, there is a new country whose citizens suffer from these types of cards: the United Kingdom. There a judge has given permission to the American company Voltage Holdings to send letters to suspected pirates in the country. The first to receive it have been clients of the Virgin operator.
In the letter, Voltage Holdings details that it discovered your IP address by sharing a content via torrent. This IP adress It is owned by Virgin, and therefore the company goes on to contact the operator to transfer the data of who was using that IP address on the day and time the content was being shared. The content in this case is the movie Ava.
The letter assumes that the owner of that IP address has been the one who has downloaded the content, which in many cases is not true. For example, it could have been another member of the house, or even someone who is stealing the WiFi. The company, in this case, leaves the door open for the user to defend himself and argue that he was not the one who downloaded the content.
Innocent until proven otherwise
However, if the user cannot prove that he was not the one who downloaded content, then you will have to sign an agreement with the company in which you will promise not to infringe your copyright again, as well as you will have to pay compensation. The figure they demand has not transpired, but it will probably be hundreds of euros. The receivers have 14 days to reply, but it is recommended that they receive legal advice before doing so.
Virgin has confirmed that it has released user data to the company after being requested by the judge. Such a case could also be repeated in Spain, which has already happened in the past. Fortunately, in these cases, the company has no evidence that the user has committed copyright infringement beyond an IP address. It will be the judge who will have to determine whether or not that is true.
Voltage has likely requested identify users of more operators. In the past, cases similar to this have been resolved in favor of customers in the UK. In Spain, the last case was resolved differently in two courts, where in one the users were acquitted, and in the other they were convicted.