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I got one of those years ago and never replied. Never heard back again.
A friend got one some time after that. He got scared and got a lawyer. He phrased a response letter with a reduced payment. He explained to me, that the phrasing is very important. You cannot under any circumstance show guilt for the alleged infringement, because then they come back with a vengeance (demands in the thousands of €). Paying the 900€ would already equate an admission of guilt.
This is a really nice TIL, I'll remember this for the future
The letter from the lawyer was basically saying, that there is no way that my friend infringed on any copyrights since he acquires all his media legally. Someone had to have hacked in to his wi-fi, and he is willing to pay a couple hundred € for the troubles of the damaged parties.
That's enough for those scummy private laws firms. Going against an actual lawyer would cost more than it would net them.
Normal letter or registered letter?
If it's email or normal letter it just goes in the trash without any reply
I'm not from Germany and not a lawyer so take this with a pinch of salt, but they wouldn't be offering a settlement at such an early stage if they were confident they could successfully sue you. If it were me, I'd ignore them, and if it gets to the point I can no longer ignore them, I'd deny deny deny.
The situation in Germany is terrible - https://blog.raychenon.com/file-sharing-violations-in-germany/
In Germany private law firms can carry out the investigation, warning letters and prosecution, maybe in the latter case with the GVU. Germany loves its citizens reporting eachother ever since the DDR days.
My advice would be to move anywhere but Germany.
How can they prove you downloaded something if all they can see is an IP address? For all you know you accidently left your wifi open and some ruffian driving by downloaded the file.
Edit: guess I could have read the link first.
The German Federal Supreme Court decided that every person who owns an internet connection is under an obligation to ensure that it is secured.
"secured" in this instance means password protected. This does not mean it can't be accessed by tech-savvy people with nefarious intentions. That's why you can still claim you never had anything to do with it and get away with it, because you did your duty and an IP isn't enough to identify a person.
Also: CGNAT means an IP isn't 1 person anymore. If you're reading this I know it was you, but that's another tool to deny having done it.
The information posted is completely outdated, Germany has changed its laws considerably since then:
This is old and false information. The incident in the link happened already a decade ago and laws have changed since then.
The current situation is that they need to prove it was you and not someone else in front of a court, so if you tell them it wasn’t you but someone you know they’d need to open up a court case which is way to expensive for them and that’s it.
Also what are you on about „citizens reporting on each other“, lol. This is some lawyers who found an easy way to make money. Those exist in every country. Also everywhere „private companies“ (aka lawyers) can make investigations and go prosecute someone. That’s what they’re for.
I got one of those letters in Finland, never replied to it, they never contacted me again.
I've had 2 experiences with this before. First, I got caught torrenting the flash and got a letter from a law firm asking for a bit more than 1k. At that time I was very young and my dad sorted it by contacting them and getting it "down" to 800€.
Second, a friend of mine who also used stremio, which at that time we both didn't have a clue used a torrent add-on got a letter for torrenting a film. Same law firm asking for the same amount. His parents knew some lawyers and I am not sure about this part denied that he torrrented purposely and that it must have been an error. He never paid a cent.
What I'd say is that you should never pay the full price and definitely either as suggested don't contact them at all or maybe consult a lawyer. But most important don't panic and stay calm. I could have probably have saved money if I were more mature and didn't freak out the way I did.
Oof, good luck!
Maybe somebody who's dealt with this before will give you some advice.
Right now I'd say don't rush paying unless you really have to (maybe it goes away on its own somehow), and if it goes further play stupid as much as you can - you found the movie free on the internet and you got it - why wouldn't you, it was free. Not your fault it was there. And make it seem you don't understand the concept of seeding, leeching ,etc.