Caught Downloading Copyrighted Material—Now What? [Call For Help]

Category: Science/Tech | Posted by laraib 1518 days ago

Reader Liza is in a pickle and needs advice. She writes in:
I recently followed Lifehacker's guide to BitTorrent and set my laptop up with the uTorrent program. Using a combination of PizzaTorrent and uTorrent, I downloaded several movies and albums, perhaps 30 in all. Yesterday I received a letter in the mail from Cablevision (my ISP) saying that Paramount/Dreamworks had filed a complaint with them regarding my illegal download of one of their films.The letter states that I am not being sued and my service is not being disconnected at this point but that Paramount/Dreamworks has the right to pursue legal action against me and Cablevision was warning me of that. I know Lifehacker doesn't endorse downloading copyrighted material—but we all know what uTorrent and these types of programs are being used for. Do any of you have experience with anything like this? Anyone else receive the dreaded copyright infringement letter? How did you respond? Tell us what happened in the comments.