Torrents

[eva888]

So I know that downloading torrents is illegal in Finland, but does anyone know how strictly it is enforced?

In the US I think you had to be charged by the person you are actually stealing from so it was very rare and usually is preceded by "cease and desist" kind of letters. It occurred to me that it might be different here.

Thanks!

[riku2]

I have not seen much about it, only this story http://yle.fi/uutiset/10-year-old_girl_ ... ic/6397224

probably the investigations in finland are driven by the rights holders to the finnish market and material made by finnish artists is investigated more thoroughly since the perceived loss of revenue is greater. for material which is from abroad and the finnish rights holders are just some small distributor or local office I doubt they have the resources or interest to start any investigation. and if nobody holds the rights to the finnish market I wonder if anybody cares at all.

[caster]

https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-blo ... al-120212/

[eva888]

That's a good point! I only saw that 10-year-old girl story as well, and that was about downloading Finnish music - also from several years ago. Anyway, I hope it's okay!

[saika1984]

See this link too
http://torrentfreak.com/file-sharing-co ... nd-140326/

The point is there are/were some oversea copyright-trolls who hired Finnish law firm to claim some "fine" (of 600 EUR), more recent than the little girl case, but not sure if that ever worked. I wouldn't want to risk it just to watch the latest movies.

In my experience it is the movie companies who are most actively protecting their products, especially new movies. TV series from public networks may be less strict since they are sort of "free" (you can even watch the latest episode from networks' website by simply changing your IP address to a US one). Paid cable TV series again might be a different story.

[Beep_Boop]

Since these things are relatvely close to my field of expertise, I think I can offer some advice. From my experience, things usually fall in these categories:

1- A big-time uploader or a member in some scene group is chased by the authorities for releasing/torrenting and this makes the news.

2- Copyright holders' friend firms monitor torrent swarms and pick a few IP addresses and check of jurisdiction or possible information-sharing deals between authorities in different countries. If the IPs are easily traceable to certain people, the people are handed warning letters.

3- Once in a while, an arbitrary IP address is picked (either based on some conditions, or just completely random) and some legal actions are pursued to create a stir in the media and to "teach others a lesson".

So, what can do you to avoid these things happening to you? Simple:
- Don't get involved with scene groups and don't be tempted to upload new stuff (especially not stuff made where you live).
- If you get a warning from your ISP (quite rare in Finland)... let's say, ummm, take certain measures to prevent the situation from happening again.
- Don't download stuff made or owned by people in the country where you live.

Of course, my official advice would be to absolutely stay away from anything related to illegally downloading copyrighted materials, but the above advice should minimize the (legal) risk to near zero.

[foca]

Since these things are relatvely close to my field of expertise, I think I can offer some advice. From my experience, things usually fall in these categories:

1- A big-time uploader or a member in some scene group is chased by the authorities for releasing/torrenting and this makes the news.

2- Copyright holders' friend firms monitor torrent swarms and pick a few IP addresses and check of jurisdiction or possible information-sharing deals between authorities in different countries. If the IPs are easily traceable to certain people, the people are handed warning letters.

3- Once in a while, an arbitrary IP address is picked (either based on some conditions, or just completely random) and some legal actions are pursued to create a stir in the media and to "teach others a lesson".

So, what can do you to avoid these things happening to you? Simple:
- Don't get involved with scene groups and don't be tempted to upload new stuff (especially not stuff made where you live).
- If you get a warning from your ISP (quite rare in Finland)... let's say, ummm, take certain measures to prevent the situation from happening again.
- Don't download stuff made or owned by people in the country where you live.

Of course, my official advice would be to absolutely stay away from anything related to illegally downloading copyrighted materials, but the above advice should minimize the (legal) risk to near zero.

What do you think about Vpn services? Does using one help to make the final user untraceable ? Or there are still ways to trace the end user?

[Beep_Boop]

What do you think about Vpn services? Does using one help to make the final user untraceable ? Or there are still ways to trace the end user?

If they're really really after you and really really want to trace you, then yes they can. They can get a warrant and ask the VPN provider to temporarily log data to catch you in the act and then hand over your IP.
However, that's not as simple as just a law suit where the name of a person is given, that requires actual law enforcement effort to get a warrant then execute it and then wait for the VPN provider to give data. Of course, if you're using HTTPS to browse the torrent site and use Protocol Encryption (in your torrent client's settings), then you've just made their job 10x more difficult.

If you want to do this (and I'm required to advise you not to, so don't do it), you should check your VPN's terms of service to see if they allow torrenting. Or, better, get one of those no-questions-asked VPN services.

In the end, really, if you just stick to regular downloading American TV shows and movies, you should be fine. Just don't start cracking and uploading DVDs you get from Makuuni and you'll be fine.

[foca]

What do you think about Vpn services? Does using one help to make the final user untraceable ? Or there are still ways to trace the end user?

If they're really really after you and really really want to trace you, then yes they can. They can get a warrant and ask the VPN provider to temporarily log data to catch you in the act and then hand over your IP.
However, that's not as simple as just a law suit where the name of a person is given, that requires actual law enforcement effort to get a warrant then execute it and then wait for the VPN provider to give data. Of course, if you're using HTTPS to browse the torrent site and use Protocol Encryption (in your torrent client's settings), then you've just made their job 10x more difficult.

If you want to do this (and I'm required to advise you not to, so don't do it), you should check your VPN's terms of service to see if they allow torrenting. Or, better, get one of those no-questions-asked VPN services.

In the end, really, if you just stick to regular downloading American TV shows and movies, you should be fine. Just don't start cracking and uploading DVDs you get from Makuuni and you'll be fine.

I only use Vpn to watch paid tv services with geographical restrictions and to have access to geographically restricted sites. I am way too lazy to download any torrents , my motto - sooner or later I will see everything on paid tv, so there is no need to rush it .
But I quite agree with you that it is quite a long way before they can get to the final VPN user

[Beep_Boop]

Oh, you're talking about things like Netflix and Hulu. Yeah, I use Netflix with VPN as well. They really have no incentive to go after a paying customernlike that. I think we're good for the foreseable future.

[Upphew]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/03/netf ... n-on-vpns/

[Beep_Boop]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/03/netf ... n-on-vpns/

Scare news. It's just to make the copyright holders happy. In reality, nothing is happening.

[foca]

I understand that Netflix wants to uphold the regional restrictions for the sake of content producers, but these regional restrictions are somewhat stupid in ever expanding world of communications. It is just will not work , partly due to the service extension. Although they do maintain restricted access to different content in different regions, sooner or later they will cover the whole Europe .... In that respect sky is more unique since the main access is by satellite ... But even they will sooner or later succumb to the globalization of the media market.

[riku2]

But even they will sooner or later succumb to the globalization of the media market.

I can't see this happening since the prices people are willing to pay differ so much in different markets, i'm not even sure F1 is pay to view in the UK but in Finland it commands quite a premium. On the other hand premier league football costs big money for those living in the UK but Finns would not pay such prices. I don't see that any amount of technology is going to change that principle, so the rights holders are going to want to keep the market segmented. Otherwise people will just subscribe to the cheapest channel showing F1 regardless of where they live.
It will be interesting to see what happens with mobile phone subscriptions this year since the EU will enforce roaming prices the same as domestic prices. So this is in effect the same thing. Residents in one country have access to every EU provider, paying only the prices that provider sets for their home market.

[FinnGuyHelsinki]

It will be interesting to see what happens with mobile phone subscriptions this year since the EU will enforce roaming prices the same as domestic prices. So this is in effect the same thing. Residents in one country have access to every EU provider, paying only the prices that provider sets for their home market.

Have no illusions that on average the customer would be saving money. The likely outcome is raised prices across the board to compensate for the roaming charge revenue loss. Also, an operator can choose where (to which charging addresses) to sell subscriptions, and in which networks/countries they offer roaming and for which services, albeit of course a wide coverage is one aspect making a subscription more desirable.