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As topic title really I have a friend (no seriously) who has recently been sent an email,( not a letter) instructing him that company "X" (lets call them company X instead of the big french CAD company) has noticed copyright infringment via one of their products reporting back to the mothership , basically they are accusing him of downloading and installing software , he hasn't , this hasn't stopped company x basically trying to use a bit of Brinkmanship and getting what they call a mediator involved ,who is now claiming to be trying to help "him" with his licensing issue,
Now my friend is pretty computer savvy so when said mediator offered up an IP address and the best part of 15 MAC adresses he cried foul , and pressed them for more info, at which point they then suggested Times and dates the software was used , going as far back as 2016 , he uses a rather clever piece of equipment which can prove if its on an external network or an internal network and thus the accessing of the general open wifi of the industrial complex or the internal network which supports his own business , it also logs the MAC adresses , so again he rebutted these claims with more facts, and now they have run out of tenuous links connecting an IP and a MAC address tried to pull the scare tactic
Basically saying he is now liable as its his network people have used to access the www and he would be responsible for the offenders actions.?? Not sure how true this is
Initially the scary you owe us 80,000 euro has been reduced to 12000 euro or two seats of the software license on the back of me querying what they want the outcome of this to be , the mediator is a paid employee of the company ,calling from spain even though we are in the UK and by the time we were all listening on the speaker had pulled a few disturbing tricks like mentioning litigation several times, and advising this was the only recourse if he wasn't prepared to pay up , as he would like to help him almost like a single man god cop bad cop.
So my friend asked if he could help him back , if you give me the information you purport to have I would be happy to look up and see who accessed and when, the guy then pulled a name out which was indeed an occupant of the industrial estate, he embellished the story saying the software was being used to design tractor parts, which did seem tally up possibly? so he then eager to help goes off to approach said individual to ask if he could inspect his mac address, which he gladly let him do and the numbers didn't match up
Off he goes back to said mediator to advise him that the name he had given didn't correspond with any details they had proved, after the second name was given we started to smell a distinct whiff of fish? because basically that guy doesn't have a computer the evidence given this time was the motorcycle repair man no name just the motorcycle repair man , at which point he asked if he was just googling companies on our industrial estate, and it seems he was indeed doing just that as he then proceeded to produce another name , well by this point my friend was starting to feel a bit OMG is this actually happening
In light of this he then asked for definitive proof of the infraction , and any further evidence to identify the user on his networks which he got a bit narked about , asking if he was trying to get him sacked , could he perhaps send the info by email , No again was the reply, could you send it by letter? No again, it costs money to send letters was the reply (I'm not sure if he means solicitors letters)
By the time he had finished ranting about how he (the mediator was trying to help) I suggested to him that advising said mediator that only communicating via email would be his best course of action as these calls were going around in circles.
Now the Mediator seemed to then suggest that the owner of said business would not be entitled to his generous offer of two shiny new licences of software he doesn't use , doesn't know how to use ,and doesn't need , nor ever will as the minute he has to email any further info it would be going to litigation.
I feel a call his bluff moment coming on, but first id love to look into how many cases "their" solicitor has actually brought , in the interests of looking it up I've found only 6 threads on the www corresponding to people in the UK receiving such notifications but think these were probably students or one man sole traders doing a bit of a naughty thing in a bedroom for a hobby so would probably have cost a few quid to bring a civil case for the amount of return, I think personally they have seen he is a business ,not realised hes very technically computer capable and thought we can rinse this guy without understanding hes a small business with sod all to lose anyway.
Now my friend is pretty computer savvy so when said mediator offered up an IP address and the best part of 15 MAC adresses he cried foul , and pressed them for more info, at which point they then suggested Times and dates the software was used , going as far back as 2016 , he uses a rather clever piece of equipment which can prove if its on an external network or an internal network and thus the accessing of the general open wifi of the industrial complex or the internal network which supports his own business , it also logs the MAC adresses , so again he rebutted these claims with more facts, and now they have run out of tenuous links connecting an IP and a MAC address tried to pull the scare tactic
Basically saying he is now liable as its his network people have used to access the www and he would be responsible for the offenders actions.?? Not sure how true this is
Initially the scary you owe us 80,000 euro has been reduced to 12000 euro or two seats of the software license on the back of me querying what they want the outcome of this to be , the mediator is a paid employee of the company ,calling from spain even though we are in the UK and by the time we were all listening on the speaker had pulled a few disturbing tricks like mentioning litigation several times, and advising this was the only recourse if he wasn't prepared to pay up , as he would like to help him almost like a single man god cop bad cop.
So my friend asked if he could help him back , if you give me the information you purport to have I would be happy to look up and see who accessed and when, the guy then pulled a name out which was indeed an occupant of the industrial estate, he embellished the story saying the software was being used to design tractor parts, which did seem tally up possibly? so he then eager to help goes off to approach said individual to ask if he could inspect his mac address, which he gladly let him do and the numbers didn't match up
Off he goes back to said mediator to advise him that the name he had given didn't correspond with any details they had proved, after the second name was given we started to smell a distinct whiff of fish? because basically that guy doesn't have a computer the evidence given this time was the motorcycle repair man no name just the motorcycle repair man , at which point he asked if he was just googling companies on our industrial estate, and it seems he was indeed doing just that as he then proceeded to produce another name , well by this point my friend was starting to feel a bit OMG is this actually happening
In light of this he then asked for definitive proof of the infraction , and any further evidence to identify the user on his networks which he got a bit narked about , asking if he was trying to get him sacked , could he perhaps send the info by email , No again was the reply, could you send it by letter? No again, it costs money to send letters was the reply (I'm not sure if he means solicitors letters)
By the time he had finished ranting about how he (the mediator was trying to help) I suggested to him that advising said mediator that only communicating via email would be his best course of action as these calls were going around in circles.
Now the Mediator seemed to then suggest that the owner of said business would not be entitled to his generous offer of two shiny new licences of software he doesn't use , doesn't know how to use ,and doesn't need , nor ever will as the minute he has to email any further info it would be going to litigation.
I feel a call his bluff moment coming on, but first id love to look into how many cases "their" solicitor has actually brought , in the interests of looking it up I've found only 6 threads on the www corresponding to people in the UK receiving such notifications but think these were probably students or one man sole traders doing a bit of a naughty thing in a bedroom for a hobby so would probably have cost a few quid to bring a civil case for the amount of return, I think personally they have seen he is a business ,not realised hes very technically computer capable and thought we can rinse this guy without understanding hes a small business with sod all to lose anyway.
