Copyright violation from Electronic Arts email

love-belt1027 wrote:Hello all.

I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to these things, but I have received an email with the subject "Copyright Violation from Electronic Arts" from my ISP and am wondering if I should be worried. It includes a notice from ESA. Is this serious?

I got a message from my ISP because of 'copyright violation':

We are very sorry to hear that. It is unfortunately a widespread practice in some countries that Internet Service Providers are closely monitoring certain types of internet traffic. In most cases, these messages that internet-subscribers receive seem to be automated, and actual legal consequences tend to be rare (are authorities going to punish every kid or adult downloading something?!). However, it is possible that your internet subscription may be cancelled by the ISP. At this point, we can only emphasize that problems along these lines are out of our hand, and it will be your responsibility in the first place to make certain arrangements prior to torrenting. However, what we can give you, are some general guidelines on what could be done:

  Is it possible for you to switch your Internet Service Provider?

  Do you torrent frequently, or only sometimes? If you don't use torrents very often, you could ask a family member or friend to help you out on this - if they agree of  course.

  Many people use so-called VPNs for torrenting purposes. These are services (which cost money), that have the capability to mask your internet traffic in such a way as to make it either very difficult, or even impossible for your ISP to 'identify' your torrenting activities. Remember that in order to be compatible with torrenting purposes, you will need to go for paid VPN subscriptions, as free VPNs tend to be only suitable for browsing the web. Good VPN providers with torrenting-compatibility are for example "NordVPN" and "Windscribe". Check out the discussion-topic here to learn more.

 In the context of The Sims 4, look at the individual announcements (in the "News"-section) for each G4TW The Sims 4-repack to find direct download options, which should be safer to use than torrents. Though there have been reports by a few users that direct downloads are monitored as well, these download formats still seem a feasible alternative. Though of course if you want to be 100% sure, use a paid VPN subscription as well for fetching direct downloads. Alternatively, look for ZLOrigin here, as well as anadius's alternative installers.

  In general, we don't recommend that you simply 'ignore' these warning letters by your ISP, unless you have made sure through your own research that there won't be any consequences for you in doing so. For further information, and if possible for you, you should try seeking the advice of a professional legal counsel (lawyer) on this matter, who is familiar with the legal situation of torrenting in your local community or country.

love-belt1027 wrote:I'm so spooked though. (...) I used to torrent everything about five-six years ago. I guess I won't be doing that ever again. So paranoid now.

Thanks again for all your help.