I got a copyright infringement notice from my ISP. Am I in trouble?

I received an email from my ISP(Spectrum) saying that I received a copyright infringement notice. I read through the whole thing, but I don’t know what to do next. Am I in trouble, do I need to pay, or is it just a warning? This is my 1st notice.

I just wanted to make sure, since I don't know if something is going to happen or if I might get a lawsuit or something.

3 Answers 3

Your ISP may have notified you of an allegation of copyright infringement – a "DMCA take-down" notice. This means that entity X sent them a legal notice claiming that certain content in the ISP's domain infringes X's copyright. The ISP (who has the records of who has what) then tells you about this, and they take down the material. If you believe that X is mistaken (e.g. if you believe that you do have the right to distribute the material) you can file a counter-claim. The form of the counter-claim is described in 17 USC 512(g)(3).

DMCA takedown does two things. Primarily it gives the ISP the opportunity to not be sued for contributory infringement, by taking down allegedly contributing material, once notified. Second, it gives you an opportunity to dispute the claim. If you dispute the claim, the ISP informs X of the dispute, waits 10-14 days, and then if X doesn't inform then that they are suing you, then will restore the material.

If you have infringed copyright, you can be sued, no matter how you respond – DMCA only protects the ISP, not the infringer. Your ISP has nothing to do with paying anything to anyone; watch for a letter from X's attorney which demands payment, and discuss it with your lawyer.

But does that mean I will be sued, even if I didn't distribute anything. What about downloading? I originally thought that the notice was like a warning of some kind. It just telling me not to do it again.

Downloading is distribution. However, you don't give enough detail about the content of the notice to judge whether this is a DMCA takedown notice, or some "community standards" notice.

To add detail, this is the 1st notice. It was from torrenting a game. Is there no warning notice or anything? Like if I get caught once, boom, lawsuit. Or is it different?

Right, there's no requirement for a warning. Copyright infringement is against the law, this fact is published, if you break the law, you can get sued. Boom.

@HowieNation torrenting isn't just downloading, you are distributing the disputed material to other users while seeding

Copyright owners monitor BitTorrent. They either seed small parts of their own content (e.g. 5% of the file), or they try to download their own content and see who seeds to them. They log the IP addresses of who tried to download, or who was seeding. (identifying seeders is much more potent, and Bittorrent clients seed by default). If you don't understand all that, that's where you went wrong.

There's been a lot of awkward precedent (I don't necessarily mean case law precedent) on what to do about this situation. The media industry doesn't want to be suing millions of Americans but does want piracy to stop. The ISPs don't want to narc out their own customers but don't want piracy happening either. One arrangement I commonly see is that the first time, the ISP refuses to tell the copyright holder who you are. Instead, they send you a sternly worded letter saying "make it stop, or else". If it continues, the gloves come off and they either hand over your identity, and/or cancel your internet service and ban you for awhile.

Read the letter carefully (hard do do in all the excitement, I know) and see what it actually says.

If the letter is saying "stop doing it or else", then stop doing it and do not answer the letter. Especially, do not contact the copyright holder. I wouldn't contact the ISP either. If you still are filled with the urge to do something, then contact a local attorney who will be your representative. Never seek advice from an opponent's attorney.