Digital Piracy

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New Mexico

Hello,

Last month I received a letter from my ISP stating that they had been served with a subpoena that required them to produce my name, address, user name, activity log for a day back in April.

I had till October 31st to file any objections to the subpoena. A couple days later, I received another letter from my ISP that was pretty much an exact copy of the previous letter but this time stating that I only had till the 21st of October.

So with no money to seek legal advice I didn't file any objections with the courts.

Last week I received a letter from the law firm who issued the subpoena to my ISP saying that their agents observed that I was illegally downloading and sharing with others via BitTorrent protocol.

In the letter it stated that I could avoid litigation by settling for $3,400.00, which I don't have.

So my question is do they have jurisdiction to take me to court if the lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Columbia? I live in NM.

Thanks,

It is never wise to ignore legal matters.

Jurisdiction is not relevant, the subpoena was issued by a federal court. When and if the RIAA decides to take legal action, they will use a federal court near you. What you can do is negotiate the "fine" to a much lower amount. Start by offering a few hundred bucks, they will often accept a portion of the original amount.

racer72 said:

Jurisdiction is not relevant, the subpoena was issued by a federal court. When and if the RIAA decides to take legal action, they will use a federal court near you. What you can do is negotiate the "fine" to a much lower amount. Start by offering a few hundred bucks, they will often accept a portion of the original amount.

Click to expand...

So I should personally contact the attorney and try to negotiate a lower fine?

Reaver585 said:

So I should personally contact the attorney and try to negotiate a lower fine?

Click to expand...

You can try yourself; a lawyer may cost you a grand and have no result. The law firm could be lying to you; just a thing to keep in mind.

Some of these cases are being tossed as of late so you may wish to google the firms name and see.

Who is suing you, Reaver?

If it makes you feel any better, the courts in DC are denying most motions to quash the ISP subpoenas so, even if you had submitted one, the odds would have been pretty good that your identifying information would have been disclosed anyway. The DC courts are also not considering personal jurisdiction issues or improper joinder issues - at least not until the identities of the John Does have been released (at which time the Does are dismissed from the DC action and a suit is refiled against them in their home states).

What happens with the copyright infringement suit against you now is this: the entity suing you has your identifying information, released by your ISP by order of the court, after tracking the illegal download of their copyrighted film (music?) to your IP address and possibly to you directly - the user of the computer at the date and time of illegal download.

With this identifying information, they have contacted you with a "settlement" letter - allowing for you to avoid a court action by paying the $3400 amount demanded. If you do not settle, the entity suing you can file suit against you in New Mexico and, if they have standing to sue (and this is something you should check out) and if they have registered their copyrighted work in a timely fashion (again, something you should check out), they can be awarded between $750 per infringement up to $30,000 per infringement in statutory damages.

The court will decide the infringement matter on a preponderance of the evidence - which party's evidence has the greatest weight. With computer log-in and tracking records, and potentially with evidence found by a computer forensic expert on your computer, the evidence generally weighs heavily in the plaintiff's favor.

Without a legitimate defense to the illegal download (ie, evidence that shows you were not the one responsible), it is almost always wisest to negotiate a settlement.

A negotiation is best done after a review of the facts of your situation by an attorney in your area - for several reasons. One, the attorney can see whether you have a defense that will fly, and that will dismiss you from the suit entirely. Second, the attorney knows how to negotiate for a client, making sure that you get the best possible figure. And three, if you negotiate on your own, you have lost an opportunity (if one exists) to get out of the suit.

I strongly suggest that you contact an attorney in your area. You can locate one through the New Mexico Bar Association or perhaps through eff.org, which lists attorneys who have handled and are willing to handle these mass-defendant John Doe copyright infringement actions.

Good luck.