My girlfriend got an Abmahnung from Frommer Legal yesterday. Unfortunately her name is on the internet account and she is very law abiding and worried by it. I’m Canadian and the most I’ve ever gotten has been a threatening letter from an ISP in Canada. Obviously, I didn’t know torrenting was so persecuted in Germany or else I would have been more vigilant with a VPN. Anyway , the Abmahnung is representing Warner Brothers and wants me to pay 1000€ for seeding 2 episodes of an HBO show. I contacted one of the many defense firms that specialize against these lawsuits but their fee is 30% of what I save of the “fine”. So the combined minimum(fine and lawyer fee) I could possibly pay with them is 300€. My girlfriend has proof that she wasn’t home that day (a hostel booking from Berlin) but even so the whole thing (Frommel and the defense firms) seems like the epitome of lawful evil to me and I’d rather not support it. They are both just lawyers preying on people foolish enough to not use VPNs with scare tactics. We are planning to move in 6 months anyway (elsewhere in Germany). I did read that these firms generally do (or at least sometimes) sue you in court if you ignore the warnings. I read a couple anecdotes from people that got sued just before 3 years ran out after the first Abmahnung. Can they even sue us if they don’t have our new address? What should I do? Suck it up and pay the defense firm or ignore it?

Edit: I decided to pay a defense firm and chose https://www.advocado.de/ because their fee €150 was cheaper than the others. If it was in my name, I would have just waited to see if they ever even try to take me to court, but my girlfriend just wanted it gone. I’ll provide an update if there is one, but I expect I’ll never hear from them again, as now they are communicating directly with advocado.

  • Xion@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Did you receive a cease and desist letter?
    If so, by signing it you would admit to doing what they claim.
    But if you change the letter from “I will never do it again” to “I will never do it and never did it”, you admitted to nothing.
    In most cases, those firms don’t want to go to court. They mostly prey on the scared people that pay without a fight.
    This is not a legal advice!

    • Liam@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, I’m not going to sign the letter. I’m not that foolish :P I was just trying to figure out the likelihood of them actually following up in court. It seems like people around here think they will eventually.

      • Xion@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        They will if you don’t reply to their message.
        You are obligated to respond.
        You either contact a lawyer or you reply with a modificated version of there message.