am i really being sued?

killer2021 said:

Not everyone is a broke ass so most people do settle and do end up paying up. More settlements, the more money they make.

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The first part of that is the most important. Many "big fish" plan to get sued, and budget for it. Its all explained in Fight Club. If you are making a boat load of money, just settle out of court for a much lower fee, then continue doing what you are doing. In the end, if you are making profit, who cares if you got sued and settled?

tukim said:

Why do you people keep telling him to respond? ITS A GUILTY VERDICT. You all work for collection agencies or lawyers in anti-p2p don't you? I knew it...

Can't imagine if I came to BHW 4 years ago, or even last 2 months when I received 4 DMCA notices. You'd all have put me in jail for stupidity listening to you.

Ingore the shit and stop. Once you respond, it's automatically "filed" and have fun. They'll send the local Sheriffs if you don't show up to the paper notice court order mailed to your house because you pled guilty.

Don't care who you worked for, it's all crap in general automated DMCA notices.
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DMCA notice? Why are you bringing DMCA notices into this? This is sale of physical goods which is a whole different ballpark. He can respond if he wants, they will still have to most likely send a real person to hand deliver the notice to him to actually sue him, which means they need to confirm his living address, hire someone to wait outside his home, and actually take the papers to the house. They do not plan on doing this, unless they have sufficient evidence of wrongdoing, which I am sure they don't have and do not plan to get.

I respond to collection agencies all the time telling them to piss off. Its hilarious. Could they file suit against me? Yes, but they wont. It is too much cost.

You won't be served until the case has been filed. It is only after it's been filed that you will receive the documents from the court. In this case it seems they are giving you the opportunity to stop before they make an official complaint to the courts, if they intend to, and based on the number of copyright infringement cases that come up daily if you don't stop they might go after you especially if you've sold a high quantity of their products.

jeppo said:

You won't be served until the case has been filed. It is only after it's been filed that you will receive the documents from the court. In this case it seems they are giving you the opportunity to stop before they make an official complaint to the courts, if they intend to, and based on the number of copyright infringement cases that come up daily if you don't stop they might go after you especially if you've sold a high quantity of their products.

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yea, i know i wont be served for the court case, but i would think they would send me a certified letter stating the same thing the email said. also, i did not add that ebay did pull my listings of these products citing copyright claims by the owner

dakota5369 said:

yea, i know i wont be served for the court case, but i would think they would send me a certified letter stating the same thing the email said. also, i did not add that ebay did pull my listings of these products citing copyright claims by the owner

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No, you are misunderstanding him. He means, they are not trying to officially serve you with anything at this time, but rather give you notice, that if you continue, they may officially serve you with notice, and if you contact them, they will remove your name from the lawsuit for a settlement.

They HAVE to serve you if they are doing a court case. If they can't physically serve you notice within a short period of time (only a few months at most), and you can prove you weren't outside the country, then they can't file lawsuit against you in this matter.

They may not even have your mailing address at this time. They could have just done a huge collection of email addresses only. This lawsuit is NOT directed specifically at you, and they probably have no immediate intentions of filing lawsuit unless they are contacted by a "big fish" who is located in the USA.

why do u guys do this shit if u live in US?? go live in singapore and then do all this ... seriously I would not break my country's laws sitting in my own country

Kickflip said:

DMCA notice? Why are you bringing DMCA notices into this? This is sale of physical goods which is a whole different ballpark. He can respond if he wants, they will still have to most likely send a real person to hand deliver the notice to him to actually sue him, which means they need to confirm his living address, hire someone to wait outside his home, and actually take the papers to the house. They do not plan on doing this, unless they have sufficient evidence of wrongdoing, which I am sure they don't have and do not plan to get.

I respond to collection agencies all the time telling them to piss off. Its hilarious. Could they file suit against me? Yes, but they wont. It is too much cost.

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It's all the same ballpark, all outsourced to other agencies who make money sending DMCA's to people. And a DMCA is? A C&D letter. "Stop or else" for small minded people. That's what he received. He didn't receive an overdue bill notice. Brush up on the legal aspect of it all, not even sure why I sent the PM saying to chill, you really have no clue what you're talking about.

This isn't a "collection agency" was an example of the methods used to scare someone, and how to ignore it.

Additionally I wouldn't admit you respond to collection agencies on BHW, just saying...means you owe people money.

tukim said:

It's all the same ballpark, all outsourced to other agencies who make money sending DMCA's to people. And a DMCA is? A C&D letter. "Stop or else" for small minded people. That's what he received. He didn't receive an overdue bill notice. Brush up on the legal aspect of it all, not even sure why I sent the PM saying to chill, you really have no clue what you're talking about.

This isn't a "collection agency" was an example of the methods used to scare someone, and how to ignore it.

Additionally I wouldn't admit you respond to collection agencies on BHW, just saying...means you owe people money.

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It isn't the same as a C&D and it isn't the same as a DMCA here. They want him to stop yes, but the more important matter is they are trying to get him to contact them for a settlement. I think you are missing that point here.

You are telling him to ignore it, but guess what, sometimes ignoring it is the worst thing you can do. You have NO idea who this law firm is. All we are doing is speculating at this point and going by the most probably scenarios. But if you think that ignoring it is 100% safe for him to do, you are wrong.

We have no idea what this guy really did. We have no idea what evidence they have. We have no idea if they have his contact information. All it takes is for the law firm to pay a dude $20.00 to stand outside the address they got from ebay or paypal or whatever and hand him a piece of paper and it just got real.

Then what? If they really want to sue him, then him responding to an email isn't what is going to tip the iceberg. The settlement might only be $100.00 as a token settlement and with agreement that he ceases all future business related to their product.

The truth is this guy is really just trying to scare you into stopping your activities. No matter how popular email is becoming it is not and never will be a form of legal service and no lawyer other than ambulance chasers is going to send you a email about a legal case. It jeopardizes their case and violates privacy laws.

If he really sues you then you will either get a certified letter or someone will personally serve you but the reality is in something like this it is just to scare you. Stop selling the stuff and forget about it and he will go away. If he does sue you and you do not show up or answer the complaint then he could file for a default judgement and then he would have to come to your local court and file the judgement to try to collect anything. It is usually a case of throwing good money after bad and they simply do not do it very often.

If he does sue you then respond to the complaint. Even if it is just someone thing you do on your own if you cant or dont want to hire a lawyer. If you dont respond he wins but if you do then the company coming after you has to spend a lot more money on lawyer fees and they know most people would just file for bankruptcy anyway. Just ignore him until it gets worse which I doubt it will.

tukim said:

It's all the same ballpark, all outsourced to other agencies who make money sending DMCA's to people. And a DMCA is? A C&D letter. "Stop or else" for small minded people. .

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I just want to make it very clear about this:

C&D and DMCA notices are : Stop or else.

This notice is NOT a "Stop or else" it is a "we are currently collecting flimsy evidence, but evidence none the less, to prepare for a possible lawsuit involving anyone who may have infringed on our trademark products. We do not have evidence against enough people at this time, but you may be one of the people we do have evidence against. Wanna take that risk?"

The difference between them is that IF you stop, a C&D and DMCA will lead to no further action. This notice, you can stop, and they can still sue you. I am not saying they will. But they can.

As the other poster said: You can ignore it for now, especially if you are a small fish, it wont be worth it for them to pursue you, because you will probably just file bankruptcy. But if you have a home or something to lose, it COULD be in your interest to contact them. We really don't know enough about you or your actions to give a 100% definite answer, and you should consider ALL scenarios.

tukim said:

Additionally I wouldn't admit you respond to collection agencies on BHW, just saying...means you owe people money.

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I don't owe people money. I owe a collection agency money. I had my social insurance card stolen and someone used it to open a cell phone account in my name and racked up a $3000 bill with Bell Mobility. I of course didn't pay it off, and Bell sold the account to a collection agency. So I tell them: Piss Off. Like I care what BHW thinks of my money issues. Do I go around asking people to send me money for joint ventures? No.

Kickflip said:

It isn't the same as a C&D and it isn't the same as a DMCA here. They want him to stop yes, but the more important matter is they are trying to get him to contact them for a settlement. I think you are missing that point here.

You are telling him to ignore it, but guess what, sometimes ignoring it is the worst thing you can do. You have NO idea who this law firm is. All we are doing is speculating at this point and going by the most probably scenarios. But if you think that ignoring it is 100% safe for him to do, you are wrong.

We have no idea what this guy really did. We have no idea what evidence they have. We have no idea if they have his contact information. All it takes is for the law firm to pay a dude $20.00 to stand outside the address they got from ebay or paypal or whatever and hand him a piece of paper and it just got real.

Then what? If they really want to sue him, then him responding to an email isn't what is going to tip the iceberg. The settlement might only be $100.00 as a token settlement and with agreement that he ceases all future business related to their product.

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Actually we know what he did, if you read, he sold pirated content online.

My point was clear from the first post, ignore it, stop, and no more issue.

This isn't some bullshit collection agency emailing as you stated you deal with (lol). But same idea, ignore it. Unfortunately, YOU keep getting phone calls.

Brush up on the law in this scenerio, it's a typical online DMCA/C&D as I stated.

Kickflip said:

I don't owe people money. I owe a collection agency money.

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You owe people money then. Congrats.

Again, OP, wipe your ass with the original statement and move on. Stop selling pirated content.

It's more than likely just a scare email, and more than likely by a competitor. Doesnt even make sense to serve a motion this serious through email. Oh, i'm in prison for 2 years, why?, didn't check my email. Not likely. But as others said, do not continue to sell under that name because just being sent that email lets you know that someone somewhere is on to you. I would create a stealth account under a different identity and sell different products. Thing is, you can't just create a stealth account and start selling name brand stuff, because 1.) your competitors will take you down quick. When I used to sell one eBay I would build an account for 6 months... up to 100 feedbacks before i start selling my bread winner products. Also, if you're going to do this it's gotta be worth it, milk it 100% for what its worth, expand, create different identitys, I know guys who have over 50 active accounts, you have that many accounts then when things like this happen it's nothin to just stop selling on account that has an issue like this come up... i know its sucks building up the accounts over time but its worth it trust me.. just sell a couple of your products per identity and mix in some buying... invest in like a $50 bulk deal on something that is $1.00 per item. just my two cents

also not sure if you know this but Paypal was sued, they now have to report any earnings within an account over I believe $20,000 yearly, this is another reason why you don't let accounts go over that much yearly, like i said need to spread it out over accounts, paypal isnt stupid, you bring in 10k every month they want to know more about your transactions, thats when they'll limit your account and make you submit more proof, especially if it's high risk items your selling

Sounds like a C&D.

Backstory:

A lot of companies out there do Not want their stuff being sold on eBay. Instead of going after eBay, eBay is saying "It's not our fault, go after them more directly, here is their information:"

A lot of companies do not want their items being sold on eBay because of the emergence of bootleg items of the same item that lowers the value and branding of items. In theory. So, if it can be bootlegged, it will be assumed it is bootlegged and none of which should be sold. This is good for the rest of the market, like distributors and retails, and the companies that own the property. Again, in theory, if nobody is selling used copies of something, people will be forced to pay whatever amount for a new retail item. This pertains very well to DVDs, because companies are selling them for such a low price, like Walmart selling them for $9 for DVDs that came out 2 months ago which they have to do because people are on eBay selling used copies for $5, legitimate or not, so Walmart can not charge $14.99 for 6 months after a DVD release like they used to back in 2007.

My Advice

Ignore it. Legal notices aren't sent via e-mail. A real attorney will collect some kind of evidence, contact eBay, get your information, then contact your ISP, get your actual information, and then send you a certified letter in the mail. Do not respond, and do not provide any information at all.

AnThRaXx said:

also not sure if you know this but Paypal was sued, they now have to report any earnings within an account over I believe $20,000 yearly, this is another reason why you don't let accounts go over that much yearly, like i said need to spread it out over accounts, paypal isnt stupid, you bring in 10k every month they want to know more about your transactions, thats when they'll limit your account and make you submit more proof, especially if it's high risk items your selling

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It's $9,999.99 in income per year.

well, here is an update. i am a little more nervous now. i got a certified letter from the law firm today with more threats. they claim that they purchased one of the dvd sets from me and have verified that it is fake. they also are making the following demands

1. detailed documents showing where the items were purchased from

2. they want me to send all remaining copies of the item to them

3. $15,000

they say i have 10 days from the date of the letter to respond. date of the letter was march 24 and i just got it today. if i dont meet all the demands they will go forward with the case. should i fail to respond they will seek a forfeiture of the case and try to seize bank accounts, garnish pay, etc.

i signed for it because i really had forgotten about it. of course the name of the account is in my wifes name and i am the one who signed for it. we have different names, so i am wondering if that will help me at all.


so what do you think? is it still scare tactics or is this legit? also, i sold about 2k worth of these dvd's. i am thinking 15k is overkill. i couldnt afford it anyway

one thing that makes me wonder if they are bluffing about the evidence is that they say they purchased the item for $50.99. they offer no date of purchase or name bought under. i looked through my records and unless i overlooked it, i cant see anywhere where i sold the item for that amount of money. maybe another thing just to scare me

edit- yup, 100% sure i never sold it at the price they said they bought it

No No No No, they cannot make the demands. They are basically asking you to incriminate yourself. Don't send them ANYTHING EVER. If they say they already have the stuff, then hey, it's up to them to follow through. Absolute rookie lawyer scare tactics.

It's like someone investigating a murder saying, "we think you did it, so send us every knife in your house"... fffuuuuuucccckkk this attorney, he's an idiot.

This attorney is the same as the loser asses that took 13 tries to pass the Bar. They can't stand in jury trials because they absolutely suck and could be out trialed by most paralegals so they go out searching for things they think they can intimidate into a class action lawsuit. Same guys that ambulance chase, and get all of these damn TV commercials about "has your employers not given you exactly 30 minutes of lunch time, call us today lets scare the sh*t out of them for some money so I can take half"

Screw this guy, it actually makes me mad when attorney's act like this.