- First thing is first, calm down.
- Does this go on my record?
- Should I contact the lawyer on the letter?
- What could happen, if I wait it out?
- Where to find a lawyer?
- What could happen, if I fight, or settle?
If you’ve just received a letter from your ISP that they’re being subpoenaed for your information, take a deep breath. My brother was in your same shoes, and my family decided to support him through the process. Not everyone has the same family support, so I decided to pull this all together based on our family’s experience dealing with a copyright infringement lawsuit. It’s definitely a more and more common occurrence, yet it seems like no one really knows how to react. I’m not a lawyer, so I’m just sharing what our lawyer told us or what we researched. I’ve shared his story with a few of my friends, and was surprised to find out that a few of them had been sued in the past or knew of someone who had.
So the next thing to do is stop pirating. Or if it’s a family member, make sure that they stop pirating. The cost of defending someone in a copyright infringement case is staggeringly high compared to the cost of purchasing the thing (music, movies, programs, whatever) that was pirated.
Well the good news is that the copyright infringement lawsuits are civil suits. You only admit or deny liability for whatever they’re suing for. So on the bright side, if you were worrying about the suit showing up on a background check, it won’t. Generally, background checks only look for criminal lawsuits; the reason being is that civil suits are more complicated and can be easily misconstrued by outsiders not familiar with the case.
Should I contact the lawyer on the letter?
Never contact the lawyer on the letter without a lawyer of your own. Talking to the opposition lawyer with out a lawyer could lead to you accidentally admitting or the lawyer might try to scare you to Jesus.
Here’s what happened to one guy that talked without a lawyer: they named him in the case and are suing him individually instead of in the mass lawsuit.
What might happen if I wait it out?
If you ignore it, there’s a risk of a default settlement or on the flip side the whole case could get dismissed. A default settlement would only happen if you’ve been summoned to court and don’t show up. In that case, the person suing you automatically wins. On the other hand, most copyright infringement lawsuits never go to court as there is some kind error on the part of the people doing the suing. In that case there’s a good chance that there might be a mass dismissal of Does. It happens pretty frequently, but I’m not so sure if you should bank on it.
Good resources to check up on for your case specifically are:
http://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/
The thing about these lawsuits is that the lawyers are trying out all sorts of different ways to sue lots of people at once, and when they do things like that there’s a higher likelihood that they did something wrong which might result in their case getting thrown out. It’s always good to check up on those two websites to see if the lawyers, going after you, might have done something like that. Now, if you decide to fight or settle, you need a lawyer.
Start off with the EFF list https://www.eff.org/issues/file-sharing/subpoena-defense for your state.
Also check with your local Bar Association to see if they have a lawyer referral service. We called our local Bar association and got some rude ghetto woman, so I would suggest searching through the Bar Association directory for someone who you would feel comfortable with before calling.
Sticker Shock! Lawyers will cost somewhere between $150-250+ dollars an hour. Generally, you can call them and talk to them about your case for free. But if you want them to represent you, you’ll need to deposit a couple thousand dollars. There are some lawyers, who will offer a flat fee for copyright infringement cases, and that could be $750+ total. For my brother, we got charged 7 billable hours for a total of $1,500.
Our lawyer was adamant that in a court, the liability would be found to be a fraction of what the people suing my brother wanted. He ultimately decided to settle for personal reasons, but I think it’s good to point out that the cost of going to court versus the decreased settlement costs.
When my brother decided to settle, the opposition basically submitted a form to the court that the case against Doe X had been dropped with prejudice. The prejudice part is important because that means that they won’t try to sue him again for the same thing. And that’s where his story ends.
Conclusion
Breathe, this will be a stressful situation to be in, but it all comes down to economics. The people suing you are trying to get as many people to settle as possible to keep their costs low and bring in as much money as possible. You are trying to keep the amount you’re going to pay for either lawyers or settlement as low as possible.