First off, let me say I am not advocating anything illegal. I am posting this to try and determine what my best response as a computer support person should be, and to find out what other people in the field are doing.
Ok, so I guess in my area Comcast started emailing out Notice of Copyright Infringement to its subscribers. And of course, I started getting phone calls from my clients.
It is basically a Notice of Action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and lists the offending file.
The few I have seen are basically listing the protocol as Bittorrent and give the name of a movie or tv episode.
Ok, so the reason I posted this was to talk about how to deal with the clients questions.
So far, I have been telling them that they are now responsible for the usage of thier internet connection (i.e. I.P.) address if it is used to download copyrighted material.
I also am telling them that one notice will not land them in serious trouble with thier internet provider, nor with the law. I have also told them not to respond in any way to the emails as their is still some question as to whether just an i.p. address can be used to prove they infringed.
I also am saying that as far as I can determine unless they get either 4 or 6 of them nothing will happen. Is this correct because I have read conflicting reports?
I have also told them they should upgrade their wireless security to WPA2 and put in a strong password. Of course I always recommend this, but I stress it again as they apparently will be held liable if someone downloads via their wireless network.
I have told them that if anyone has installed a torrent client on their computer and they want to be sure they are safe, to uninstall it.
I have gotten the question from a person who I know is only using torrents to download non copyrighted material if they should switch to usenet. I am really not that familiar with usenet and wondered if that would work for them?
Thanks for any responses. I am really interested in how other computer support professionals are handling this.