Illegal BitTorrent Porn Downloaders Extorted by Porn Industry

People who have been using BitTorrent to “share” pornographic videos online are finding themselves being sued by the porn production companies, a la the RIAA, but with a twist.  While the recording industry has spent a small fortune suing grandmas, parents of small children, people without computers, and other individuals for sharing and downloading songs illegally, the pornography industry is simply trying to monetize the process.  In letters sent out to suspected downloaders of porn, the industry threatens the cost and embarrassment of a lawsuit, but offers to settle for amounts between $1000 and $5000.  This is considerably less than the cost of legal defense.  Somehow this has the feel of an extortion shakedown to it, and some individuals have started a class action lawsuit to fight back.  The entire sordid story can be found on Sophos.

I cannot emphasize enough that using BitTorrent or other file sharing sites to trade in music, videos, porn or whatever is dangerous to your computer’s health and your personal wealth.  Anytime your computer goes online it leaves behind its IP address with websites and other online services, and legally aggrieved parties can get a court order from your Internet Service Provider to provide them with your name and address so they can sue you for infringement and damages.  Add to the fact that files masquerading as desirable downloads may in fact be malware, and you have a recipe for disaster.  It’s just better all around to pay for $1, $10, or $50 for something from a legitimate download site such as iTunes than to be sued for thousands.

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About the Author:

I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com

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