"Atari and davenport still trying to shaft me"

I posted a while back about a letter I received from Atari's lawers claiming I had downloaded a copy of the witcher. They demanded over £500 in compansation

http://www.eurogamer.net/forum_thread_posts.php?thread_id...

Now the funny thing is I actually have a legal copy of the game which I purchased close to relase and way before any of this started.

So I decided to respond to there letter and include actual proof of purchase. There basic response is we don't care "Our Experts" say you copied the game.

Now there is no way I'm going to give into there demands. I actually am innocent and to make matters worst I have a legel copy of the game!!! SO my question is this where do I go from here?

Scan the letter they sent, scan your proof of purchase. Send me the links and I'll write about it. :)

I'd ask them to see their experts proof. You may well have an alibi as to where you where when the download in question started.

What you should do is contact them saying that you have a legal copy of the game in your hands along with proof of purchase, that you're not going to pay them a penny and that they can take you to court if that's what they wish. I guarantee you they won't.

Is it worth speaking to Trading Standards? Also try speaking to someone higher up the food chain at Atari or Davenport.

Also take Morriss up on his offer, gather some publicity.

morriss wrote:
Scan the letter they sent, scan your proof of purchase. Send me the links and I'll write about it. :)

Good idea, Batman

Aretak wrote:
What you should do is contact them saying that you have a legal copy of the game in your hands along with proof of purchase, that you're not going to pay them a penny and that they can take you to court if that's what they wish. I guarantee you they won't.

This

Morriss it's a deal

Basically there proof is that they scanned an ip which they say was downloading The witcher using torrents. They then traced that IP to me by going through my ip provider be.

It's just really fustrating! As some one who actually purchased a legal copy of the software (Purchased from the hut)! I can well and truly say I will never purchase any atari game ever again!

Just make it a big deal over the internet, everyone will boycott Atari and you can make them pay!!

I don't see what you owning a retail copy has to do with it, legally that's not going to help you at all. Logically it's easy to say "well why would I download it if I already had a copy?" but the bottom line is they spotted your ip leeching the game off a torrent, and that's what you need to explain.

Do you have a wifi connection which could of been hijacked?

Could anybody else in the house have pirated it?

Did you maybe download a no-cd crack for it which contained copyrighted material (so an edited .exe etc)?

Edited by Pirotic at 09:39:41 05-08-2008

FUCK ATARI

Isn't it an excuse if you paid for a copy, what's the problem with downloading it? As sort of a backup excuse or something.

Because it's illegal, and while downloading the torrent you would of been seeding it out to thousands of people who hadn't purchased a legal copy.

edit: frod fast fingers beat me too it :D

Edited by Pirotic at 09:42:33 05-08-2008

Good point

Well unless you turn off uploads :p

Edited by Lexx87 at 09:42:39 05-08-2008

Reading your last thread, I don't understand why so many Witcher cases are coming up.. Seems fishy.

Pirotic wrote:
I don't see what you owning a retail copy has to do with it, legally that's not going to help you at all. Logically it's easy to say "well why would I download it if I already had a copy?" but the bottom line is they spotted your ip leeching the game off a torrent, and that's what you need to explain.

Do you have a wifi connection which could of been hijacked?

Could anybody else in the house have pirated it?

Did you maybe download a no-cd crack for it which contained copyrighted material (so an edited .exe etc)?

Hey I did not download any no-cd crack for it. I do have a wifi connection and live in a block of flats. But my wifi is password protected! The only other person in the house is my girlfriend who uses the internet for e-mail and facebook.

At the time I had a dynamic ip so I can't confirm if the ipaddress is mine or not

Could someone have masked there ip to look like mine? Even though my wireless is password protected could someone still hijack it?

Am I right in thinking that, according to the other thread, the only other people with a Witcher letter actually had bought a legitimate copy of it?

So either they are all covering their backs or you may be able to point out a serious flaw in Ataris detection method if you can get enough people together.

It's pretty easy to get round a WEP key (if that's what it was)

Yeah. Sadly (here comes the generalisation) anyone with the skillz and inclination to hack your WEP encryption probably wouldnt be shy about downloading pikey software.

No, you can fake and packet headers to send data out from a forged source, but that's one way. If they tried to send something back it'd get routed to the forged IP rather than the real source IP.

It's very (very very) easy to crack WEP keys (WPA-2 is tougher), but again, it's not something the majority of people would know how to do (or care about doing). Turn on MAC address filtering and switch to WPA-2 encryption just to be sure tho.

The most likely possibility if you really didn't go anywhere near any torrents is that the ISP/Atari have just fucked up. Because you have a dynamic IP it'll get reassigned to somebody else every time you disconnect/reconnect. So even if Atari had been 30 minutes out with what they reported to the ISP (or in the wrong timezone) then the ISP could of returned the wrong persons information to them. I'd call your ISP and have a right go at them and let them try to clear it up.

Sounds like you should blame your girlfriend. Let her take the fall for you, it's true love, right?

:D

Did you download it?

LetsGo wrote:
Did you download it?

No mate in all seriousness I did not!!

Fair enough.

Well if you didn't download it there'll be no evidence. Bring it on Atari!

ohhhhhhhhh I just rang my IP Be Unlimited.

They have never spoken to Davnport Lyons!! So something really dogey is going on.

I'm going to scan the letter. where is a good place to upload it to?

Rizo wrote:
ohhhhhhhhh I just rang my IP Be Unlimited.

They have never spoken to Davnport Lyons!! So something really dogey is going on.

I'm going to scan the letter. where is a good place to upload it to?

Brilliant. These people get their money by frightening people with scary-sounding letters, which are designed to get you to pay with no questions asked in order to avoid legal action. It's not expected that you'd do any research into their claim.

Edited by Aretak at 10:29:59 05-08-2008

They must have told them else how would they have your address/name etc.

Edited by Pirotic at 10:40:47 05-08-2008

Mass mailing. They're bound to strike lucky a few times.