[Matt3o12_]

In Germany it is quite common to get a fine for that (an adhortatory letter or Abmahnung in German).

Media companies monitor torrents, and as soon as they see a new German ip address seeding, they send a letter to the ISP with the IP address and timestamp. The ISPs send the law firm the real user address and then they send you a letter demanding a fine for illegally uploading copyrighted material often between 1000-3000€. If you don't pay up, they take you to court.

This is quite common and many people see letters even if they only seed for a few seconds. Apparently the easiest way is to just ignore the letters and pretend you don't live there but I wouldn't be so sure (a friend told me that's what he did and it allegedly worked but I have no experience with either).

So this is a lot less drastic but still quite as effective. And it even makes VPNs risky because disconnecting and exposing your real IP for even one second is enough to receive that letter (though not all torrents are monitored and private torrents are usually safe because the German RIAA doesnt have access to it).

I recommend you take a look at the Wikipedia about "Abmahnung" how that is even possible when the copyright holders don't sue themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abmahnung

[BlueTemplar]

Do you have any proof that this actually works?

My experience is that instead most people switched to Netflix, Spotify, YouTube (et al.) because they were more convenient and cheap enough, and the MAFIAA mostly stopped caring about torrents.

And people that were worried about getting fined started using VPNs/seedboxes.

I still haven't heard of anyone in my circles getting a fine.