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It is not that clear cut for Western Europe.

- Germany sends letters and fines

- Czech Republic doesn’t send letters or fines

- The Netherlands doesn’t send letters or fines (unless you share an absolutely ludicrous amount)

- Belgium doesn’t send letters or fines

- UK sends letters and fines

- France sends letters (tiny chance of a fine)

- Switzerland doesn’t send letters or fines



Note that in the Netherlands right holders can request ISPs to proxy their letters but those ISPs are not allowed to share the home addresses or any other personal information so it’s neigh impossible for a right holder to get hold of a torrent user.


Makes sense. If ISPs were allowed to share home addresses then a lot of creeps and scammers could abuse that system.


Welcome to America!

ISPs do that, but it's a lot worse if you consider your mobile provider to be an ISP.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/07/10/data-brok...

https://www.vice.com/en/article/nepxbz/i-gave-a-bounty-hunte...


I'm pretty sure that sort of thing would be a gross GDPR violation in the EU.


Imagine being doxxed by your own ISP.


Of course they have to obey court orders.

The Dutch ISPs fought this in court but they lost in some cases.


There's a difference between getting a court order and someone saying - "I saw that X IP address shared a copyrighted file - can I get their name and address?"


The situation is the same for Canadians: we get proxied letters, but rightsholders have no access to our personal identification.


It should be noted that (as far as I know) none of those are actually fines. It's private companies that track down pirates, and they cannot give out fines. They send you a settlement proposal, saying either pay this or risk being sued.


Does the UK send letters and fines? I haven't torrented without a VPN for years but the worst I ever heard anyone getting was a letter from the ISP saying "that was very naughty, please don't do it again".


almost like copyright enforcement goes hand in hand with your country's relation to the US


The Netherlands is very cozy with the US and yet enforcement is pretty lax, so I don’t think that’s the deciding factor.


Spain doesn't send letters or fines


Do you know what's the situation in Portugal?


in France you can be blacklisted from all ISPs




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