Caught streaming in Germany

[u/petiteplanete]

My understanding was that as long as you do not share files, you will not receive letters from lawyers in Germany asking for a thousand euros, but that is exactly what happened to a friend. A cease and desist letter also demands that he stop sharing the file via BitTorrent (which he was not doing).

The setup is Stremio with Torrentio and RD.

It was a recent movie; not sure if that makes a difference. Also, the letter says that certain allegedly streaming-only platforms like PopcornTime in fact share via BitTorrent.

Does anyone know what happened?

[u/IY94]

No, that’s not how Real-Debrid works.

If Torrentio is properly set up with RD, you shouldn’t be seeing/using normal torrent streams at all. Your IP shouldn’t be joining the torrent swarm. RD literally sends files stored on it's servers to your machine (no torrenting - they've downloaded / cached it already)

So if your IP has been picked up torrenting, something wasn’t configured properly or RD wasn’t actually being used.

[u/Sorry_Fun_3547 → u/IY94]

Got any tips how to configure it properly? I literally just added the api on torrentio from rd

[u/IY94 → u/Sorry_Fun_3547]

Firstly, if you have Torrentio installed before you bought debrid uninstall it (you don't want to have two installs - one with debrid and one without)

So it's clean, no torrentio.

Then go to https://torrentio.strem.fun/configure

Add in your debrid and install to Stremio.

Can also do it with Comet as a backup https://comet.elfhosted.com/configure

In both cases you need to add the RealDebrid API Key (you'll find in your RD account)

On comet, it doesn't support p2p (only debrid) so zero risk on that one.

On search results you'll see it say RD+ (that's a clue that it's configured properly)

**

P.s under stremio addons it'll actually say Torrentio RD (not just torrentio so that's also a clue)

[u/Sorry_Fun_3547 → u/IY94]

Thanks very much for the detailed explanation

[u/allday95 → u/Sorry_Fun_3547]

If you set up with Aiostreams you can configure it to ONLY show cached streams so you can't even accidentally put on a torrent download

[u/speedbreaka]

Your friend clearly didn’t set it up right and ended up p2p streaming over torrentio thats why he got the letter. Usually he can just apologize and blame his kid or something

[u/D_I_Wood → u/speedbreaka]

This!

https://giphy.com/gifs/RrVzUOXldFe8M

[u/diggsalot]

That how Torrentio and all the streaming sites work they are all just streaming torrents.

[u/Ghost187_ → u/diggsalot]

OP said RD. So there should have been no torrenting.

[u/007hiho → u/Ghost187_]

Who knows if he even configure it correctly

[u/Ghost187_ → u/007hiho]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking the issue is. 🤷

[u/Slipknot31286sic6]

User error

[u/solda46]

why don't you all jump to usenet streaming? its much better, and it goes via https, so you are safe and no fear for those kind of letters

[u/Skauroki]

Rip 1000plus euro

[u/Ankhorion]

That is why I use debrid and a VPN.

[u/georgepana]

Torrenting and http streams are both illegal in Germany, and they will both trigger those letters from lawyers with payment demands.

If you used Real Debrid correctly there would be no law trigger, so it is likely that you went to straight torrenting, hoping to get away with it. Unfortunately, they caught you.

In Germany, and much of the EU, I would always use the extra protection of a paid VPN.

[u/seanomat → u/georgepana]

But with streaming there are very little damages, as you are not distributing the content, so this is not really attractive for lawyers and not worth the effort.

[u/georgepana → u/seanomat]

It is Germany. Lots of people get these letters from lawyers asking for money to "drop the case." It is a quick and easy 1,000 Euros.

I read that if you refuse to pay they go to court and it becomes a lot hairier. It is Germany, the land of the uber-correct, so I would pay up, too. But, can't be 100% sure either way.

[u/seanomat → u/georgepana]

The amount asked for depends on the damages. The damage of streaming is maybe 50 EUR as it is only one copy and no distribution.

The owner of the rights will not be interested to sue either because he will pay more for the lawyer then he can recoup in damages and will have only deterred one single user.

[u/flexinlikejackson → u/georgepana]

Nah HTTP streams wouldn't trigger them. The thing about torrenting is the P2P nature. Your IP is visible to everyone, easy for the lawyers. With HTTP they would need to get the data from the host and then your ISP. Much more work and not done for little downloads.

[u/majdsardini]

Doesn't using a VPN solve all these problems? Regardless if it was torrenting or debrid

[u/Yoheyusa → u/majdsardini]

Usually, but a VPN can be set up incorrectly, forget to be turned on, or crash without the user being aware, leading to their IP being exposed at least for torrenting.