Well, I got caught...

Well, I got caught by Charter Communications downloading software. Here's what the letter said:

Charter Communications ("Charter") has been notified by a copyright owner that your internet account has been involved in the exchange of unauthorized copies of copyrighted material (music, movies, or software).

First off, this was my fault. I didn't check the torrents I was downloading. Ooops. Also, this could happen again,not by myself, since my router is not secured at the moment. Anyway, the letter goes on to explain the Charter Acceptable Use Policy, explaining what they can do if this continues for any reason. I think it is a bit entertaining that they think threatening people like this will get them to stop. Some will stop, but some like me will find ways around this slightly irritating dilema. I won't go into detail on how that can be done since Charter is more than likely monitoring everything I do now. Charter then asks me to remove the infringing material from my computer, and starts more threats.

Let them do their best. All I have else to say about this, is check your torrents before downloading. Or possibly use public WiFi spots and change your IP address occasionally.

Also, this isn't my first time in trouble with internet related issues. The first, was when I first got a laptop with wireless. Well, I went to the local grocery store to see if they had free internet to use, without luck. I saw on my wireless radar (on XP) that the pharmacy. I connected to it and was checking my e-mail. All was well. The next night, I went back to talk on Yahoo Messenger for a few before I went to Knoxville. I was talking fo about 15 minutes, and a cop pulled up behing me in the parking lot. Said the people in the pharmacy didn't like me sitting there for so long. The officer was nice about it, but said nothing about using their internet. Keep in mind they did not have the connection secured. I went back a couple nights later, to download a couple songs off Limewire. All was ok, finished my download, and the cops showed up again, even though I was not sitting in the pharmacy parking lot. The officer was very rude this tim. Said he warned me the last time about "stealing" internet. Told me if they caught me again they would have me arrested. I said whatever, and went home.

I thought everything was cool after that, but I was wrong. I lived at my parents, by the way. A couple days later, a detective from the Sevier County Sheriffs Department came to my parents house to say, he had been investigating my "activity" using the pharmacy internet. He was just spewing B.S. trying to scare me. He said that their "records" indicated that I had been trying to get into the pharmacy computer system to steal records. B.S.! Anyway, everything is fine now, since the Sheriffs Department can no longer watch what I do online.