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Torrenting popular songs could result in automated fines

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:46PM EST
Billboard Top 100 Torrenting Fines

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You might want to watch your back if you were considering torrenting any of those catchy pop songs you keep hearing on the radio. According to TorrentFreak, piracy monitoring firm Rightscorp now protects over 1 million copyrights, including 13 tracks on the Billboard Hot 100. Rightscorp has already closed more than 50,000 cases since its recent campaign against piracy began.

If you subscribe to one of the 100 U.S.-based internet service providers that have already had to disseminate settlement requests, you could be facing a fine of $20 per torrented track. A single download won’t break the bank, but all 13 copyrighted tracks would set you back $260. Of course, you could ignore the letter, but considering that pirates “could be liable for up to $150,000 per infringement in civil penalties,” it’s probably worth settling out of court. The letter that Rightscorp is sending to pirates can be seen below.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.