Received a Cease and Desist Letter<\/b><\/p>\n
You were successful in finding a beloved piece of music and downloaded it to your computer. For this, you may have used one of the file-sharing programs like BearShare recommended by a friend. Unfortunately, your friend didn’t inform you that these programs are usually preset to make all your music titles, or at least parts of them, available for download. <\/p>\n
Months later, you receive mail from a law firm asking you to sign a declaration of discontinuance. Attached is an invoice often for several thousand euros, frequently combined with a \u201csettlement offer\u201d for payment of EUR 450 to EUR 1200, occasionally even more.<\/p>\n
This happens more often than one might think.<\/p>\n
If you now sign the declaration of discontinuance without further consultation, but refuse to bear the costs, a lawsuit for payment of damages and legal fees will soon follow, against which you can hardly defend yourself effectively anymore.<\/p>\n
Therefore, in such cases, it is always advisable to discuss the situation with an experienced lawyer and develop strategies to effectively defend against such claims.<\/p>\n
Often, you may not have even committed the alleged violations yourself. In this case, you can indeed defend yourself promisingly against the asserted claims; the jurisprudence is in flux and often has more understanding for those affected than one might think. However, if you only consult a lawyer after signing the cease and desist letter or even after receiving the payment lawsuit, it is often too late.<\/p>\n