Having lived in the USA for seven years, I’ve encountered various stories about different countries and their conditions. Today, I’d like to share a rather technological tale from my own experience. Recently, my teenage son arrived with his gaming laptop. Initially, everything seemed fine.
Unexpected Notices
A week later, we received a rather alarming letter. In short, it stated that we had been using torrents to download a game—Cyberpunk 2077, to be precise. The letter warned that this activity was illegal and that repeated offenses would result in penalties. Interestingly, this notice was sent directly to our mailbox, not via SMS or email. The level of traffic monitoring here is quite impressive.
Upon investigating, my son assured me that he hadn’t downloaded the game here and mentioned that no one even plays it anymore. We discussed it and moved on. However, another identical letter arrived the following week, and then another! Finally, we received a notice stating that our internet would be permanently blocked due to illegal activity and piracy violations.
Solving the Mystery
After spending half an hour on the provider’s hotline, trying to explain that no one was downloading Cyberpunk 2077 on our network, they consistently informed me that torrent traffic was being exchanged at specific times. I decided to inspect my son’s laptop. To my surprise, while he hadn’t downloaded anything in the USA, his torrent client was set to launch automatically with Windows. And there it was—Cyberpunk 2077, actively being shared with others, downloaded long ago in Russia.
My son received a stern talking-to, the torrent client was uninstalled, and the issue with the provider was resolved. However, the experience left a lasting impression. Seven years ago in Russia, no one was penalized for torrents, and certainly, no such letters were sent by providers. The extent of traffic monitoring in the USA was quite surprising. Perhaps there were some advantages to the more relaxed approach in Russia…
