Attorney Carl Christian Müller - Specialist in Copyright and Media Law
Have you received a warning letter from IPPC Law—perhaps regarding music use on Instagram or TikTok or file sharing? Here’s what to do:
Stay calm—don’t sign anything—don’t pay anything.
Let us review the cease-and-desist letter for you.
You’ll receive a free, personalized initial consultation from one of our experienced attorneys. Fast, discreet, and available nationwide.
Submit your IPPC Law warning notice using our contact form. One of our experienced attorneys will call you back personally right away. The call is free of charge.
We provide you with transparent information about the costs of our services. You will also receive our quote via email. You can then take your time to decide whether you would like to hire us.
Immediately after you retain our services, we will take the necessary steps to successfully defend you against the cease-and-desist letter. Your prospects: You’ll pay nothing or significantly less.
Absolutely: yes. Hiring a lawyer should not be an end in itself. We keep the cost-effectiveness of your case in mind. Our goal is not to increase your financial burden by hiring us—quite the opposite.
We want you to resolve the dispute for a significantly lower total cost. Our goal is always for you to pay far less in the end—even including the costs of our representation—than what is demanded in the cease-and-desist letter. To achieve this goal, we charge fair flat-rate fees that are fixed from the start of our engagement and cover all consultation and representation in the matter. We thus guarantee you maximum cost transparency while providing high-quality, specialized defense against IPPC Law.
IPPC Law is a law firm specializing in copyright law and issues cease-and-desist letters in two areas:
1. Use of music on social media (e.g., Instagram, TikTok):
You have posted a video on Instagram or TikTok with music in the background. IPPC Law issues cease-and-desist notices regarding the use of music on behalf of music labels and rights holders for alleged copyright infringement. IPPC’s clients include, among others:
2. File Sharing / Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing Networks:
You are accused of uploading or downloading films with pornographic content via file-sharing networks (e.g., BitTorrent) to upload or download movies containing pornographic content. IPPC Law issues cease-and-desist notices on behalf of rights holders in the adult entertainment industry regarding alleged copyright infringements.
Do not sign anything or make any payments without first consulting an attorney.
Even if you believe the cease-and-desist letter is justified, there is always a chance to avoid paying IPPC Law altogether or at least to significantly reduce the amount.
Also, take the deadline seriously.
IPPC Law does not hesitate to enforce claims in court if those affected do not respond in a timely manner.
Discuss your options with us on an individual basis. We offer you a free initial assessment and show you how to respond in a legally sound and strategically smart way.
In its cease-and-desist letters, IPPC Law primarily makes three demands: the submission of a cease-and-desist declaration, payment of warning fees, and payment of damages. Depending on whether the warning letter concerns music use on social media or file sharing, the amounts demanded vary significantly. These typically range from 1,500.00 EUR (file sharing) to 8,000.00 EUR or even more (music on social media). With the help of an attorney, these amounts can almost always be reduced.
Very good—especially if you respond quickly and appropriately. In particular, the amounts demanded are almost always excessive. Also, the cease-and-desist letters often contain unreasonable obligations. So far, we have been able to significantly reduce or completely refute the claims in all cases arising from IPPC Law’s cease-and-desist letters.
No. Anyone who fails to respond to a warning letter from IPPC Law risks legal action. Especially in more recent warning letters concerning the use of music on social media, IPPC Law is actively pursuing the claims made in these letters through the courts. For example, you could face a preliminary injunction. Legal proceedings will increase your costs and reduce your chances of a more favorable outcome.
Only to a limited extent. The Consumer Advice Center provides general information about cease-and-desist letters, but cannot handle individual defense cases. For that, you should consult a specialized law firm such as Mueller.legal, which will represent your interests effectively. We
Forums can provide initial impressions and testimonials. However, they are no substitute for legal advice, as each cease-and-desist letter must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
The cost of a file-sharing cease-and-desist letter typically ranges from approximately 160 euros in attorney's fees to 700 to 1,100 euros in total costs, depending on the amount of damages sought and the number of works involved. IPPC Law often demands amounts that are set too high.
Act quickly, meet the deadlines, and do not sign or pay anything without having it reviewed by an attorney. With our professional assistance, claims can usually be significantly reduced.
IPPC Law accuses you of using a song on your Instagram or TikTok account without the required authorization or license. According to IPPC Law’s legal interpretation, this constitutes a copyright infringement.
Whether IPPC Law’s allegations are valid depends on whether you incorporated the music into strictly private content or into commercial content . In most cases, the music available in the apps is licensed for strictly private use only and may not be used in a commercial context. If you post a commercial post on your profile using a song from the private library, you are exceeding the scope of the license that the platform has acquired for that song.
It doesn’t matter whether your Instagram or TikTok account is set up for personal or business use. What matters is how the account is used and the nature of the Reel, Story, or post in which the music was included. From IPPC Law’s perspective, the content you created apparently was no longer purely private in nature.
Your account may be private—but your content may not be. Content is considered private only if the profile and the content do not reveal any connection to a self-employed or professional activity . The threshold here is very low. In some cases, simply mentioning a company name or including a link to a company website in your profile header can already indicate that the use is not private. IPPC Law scrutinizes profiles very closely and issues a warning letter as soon as a commercial connection is suspected.
A cease-and-desist letter from IPPC Law always follows the same structure. At the beginning of the letter, IPPC Law identifies one of the rights holders of the song listed above (in this case, B1 Recordings GmbH). This is followed by a reference to your Instagram account or TikTok profile and the identification of the song that is alleged to have been used unlawfully on your account.
Next comes a reference to Instagram’s or TikTok’s Terms of Use. Finally, IPPC Law summarizes the claims that are alleged to arise from the copyright infringement, namely:
cease and desist, damages, and reimbursement of legal costs.
No, under no circumstances should you sign such a declaration without reviewing it first. However: In many cases, it generally makes sense to submit a cease-and-desist declaration. By signing the cease-and-desist declaration, you are merely committing to no longer use the music track in question without permission. The cease-and-desist declaration does not impose any further obligations. Therefore, as long as you delete the post and refrain from using the song in the future, IPPC Law cannot derive any benefit from the cease-and-desist declaration.
Important: Do not sign anything before we have reviewed the cease-and-desist declaration. We offer a free initial assessment for this purpose.
Under no circumstances should you comply with IPPC Law’s demand for payment. Even if the cease-and-desist letter were justified, the amount IPPC Law is demanding from you is likely far too high. We are very familiar with IPPC Law’s cease-and-desist letters and can say:
In every cease-and-desist letter we’ve received from IPPC Law, the payment demands were excessive.
It is therefore worth taking action against IPPC Law’s claims. So far, we have been able to help all of our clients significantly reduce the claims or have them dismissed entirely. Talk to us. We’ll give you a realistic assessment.
If the warning letter is justified, IPPC Law —or, more precisely, its client—is entitled to reimbursement of the costs associated with the warning letter. Reimbursement of the necessary expenses may be claimed. Here, too, the following applies: IPPC Law’s claim is generally far too high. IPPC Law uses completely exaggerated claim values in its calculations. In the example on the right, IPPC Law assumes that the value of the claims amounts to 27,500.00 EUR. No further justification is provided. Do not pay! With our help, significant reductions are possible here as well.
Our client received a cease-and-desist letter from IPPC Law on behalf of B1 Recordings GmbH. The warning concerned the use of the song “Pedro” by Jaxomy x Agatino Romero x Raffaella Carrà. Our client had included the song in a Reel on Instagram. Unfortunately, although our client’s profile was set to private, the content dealt with the day-to-day aspects of his self-employed work. The cease-and-desist letter was therefore justified.
IPPC Law demanded the submission of a cease-and-desist declaration, payment of damages, and reimbursement of warning letter costs in a substantial amount. The total claim amounted to 4,273.70 EUR.
Despite the existing copyright infringement, we were able to resolve the matter out of court for our client. The cease-and-desist claims were satisfied by submitting a modified cease-and-desist declaration. We rejected IPPC Law’s payment demands. In the end, our client paid IPPC Law only approximately 1,100.00 EUR—instead of the demanded 4,273.70 EUR.
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Rechtsanwalt Carl Christian Müller, LL.M. Fachanwalt für Urheber- und Medienrecht
These cease-and-desist letters from IPPC Law concern alleged copyright infringements caused by participation in so-called peer-to-peer networks (e.g., BitTorrent). Those affected are alleged to have made movies—in the case of IPPC Law, pornographic films —publicly available via these networks. IPPC Law issues cease-and-desist letters exclusively on behalf of rights holders in the adult entertainment industry, such as MG Premium Ltd. and Aylo Premium Ltd.
Take the warning letter seriously—but not too seriously. IPPC Law has clearly made a conscious decision to issue cease-and-desist letters only for films in the adult entertainment sector. This is because quite a few recipients will decide, upon receiving the letter, to simply comply with the demands—in particular, to make the requested payments—in order to quickly resolve the unpleasant situation. Don’t let yourself be intimidated! Your warning letter is not the first adult film warning letter we’ve seen. It’s worth fighting back!
Simply streaming movies is not a problem for those who are just watching the movie. It becomes a problem, however, when you not only stream content but also share parts of the movie with others. This is exactly what happens automatically on file-sharing networks. Many websites where you can view pornographic content do not disclose that they operate via a P2P network. As a result, those affected think they’ve merely watched a movie—and are therefore unpleasantly surprised by a warning letter from IPPC Law.
Unfortunately, NO! You must take the letter seriously. Under current law, adult films—at least as so-called moving images—enjoy copyright-related protection. Downloading such a movie via a file-sharing platform involves a simultaneous upload. This upload constitutes an act of use under copyright law, which only constitutes an infringement if done without the rights holder’s permission.
IPPC Law first demands the immediate cessation of further infringements. A short deadline is set for submitting the cease-and-desist declaration , which is enclosed with the letter. In the event that the required cease-and-desist declaration is not received within the set deadline, IPPC threatens to initiate legal proceedings .
As part of the cease-and-desist letter, a claim for compensation for the damages incurred is asserted. Regarding the amount of damages, IPPC Law claims that this cannot yet be determined, but that, based on relevant case law to date, it could range between 400.00 EUR and 1,000.00 EUR. While the cited court rulings regarding the amount of damages in pornography warning letters do indeed exist, this does not mean that the claim is justified in this specific case. You should definitely have the claims reviewed by an attorney.
In addition, IPPC Law demands reimbursement of the warning letter costs. These are usually calculated based on a value in dispute of 1,000 to 3,000 EUR. Contrary to IPPC Law’s claim, this is not a “concession,” but rather the amount prescribed by law. In addition, there are often investigation costs associated with the information request process from the Internet service provider
Finally, IPPC Law offers you a settlement offer to resolve the matter out of court and by mutual agreement. To this end, you are required to submit a pre-formulated cease-and-desist declaration from IPPC Law and to pay a substantial settlement amount. The settlement offer for downloading a pornographic film is typically 1,302.62 EUR. If multiple films are involved, the claim increases by several hundred euros per film.
As part of the cease-and-desist notice, you are required to
Receiving a cease-and-desist letter usually comes as a shock to the affected internet service subscribers. This is especially true when the alleged copyright infringement involves a pornographic film. Don’t let yourself be intimidated.
Our experience with cease-and-desist letters from IPPC Law shows that if you act quickly, you have a very good chance of resolving the matter favorably. We offer you discreet assistance and a very good chance of avoiding any payments to IPPC Law.
Absolutely not. Take action. Ignoring the letter from IPPC-Law is not a solution and will not help you.
If you do not respond, IPPC Law will, at the latest shortly before the statute of limitations expires, assert its claims in court. As a rule, this will likely make the situation more expensive and increase the risk of a prolonged dispute with IPPC Law. You should therefore not try to simply wait out the cease-and-desist letter from IPPC Law on your own.
Talk to us! We have already helped hundreds of affected individuals challenge the cease-and-desist letter. Your chances are very good!
Submitting a cease-and-desist declaration makes no sense if no claims for injunctive relief exist. After all, unless you are responsible for the alleged copyright infringement, there is no need to submit a cease-and-desist declaration. In some cases, however, it does make sense to submit the declaration—especially if it is not a problem for you to avoid a repeat of the infringement. We will explain this to you during the free initial consultation.
Under no circumstances should you pay! There are significant doubts as to whether IPPC Law has any claim for payment against you at all—especially not in the amount asserted. We are familiar with the relevant arguments and can help ensure that you do not pay a single cent to IPPC Law.
Carl Christian Müller, attorney and specialist in copyright and media law, has been admitted to the bar since 2002 and has many years of experience defending against IPPC Law cease-and-desist letters.
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