As far as the work thing goes, It's not necessarily a secret, I just don't like giving out my information, and I'm not describing anything that isn't readily available on their website.
I can't use them as my own service provider, because they do not offer service where I live.
Anyway, back on task, the ESA isn't taking anyone to court, but they are lodging complaints against peoples ip addresses, and the isp subsequently will disrupt their service, after a number of complaints, they will terminate any sort of contract or service with the customer. But yeah, they do lodge complaints.

Unless you create more then ten copies or there value exceeds twenty five thousand dollars, copyright infringement isn't a criminal matter. In most situations, even exceeding those numbers won't result in criminal charges.
It's a myth that people go to jail over this. You might get sued, but most of the pirates I've met have non-protected assets measured in tens of thousands of dollars, making persecuting the case totally unprofitable.

I've never heard of this. What is your source?
News Article?
Printed policy?
Word of mouth/experience ("my cousin is a soldier and he was allowed to bring home a pirated version of Dark Knight")?
(Please, don't let it be a chain email...)

It's true, though pirated games aren't too prevalent (at least when I was there) you see a whole bunch of pirated movies though.

OK, so you're a soldier? How was this implemented?
Written military policy?
Or was is just like "Ok, soldiers, listen up! As you return to the United States, the Federal Government / ICE / Gen. Patraeus is allowing you to bring home only one bootleg movie. Do you hear me? You only get to bring home ONE bootleg movie. Thank you for your service."
Sorry to be so cynical on this, but it just seems like this would be bigger news if it's true.

You get semi shaken down when you exit theater, you can only bring one of each specific title and one male and female watch (unless the watches have some sort of manufacturers certification, which I never saw while out there) and up to 10,000 dollars worth of currency. It's implementation is through a specific General Order which one, I don't remember.
Dont get so up in arms over the whole piracy thing. It's not creating a ring of bootlegged goods coming back into the united states or anything. It's just some soldiers getting a hold of buggy advance copies of movies in what was termed "haji-vision" (which I know is derogatory, but it's not meant with any malice) which is the same crap copies you get off of the internets, thai cam copies complete with laughter and fights in the theater. Get more up in arms about the EU member's complicity with pirate activities, TPB is killing PC gaming, not soldiers bringing a few pirated copies of Fallout 3 home with them.

Thank you for the explanation.
I realized at some point after my last post that (the General Order) may not be explicitly calling the DVDs "bootlegs" or "pirated". I.e. "You are allowed to bring one copy of purchased media back." It's probably more implicit that the DVDs are bootlegs.
I think I was definitely more concerned if this were an explicit disregard for copyright protections.

you guys need to get some avatars man.

Does my shadowy figure scare you Weclock? lol

Hey... my avatar is my completely original artwork!
It's just coincidence that GOG happened to have a default avatar that looks just like my original.
In fact... I think I should sue GOG for copyright infringement. My word is the only evidence the court will need... that, and the Chewbacca Defense.