Thank you dx and Bankfodder for the replies, they're very helpful. The lawyers that contacted me are indeed American, the firm is called Harness IP. I don't want to incriminate myself, but I'd say it would be a good guess that the unlegitimate program was installed and used on my pc. I have made no financial gains from it. It has been for my own academic studies and that's it. However, I do technically own a business (online shop) that has been completely dormant for about a year or so, and to be honest I forgot it existed. I never used solidworks for it, but should I consider closing it so they might screw? It wouldn't cost me much to do so. The mediation officer references 'my company' in his email, but doesn't give the name of my company, so he might be referring to my school? I'm not sure. For now I blocked both Harness IP and the mediation officer's emails as suggested. Thanks again for the help guys

I'm a college student (USA) and got an email yesterday to my university email claiming I've illegally downloaded and used Solidworks via a pirating software from this lawfirm called Harness ip. I have no idea how they got the email, name, and address, but they have. They listed the mac address for computer and the version that was supposedly installed on the device. I also got an email today from a 'sales mediation officer' that works at dassault (they own solidworks). The officer said I owe $23,000, or buy a license, either of which I absolutely CANNOT afford to pay, I already am in heaps of student loan debt and im living paycheck to paycheck. Any advice on what I should do? Im super scared and I feel helpless especially since i cant afford an attorney. I'm also in the USA but there are no American forums like this that I've been able to find, so I'm praying somebody can help me. Thanks