system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does a film studio track movie downloads and obtain addresses from an IP?

Do they send a letter to a whole bunch of internet providers saying 'hey this IP downloaded XYZ where do they live?'
gpt
IP addresses and owned by internet providers. So when they see an specific IP has downloaded something it’s a quick search to see what ISP that IP belongs. Then they can make a request to see which customer that IP was assigned at the time of the download. 

Note: ip’s are a terrible way to determine who downloaded the illegal IP since most home networks have many devices / could have guests who don’t live there. It’s ridiculous to assign blame to the average internet customer to be able to police their WIFI in all aspects.